Dream d3626-s: Held Long Enough to See

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where something squeaked far down the corridor - a wheel, perhaps, or a hinge - and when I turned toward the sound I found two figures had already arrived at the low gate.

I was already in the yard, standing beneath the overhang where the afternoon light did not reach. Lano sat at my feet with her nose lifted toward the sun, unhurried. The stone underfoot was cool and slightly gritty.

One figure had come from outside: a woman with her sleeves rolled above the elbow, the front of her apron still damp from recent work. She carried a packet of cloth, folded flat and bound with a strip of plain cord. Without ceremony, she set it on the flat ledge at the side of the gate.

The other had come from inside - quiet shoes, a close-fitting collar, the particular stillness of someone accustomed to narrow corridors and sudden calls. She looked at the packet. The woman who had placed it looked at her.

The packet rested there between them, on the ledge, visible to both.

What held me was the way the first woman's hands withdrew. She did not pull them back until the other's palms were fully beneath the cloth, until the transfer was complete beyond any question. The receiver did not step away until the one who had brought it had stepped back first.

Nobody spoke. The exchange had its own timing, as if both had arrived with the same understanding of what a clean folded cloth is worth to someone in a dim room who has none.

Lano watched without moving. Her ears tipped once.

I stayed under the overhang. I had no part in it, and I did not reach for one.

The figure with the packet went back inside. The other turned and moved along the outside wall. On the ledge, where the packet had pressed the stone, there was a faint rectangular paleness in the afternoon light that stayed a little while before the sun moved on.

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