These Dreams

We had a dream. A very real, potent, and strange dream. Perhaps it was caused by the allergy medication? Regardless of what caused it, here's an account of the dream.

I'm walking across the hard packed dirt of my Arizona cattle ranch. The house and my Chevy pickup are behind me. A barbed wire fence surrounding a few cattle lay off to my left. To my right more fencing, a dirt road leading to the entry arch, and a few sheds and a large hay barn.

I'm wearing a lined denim jacket, denim jeans, and trusty and dirty cowboy boots. In my youth I'd been to this place hundreds of times. It wasn't always the same ranch, but they were all like this. It's cold out today, the air bites at the tip of my nose.

And then the bird was just… there. Two of them. They were at least five feet tall. If they were the correct size, they would have been ravens. They pick at the fencing like robins pulling an earthworm from the ground. As the fencing gives way, the birds see me.

They change into Indians… Hopi from the look of the ceremonial dress they were suddenly wearing. Bouncing like superballs dropped from fifty feet high, they leap across the open fields, hurdling fencing and sheds with amazing ease. They rush away from me at a remarkable pace.

Even in this dream, I'm awash with astonishment. I'm a bit fearful to see such otherworldly beings, but I cannot just let this pass without further investigation. My cowboys boots and I give chase.

But I stop in my tracks. Another Hopi in full colorful costume appears in front of me, some twenty yards away. He, the warrior, just appeared out of thin air. He's not alone. There's one more, then two, then three. I'm now looking at about twenty Hopi warriors.

Right there we were lurched out of our sleep to the familiar sight of our slanted ceiling overhead. We flipped the pillow over and returned to sleep, hoping to continue the dream.

Alas, it was not to be. The dream would not return. Like a spectacular sunset or a particularly beautiful girl passed on a city street, we'll never experience it again.