The Strangest Dream

I was walking in the moonlit night.  Escaping something and making damn good progress from what I could tell.  In the dream, I was highly impressed with myself.  My feet were bare but I did not feel the dry earth underneath. 

I came to a set of train tracks high atop a cliff.  The rails were splintered and broken.  I couldn't turn around and go back; there was nothing to return to.  Nothing worth mentioning, anyway.  My foot gingerly stepped on one of the rails and I stepped forward.  I could see the broken places as I continued on.  The river below me raging.  My heart racing.  I came to a spot I had to jump.  A leap that could go either way; success or death.  One deep breath and a quick jump.  I made it.  My feet landed with a thud and I continued on my journey.  I could hear voices ahead. An older couple standing and watching me; cheering my progress.

I came to a pier stretching out across a massive lake. In the night that stretched out before me, it looked black and ominous.  The older couple was standing on it, beckoning me forward.  My feet moved of their volition.  I stopped in the middle of the pier and sat down - refusing to go any further. 

"I hate murky water. Water where I can't see the bottom,"

The old man laughed and sat down beside me, "Why?  You've swam deeper, murkier water than this."

I looked out across the water; my eyes adjusting and finally seeing the faint tree line on the other shore.  I was waiting for the older couple to leave but he continued to sit beside me and the elderly female hovered protectively behind me.  I huffed stubbornly and crossed my arms.  I'd wait them out & then take my leave.  This was too much.  I was nearly to the end of the pier; there was nowhere left to go but back from whence I came.  Just then the moon came out of its veil of clouds.  A soft glow of amber surrounding its fullness.  The old man took my hand and we stood. 

I was so in awe of the beauty.  It was then I saw the curve in the pier.  The end was not the end.  The old man looked at me and smiled and simply said "See?"  My feet took their steps forward.  Fear no longer guiding me.

It was the strangest dream...