Summary

This short story is the first of three short stories in the collection that share the same name, except for a different numeral at the end. As is the case with the numbered collection of “Brief Interviews,” the numbers (or, specifically, Roman numerals) given to this sequence of three short stories are also seemingly random.

An unnamed and unidentified narrator describes an intense and recurring dream where they suddenly realize that they are blind, and suddenly and deeply depressed by being blind. The narrator then describes waking up from the dream – they have normal sight abilities – and crying, and then being distressed while describing the dream to their girlfriend. The narrator then describes how the resulting day at work is effectively ruined by their continuing ruminations on the dream: the narrator is acutely aware of...