Dream d3504-s: The Rows Go On

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the hedge line was taller than it looked from below, and from up here the rows of cut grass ran straight across the long field until they were too small to follow. The roofs were small beyond them. Lano stood at the edge where the cut stalks were thickest and put her nose to the ground.

The keeper of the place came along the top of the field with a slow walk, not toward us, just across. I did not call. The field was still warm from the day and the warmth came up through the soles of my boots.

I took the dated sheet from the fold of my coat. The date was there and the place name below it and nothing else. I set it against the base of the hedge where the stems were dense enough to keep it from moving. Lano watched me do this. She did not go near it.

The keeper passed to the far end of the field and stopped, looking toward the roofs. The roofs were the kind that take the last of the light and hold it a little after the field has gone grey.

The sheet stayed where I placed it. The hedge came down over it slightly, the way a hedge does when the air shifts, not claiming it, not leaving it entirely alone. The dried stems pressed against one edge and the paper did not lift.

I walked back along the top of the field and did not look behind. Lano moved ahead, her tail low and easy, the way she carries herself when there is nothing to decide.

Below, the rows ran on. The cut grass was pale against the darker ground and the rows were even and the field was empty of people. The field had been worked and now it was keeping what had been worked into it, the shape of the cutting, the direction of each row. The sheet would stay until it did not stay, and the hedge would be there either way.

From somewhere in the middle distance, a sound like a door set back against a frame. The roofs were still small. The keeper was no longer visible.

Lano sat down at the end of the hedge line and looked out across the rows, ears up, the field still warm around her.

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