Fiction 5: Dream Fulfilled

There was no horizon. Bright, bright clouds, clouds seeming to shine with their own inner light, clouds further away than the horizon could have been, lay in the far distance. Around her, long, dry grass was everywhere, in all directions the same. She was alone.

She was alone; yet she was calm, as if this were an everyday occurrence, to be one moment in bed and another transported to an unfamiliar place. “Why am I not frightened?” she asked herself, but the question seemed irrelevant, somehow, and she dismissed it. She began to walk toward the clouds.

The world was silent. No birds were singing, no insects chirping, no wind soughing through the grass. It didn’t occur to her to mind it, or even consciously to note it. She kept walking, urged from within to move on toward the bright clouds. As she walked she felt strength coming into her and walked more quickly, beginning to be exhilarated at the pace, making her own breeze as she moved faster through the grass. A smile began to form on her face.

Breathing now more deeply, her smile widened at the pleasure of pulling in air to the bottom of her lungs. The smell of it was unfamiliar, but wonderful: fresh, clean, invigorating, comforting. She felt as if she had never really breathed before, and drew each one in slowly and long, savoring each one, before blowing it out gently, in spite of her rapid pace.

She became aware of the feel of the grass on her legs. It was not as she might have imagined it would be -- not scratchy and irritating, but caressing, as if there were thousands of tiny fingers gently, lovingly massaging her muscles. She began to move faster yet, to be running now, without tiring in the least, not tiring but growing ever stronger as she moved, feeling power enter her body as it never had before.

And with the strength came a yet greater sense of innervation. She became aware of how the ground beneath her feet seemed to be supporting not merely her physical body, but her very soul, and she leapt up and began to bound along toward the clouds and the light that seemed to be calling her now ever more strongly.

There was no sense of time, yet she had covered what must have been an immense distance. The light, though now much nearer, did not hurt her eyes in the least. Rather the light seemed to be soothing them, relaxing them. Tears formed in her eyes and she laughed and cried out in almost unbearable joy, as the first fringes of cloud surrounded her, embraced her, rejoiced with her.

Now she knew for certain where she was. She had hoped all her life to come here. Before now, she had struggled with every breath. She had never even walked before. But now she had come running -- come leaping! -- HOME.

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