I had a dream.
I gave birth to twins. I didn't
even know I was pregnant. But out they came, twin girls. And they were
so very beautiful. Mom was there and we decided to name them Joellen and
Caitlyn. I looked into their mouths, and both of them had teeth. Four on
top and four on bottom, and molars in the back that were all wrong. It
was obvious that their jaws were deformed. It did not affect the way they
looked or ate, so I was unworried. I joked with Rachael about the girls
being born with teeth meaning they were vampires. I remember thinking very
hard about how I was going to breastfeed three children, co-sleep with
three children, etc. And then we went to the hospital. To check everything,
y'know, and to get the girls' jaws seen. I tried to tell people that I
hadn't had sex in two years, that these girls weren't possible. But all
I could manage to say was I hadn't even been kissed. I don't think anyone
believed me.
It gets fuzzy here.
I was waiting in a standard waiting room. Maybe an airport? And I was sitting in a chair, in a corner of two windows, so I was surrounded by glass. It was very bright. I was waiting for somebody.
I was walking (running?) moving with the baby girls in my arms across a huge mud flat or a brown striated field. There was no fear, but there was a rush, a need to get as far away as possible. I had Jacob with me, too. I guess this was years later, because he was walking and talking well. He was walking beside me, keeping up. Something rushed over us in the sky. We made it to a ravine, full of brush and trees. As we start going down the slope, we fall, or something happens and we are scattered. Jacob is with me under a fallen tree, and I am holding him close, close. The girls are nearby, but out of sight. I am very scared. I suddenly have the fear that the girls are about to fall in the river and be swept away. I begin to get up, but as I do, a man on a horse, a big dark man on a monstrous black horse, comes to the top of the ridge, pauses dramatically, then leaps over me and Jacob and rescues my daughters.
More fuzziness.
I am no longer part of the dream. Or rather, not an active one. Now I am the All Knowing Dreamer, watching. Sarah has been taken away, and her children too, Jacob, Joellen, and Caitlyn. Her once rescuer is devastated, because he loves her. He is Mars, God of War. And without explanation, Zeus strikes him down. It was a fiery explosion, full of phoenix wings and ash. Mars screaming... Zeus took away his memory. Mars is now merely a man. While the man floats in a void, Zeus sets some things up. Some dry grass, from the riverbank where Sarah and Mars met, is taken to the town where Sarah once lived and gently put into a hole in the wall. This grass, if recognized as what it is, will restore Mars' memory.
Mars the man is with a companion and they are in rags and billows of dirty black fabric, tatters. They are running, racing, across these same brown fields, running low, sleek. They get to the town. It is underwater. There has been a flood. The two men are overjoyed, because it means everyone left in a hurry, probably leaving all their valuables. The men are thieves. Great Mars has become a thief. The two make it to The House. They are swimming. Diving under to peer into windows, scoping out the wealthiest homes. They discover the hole where Zeus has hidden the grass. Mars reaches in and brushes away the debris, excited about the find. The precious grass falls and floats down down to the street. The hole is a secret place to open a secret door. The men are very thrilled. Taking deep breaths, the two dive in through the secret tunnel, betting there will be air once they get into the room. And they are right. After quite a tunnel, they get into a room with crystal clear water. A bedroom, Mediterranean style, wooden shades on the windows, cream colored plaster walls, light and airy. They stand on the bed to breathe the air at the top of the room. There is a dresser they riffle through, drawers, but the point is the grass went unrecognized, Mars never remembers, and Sarah and her children aren't found.
© Copyright 1999 Sarah Gaunt