Dream d3426-s: The Hedges Hold Nothing Back

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the lane ran straight through Rowangreen and the hedges on either side were cut so low that I could see the whole village at once, rooftops and chimney smoke and the far field beyond them all in the same view.

Lano walked ahead of me along the verge. She paused at each gap in the hedge and looked through before moving on, her nose working the cooler air that came off the grass beyond.

The notebook was open in my hand but I had stopped looking for anyone to read it. The entry for Rowangreen was there, one line among the forty the record had called on and that no voice had named. I did not read it aloud. It sat in the page and the page sat in my hand and the village went on without asking what I held.

A keeper stood at the far end of the hedge line, working with a pair of small shears. The shears moved in steady arcs. The hedge gave up a little more height with each pass, not much, just enough that the keeper seemed satisfied and moved along. I watched without moving closer.

Lano trotted back to me and pressed against my leg for a moment, then went ahead again. She found a spot where the hedge had a gap and sat in it, watching the village the way she watches things she has already decided are not dangerous. Her tail moved once.

The relay clerk stood at the junction where the lane met the village road, writing something into a separate ledger. The entry-keeper was not present. I did not call out. The clerk wrote and I stood at the hedge and the keeper went on shearing and Rowangreen sat in its own warmth with the smoke going straight up from two of the chimneys.

I wrote nothing new. The village did not know what was already written.

Lano came back once more. She carried a small stone in her mouth for a few paces, then set it down on the verge and sneezed once, quietly.

The hedges were low enough to see everything. I looked at everything. Then the lane went on and I followed it.

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