May 27, 2001

The Dream

The dream started when she was 23, and reoccurred every few months thereafter.
She would arise from her bed in the middle of the night,
levitate through the ceiling until she entered a slipstream in the sky
and hover above the earth, watching people and buildings diminish
as if seen through the wrong end of a telescope.
Presently a current lifted her and
swept her through the air like a leaf bobbing downriver.
She was flying.

She drifted upwards until landscape dissolved into abstract patterns.
Oozing shadows shrouded sky and earth.
Cold air raked her face and brought goosebumps to exposed arms
and she flew faster, faster
Vague uneasiness propelling her through leadening air
Trying to escape from a terrifying unseen omnipresence.

She dodged in and out of clouds, hoping to confuse the trail
but couldn’t lose the hunters
Bloodhounds on the scent of quarry
And she kept running, running through the sky
Barely a wingspan ahead of unknown predators waiting for her to stumble.
She tried to scream but her voice couldn’t penetrate
the silence of the void.
Evil forces surrounded her, wolves salivating for the slaughter.
She tried to scream again
and sat bolt upright in bed
Heartbeat zooming 100 mph
afraid to fall back asleep in the arching web of nightmare.

The dream was unchanged for 25 years.

One night, it violated her subconscious again
Started with the same endless floating
Danger morphing into impending death
But this time a different presence manifest in the clouds
Armies of recognizable faces
Loved ones and acquaintances amassing
to help her fight the malevolence that stalked in every dream.
Friendly forces coalesced from the cumulus vapors
Circled arms to protect her
And fought valiantly, together,
Until the enemy was vanquished forever.

She awoke surrounded by calm
Heartbeat normal
Elation swelling to flood the darkened bedroom,

She never had the dream again.