The Set up
In my teenage years, especially 16-18, I was in almost constant conflict with my father.
I was a Hippy, long hair and loud rock music, smoking pot, drinking,
flower patches sewed on my jeans.
My Father was born in 1914, he had no IDEA what to do with or think of me.
And yet, he really did give me a lot of ‘space’ in which to explore who I was.
But emotionally, we were always at loggerheads.
Meanwhile, Mama was my soul mate, she stood up for me with Daddy,
she turned a blind eye to my smoking.
She was the motive force behind my beginning music lessons.
Given this scenario, me being the rebel, very much into nature,
roaming the woods and the river banks, I had many
Fantasies of running off into the woods and becoming a hermit.
One of those daydreams, centered around a gully in the bank of the river,
that began at the edge of the road and went down to the edge of the water.
It was undoubtedly begun by water run-off, but at this time, it was dry.
I fantasized about laying logs over the top, to form a room,
digging it out and making a living space for myself.
The Dream
I had walked down to the gully, not too long after some substantial rain,
the purpose being to ascertain how much, If any, water went down through the
gully to the river.
Standing at the edge of the dirt road, looking down into the gully,
the mud around my feet suddenly liquefied, and I was sucked down in to the darkness.
Swirling, spinning in what I surmised (in the way of dreams)
I was being carried along in an ‘underground river’.
Knowing in my head, that these are not channels of water
large enough to carry someone in the current, in the dream world, that didn’t matter.
I struggled upward, I was running out of air!
At the top of the cave/channel, I found a pocket of air and went up gasping.
Soon, I’d caught my breath.
For a long, interminable amount of time, that was my existence; going from
bubble to bubble, from one pocket of air to another.
I’d occasionally find a pocket that was actually part of a cave; I could tell by the
echoes of my breathing it was a large space.
Exploring (in total darkness) I found a ledge where I could climb out and rest…
sleep even.
Being hungry, I ate whatever I found by touch that was alive, raw of course.
Time ceased to have meaning. The clothes I’d been wearing were gone, rotted and torn away.
Finally, after I knew not how long, I came up to a pool that was an opening to the outside!!!
I saw stars, the moonlight hurt my eyes it was so bright.
I stumbled in the darkness until I found a road, people found me,
a naked, bearded bone white, white man.
I got food, was taken by the sheriff to the hospital where I was examined.
Two Years had passed since I was sucked into the void.
Epilogue
I had resurface outside of Brunswick Ga, some 200 mi from home.
I got a ride home, walked into “The Shop”, my Father’s Mechanics Garage.
He was overjoyed to see me, but it was bittersweet, because my Mama had
died of a broken heart not long after I’d disappeared.
”My Newly Remembered Dream”
By
Jerry E Smith
©9/24/17