Dream d3647-s: A Stone on the Ledge

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the road back to Dunnebarrow runs downhill from the ridge where the fir trees thin out. I came at dusk the first time; this time it is morning, or close enough to morning that the light has not yet settled into its full weight. The receiving place sits at the end of the road's last turn, and I notice before I reach it that someone has stacked the loose stone that was scattered across the threshold.

Inside, a worker is sorting bags, the kind that fold flat and then bulk up around whatever is put into them. She does not look up. There is a second figure near the far wall, doing something with rope, pulling a length through a ring and testing the result with both hands. I have not seen either of them before, or if I have, I cannot place them.

The bag I brought is heavier on this trip than I expected. I set it against the wall near the door, where the light catches the worn stitching along the strap. The floor is stone, the same muted grey with a stripe of ochre where the mineral runs through near the south wall. Someone has swept it. The broom stands propped at a tilt in the corner, its bristles pressed sideways.

I do not open the notebook. I did not come for the notebook. I came to see what is present now, and what is present is this: two workers at their work, a swept floor, stacked stone at the threshold, rope being tested against a ring. The eight sheets are where I left them. I can see the corner of one without moving.

The worker with the bags finishes her sorting and carries the stack to a shelf. Her hands move with the particular economy of someone who has done this enough times that the motion runs ahead of thought. She does not speak. I do not speak. The figure with the rope works on.

A pale stone sits on the ledge above the inner door. I do not remember it from before. It may have always been there.

I stay long enough for the light to shift a few degrees, then I am standing in the doorway looking back in at the room, at the two figures still at their work, at the bag I have left against the wall.

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