Dream d3619-s: Taken Without Claim

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the road bent before the crossing, and the last of the daylight lay flat across the paving in a way that made the stones look freshly placed. A figure stood at the road-side of the bridge waiting, their posture easy, hands empty at their sides. I approached from behind them, drawn by some errand of my own, and did not speak. Lano trotted beside me, her white coat carrying the low light.

The boat hand was already there at the bank, the coil of sound rope resting against their hip. That particular rope was recognizable by the way it held its shape without effort, the fibers twisted tight enough to carry a faint hum if you ran a thumb along the outside of the coil. The crossing itself was a low wooden bridge over the canal, wide enough for a single cart, and the two of them met somewhere in the middle.

The coil passed between them simply, the way a borrowed thing moves from one set of hands to another without negotiation. No words that I could hear. The figure adjusted it onto one shoulder, shifted the weight once, and turned toward the road without looking back.

Lano sat down at the edge of the bridge when the exchange was finished, as if the conclusion of it mattered. She looked at the road where the carrier had gone, ears up.

I had the notebook with me. I was aware of its shape against my ribs, but I did not open it. There was nothing to record that the passing itself hadn't already said. The eight sheets I had left in various places over the previous nights were somewhere behind me. They were where I had put them.

The carrier walked the road until the ochre of the light took them in, the coil still carrying its own memory of use. The boat hand had already turned back toward the water. Lano rose and fell into step beside me in the direction the carrier had taken, without urgency, at the same pace I was setting.

The wooden bridge knocked hollow under my feet as I crossed it. The rope was gone into the evening, and the road held it now without making any claim.

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