Dream d3632-s: The Plank Between Them

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the reeds stood without wind, their dry stalks pressing close on both sides of a mud track worn flat by years of use. I stood at a low rise where the ground leveled before the track curved into standing water, and from there I could see both of them.

The first came along the track carrying the plank across both forearms, pale where new work showed against old grain - two crosspieces lashed tight, no sag when he lifted one end briefly to test it. He moved without hurry to the soft section of the track, the place where the ground went uncertain underfoot, and set the plank down flat. He did not throw it or announce it. He stepped back.

The second came from the other direction, a bundle of cut reeds across her shoulder, the fresh ends pale against the bound stalks. She saw the plank before she reached it. Her step changed - the adjustment of someone who has changed their plan and finds the change already made. She paused at the near end and looked at where the plank lay, then looked across at the one standing to the side.

Neither spoke. The plank was on the ground between them, within reach of her next step. He watched her notice it. She watched him watch. That was the exchange - both of them present at the moment the thing passed from placed to received.

I stayed where I was on the rise. The reeds shifted without wind, a slow lateral motion I could not explain, and the light on the water beyond was the flat grey that belongs to neither morning nor evening. The crosspieces on the plank threw small shadows against the pale wood.

She set her foot on the plank. It held. The one who had placed it turned back along the track, and she went on into the reeds, and I watched the two lines of movement separate until the reed beds closed behind each of them and the track was quiet again.

---