(The Dream)
We come together by the ponds, near the flame, that flame so high. The vodka and tonics are like an infection, seeping through my soul, taking my boyhood memories, scaring me. Flame hill looks smaller than it used to, the winding road, the stirring yellow dust swirling, making pictures in the lights of the Anadarko Gas trucks, it looks gold, yeah gold, kind of like it’s a “Yellow Brick Road”. The pond to the north of the hill sits silent, dark, green, it looks the same, and forty-two years haven’t changed it much. Its okay, I suppose, it won’t be changed much in the story either. Behind me there’s another pond, that one a little larger, that one with the dam, the leaky dam. It has a different color, the reeds around it bent, making soft sucking noises, when they get caught in the water and the sand.
The touch on my arm, my right arm is cold, it’s a child’s touch I suppose. I look back at the ghost, somebody I know, somebody that won’t let me sleep. “Is this the yellow brick road”? I think I say that out loud, but I’m not sure. Anyhow, it doesn’t matter, the blonde headed spirit is shaking his head up and down, almost too fast, affirming something for sure. Something ready, here near flame hill, something that happened. “Did we catch him”? My question is answered already, the presence, is grinning, those dimples, I’ve seen in too many dreams over the past year.
There’s a wind kicking up out of the north, pushing the colored flame above me back and forth, it’s threatening it I suppose. That flame on the hill. The ghost is looking intently up at the fire, the body almost transparent, shimmering, and moving in tandem, with the wind. The yellow dust is moving too, throwing itself like a curtain from where I stand, I can hardly see the road.
“We did this didn’t we”? It’s a convergent question, based on historical knowledge, actual experiences. I look back, finally daring to look through the darkness to see the Southwest pond, it’s the one that holds the memories. I take a few steps, toward the base of flame hill, the shadows casting long in the darkness. The colored gas flame up above, shoots through the air, lighting the darkness, arching, it extends and then like a flickering torch it retreats leaving the truth of what I saw laughing in the past atop the water of the southwest pond.
“If I write this, it’s going to be goodbye, you know that don’t you”, I’m speaking to spirit, a dream may be, something that shouldn’t be, but is. The figure is looking intently at the flame, the blonde hair, my friend, my childhood friend. He looks at me, his smile, the same, the same grin, from the first day we met in the Grace B. Wilson Elementary School Library over a pile of Hardy Boy books.
“Write it”, he whispers. – 08.08.2015 – דָּנִיֵּאל
I don’t want this to be the end. It makes me cry to think of it as such. But perhaps it is time for him to move on and make a new beginning. Daniel, even if this is goodbye I hope you still find comfort in the memories you created with your best friend. Time cannot erase what we hold dear in our hearts, right? (((hugs)))
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Thanks for your kind words Vicki. I am working on what will be the last intensive adventure with Jason. It’s a way of goodbye. After this who knows May be I just make stuff up. :). He would like that too. 😉
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A very beautiful piece, Daniel…. all around!
Your writing, presentation & the rendition of “Yellow Brick Road”
Outstanding!
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Thank you Resa, I do so love to write to certain music, sometimes it’s the melody, or the words, sometimes it’s both. I do love Sara Bareilles voice. Anyway thanks for your wonderful encouraging comment. 🙂 The Mystery of the Flickering Torch based on the above will be around in two to three weeks. 😉
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This is beautiful, Daniel, and, as WW has already commented, the love lives on in the memories.
I only came across SB a year or two ago, her upbeat ones, which I loved. She makes a great job of this one too.
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Thank you Anne Marie, I do so love good memories. 🙂 I am a big fan of SB, find her to be very talented.
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I love ‘Brave’and ‘Over You’. Fab dancealongasingalonga tunes! 🙂
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Yup me too!!! 🙂
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Great minds and all that! 😀
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It’s like having a mirror in Scotland for me! 🙂
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Shit, I haven’t brushed my hair today! What about you? 😛
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Ha working from home in me best jammies! 🙂
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Out of my jammies, not working – unless you call blogging work – and lazing about like a slob! Back to work tomorrow so figure I’m entitled. 🙂
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Enjoy the rest of your day then. 🙂
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Thanks 🙂 You too.
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When is this one coming 😁
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Soon 🙂
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