How my dreams show that I am really lost

It began in an idyllic, hilly landscape, not far from a small town I did not know. When some of the people were going to town, I asked them to get me a map, but they laughed and said the place was too small, there were no maps. Toward evening, some of the people were gathering to walk to the shul in town to hear a talk by some famous rabbi, they said, a man I had never heard of. I wanted to go with them just to see where the shul was. Besides, nobody had asked me to walk with them, and I felt isolated from them even though I seemed to be sharing whatever they were doing. I decided to go with them because if I stayed I would have been the only person left there. We walked down the hill, turning on one or two streets, picking up more people along the way, until the whole world seemed to be going in that direction. I did not recognize any of the landmarks, and I knew I would have a hard time finding my way without them. When I caught up with some people I could only think of inane questions to ask, like when it would be over, how much farther we had to walk, how many people would be there. But it was getting chilly and I told somebody I had to go back to get my jacket. I asked if I had enough time before the talk, but the person next to me said nothing, just kept trudging on in the same direction. I turned around and walked back up the hill. I noticed some children I had not seen before, playing on doorsteps, and a few people walking in the oppposite direction, including some old ladies who might have been going to the shul. I could see some traffic above me and then I saw some steps, a kind of shortcut I had heard about, leading up to the main street. But once I climbed them and looked at the street signs, nothing was familiar. I thought we had walked only a few minutes down the hill altogether, turned only a couple of times, to get as far as we got, but I did not recognize anything in front of me or behind me. I thought about small towns I had been in, places where everything was just off the main street, and I walked one or two block, but even the traffic was gone and there was nobody to ask for directions. The street signs suggested nothing to me. At one intersection there was a street going up still another hill, and I wondered if I should go up there. Then I felt pain in the big finger on my right hand. It got more and more intense, and I noticed the nail was beginning to turn blue. Where in this strange town could I find a doctor to take care of it, I wondered. Just before I woke up, I was still trying to negotiate unfamiliar streets near the top of the hill, looking for anything that might be familiar so that I could find my way back to where I had started.