It began with the octopus under my bed. The octopus was green and had come from Venus especially to eat me. I was terrified of it. Had I been six years old, this would have been natural enough. I would then have been reassured that it had been only a bad dream; the rescuing parent would have provided a flashlight and we would have thoroughly examined the under-bed space together; relieved, I would have relaxed back into dreamland. But I was not six, I was sixteen. And I w