This is a true story of something which happened about two years ago.
On the plane from New Zealand to London, when I was sleeping and I was in a slightly-awake-mostly-asleep-and-dreaming state, I saw something shiny and reached out to touch it. This was like a sleep walker without the walking. I did actually reach out and touch it – it simply wasn’t enough for me to dream that I was reaching out to touch it – I really needed to touch it for real. I was sleepy-wondering what the shiny thing was and was running the back of my fingers over it in a state of wonder with my brain singing “Aahh Shiny”, when my brain suddenly woke up and I found that I was actually stroking the shiny bald head of the middle aged man sitting next to me – and his head was super-shiny because his reading light was shining right on it! But he woke up at the same time I did! And looked straight at me with an expression that might have said “What are you doing to my head?” or it might have said “You’re loving the head aren’t you! It’s my best feature!”
How did I fire-fight the situation you ask? Of course, I turned the other way making it look like someone rolling over in their sleep, and then I pretended to be fast asleep. However, I don’t think people look convincingly asleep when their whole bodies are shaking with laughter…