I dreamed I was a water main inspector

I was walking through a city made of pipes, underground but lit like a cathedral — veins of metal humming with pressure. Every junction had a little sign: 'This one’s been leaking since 1987' or 'Fluoride levels: acceptable'. I kept checking my clipboard, not because I needed to, but because the act felt like proof I was still real. When I woke up, my shoulders were tight, like I’d been hunched over a valve for hours. Funny how the body remembers what the mind forgets.