Some Kind Of Bliss
AN EPIDEMIC OF TREES


Monday, October 14, 2002  

Last night I had the strangest dream

I’m in some compound, like a campus of a college, something with a lot of squat buildings and massive interior courtyard perforated by pavement and grassy knolls. It’s night and I’m running along the paths. I know that I’m not supposed to be out, and my shoes or slippers have a slight squeak to them. On my right I see a moving shape in the inky darkness and I’m consumed with fear. It’s a dog, a Doberman, sent out by the guards of the facility to patrol the grounds and to chase down anyone outside after dark. I slow and the dog trots along side.

I think nothing of it and I run along the perimeter of the compound, seeking a way out. I spot a set of fences and get closer. There’s an inner fence can be opened by one of the U-latch things you see on chain link fences, but the outer fence has rows of rusty barbed wire across the top. Between the first and second fences is a grassy patch and a small building on stilts I can hide under. Beyond the fences is a rolling grass hill that disappears into the pinpricks of automobile headlights and the orange glow of street lamps. From the rush of noise, it’s either a freeway or a busy residential road.

The dog has come with me, hiding under the raised building with me. By now, two other Dobermans join us. All three dogs are sitting serenely on their hindquarters, staring at me with a look of sorrow. Patrolling above me, on the roof of the building we are under, are men in white moon suits similar to those worn at outbreak hot spots.

They also have guns. Big ones, combined with some kind of compressed air tanks. They either fire some kind of dart or I’m way off and they are flamethrowers.

When I look at the dogs again, the canines are gone and replaced with three young black girls, primly and conservatively dressed for Sunday school. They tell me they want to go, too. Their voices, full of kindness and fear, break my heart.

I ask if one as a nail clipper, a heavy one used for toenails, so I can cut the barbed wire. They look dumbfounded at me. The girl on the left begins to freak out at the sight of a fat, six-inch-long grasshopper ambling toward me. I tell them to be quiet as a guard on the ground patrols by, his padded feet crunch-crunching grass. He thinks he sees something, but there are pipes and debris blocking him from us and he continues on his route.

And then the alarm by my bed went off.

French Word of the Day

bal masque (bahl mahs kay): masked ball

posted by skobJohn | 8:21 PM |
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