If We Ever Could
11-02-1997
It started out we were little kids playing in a forest, very green, a forest I'd been to in my dreams before...6 or 7 years ago. We were the only people there, and we kinda lived there, never saw anyone else, and we were happy. Then there was a time lapse, and we were of about our present age now, except now there was a fort built into the middle of our forest, and a lot of men with high-tech guns watching over not only us, but a lot of other people being forced to work, hauling stuff around or something.
Somehow I get hold of a gun and hold everyone at bay, cuz I want these guys out of here, I want the forest back, etc. They chase me around the fort a little bit until all the guys with guns line up and force all the workers to stand in front of them as human shields. I don't care at all about them OR the innocent workers, so I unload my machinegun on everyone, and they ALL go down. The high-tech men were being run by some old sea captain guy, who is the only survivor. I shake his hand, and then kill him, too.
Then another time lapse, this time of an undetermined number of years. I'm actually in YOUR body this time. We've had the forest to ourselves the entire time since the hostage incident above, and everything's been grand. At the site of the fort is now just an ancient building, and a river runs through the basement, into some tunnel that leads to some unknown place...a bad place where, if one were sucked in, one would never return. You're hanging out about this area, in the water, and find a fruit of some sort. You get a sudden memory of this fruit...its origin...not of the forest, but of the world beyond. You almost eat it before tossing it into the river, to be sucked into that aforementioned tunnel. You go under the water, holding your breath, and come to the tunnel opening, the water pulling fiercely at you, trying to suck you in. Your sense gets the better of your curiosity, and you manage to get free of the current, back to the surface, but mysterious memories of that world beyond linger in your mind.
Another time lapse of a very very very long time. It's you again, walking very slowly, having a hard time breathing. You're ancient. You lie down on the ground by the base of the ancient structure as the life slowly sizzles out of your body, and you die quietly, peacefully. Then I approach, likewise old and ancient, but with a tint of vigor left. I bend down over you for a moment, waiting to make sure you've really passed on. Then I stand up, perform some act, and you come alive again. I take you by the arm and we walk back into the forest, unsure how much time is truly left for either of us. Then I look back, or rather think back, to that old structure, and the tunnel, and the world beyond, and wonder about that world we came from, about how our lifespans are so unnaturally long in this place, and how it seems I once lived a lifetime before but can't remember it, and what would happen if we ever went back to that world, or if we ever could.
(The "you" in this dream is Carolyn.)
posted by Phlegm at 11/24/2003
