What was this ‘little dream’?

Have you ever questioned yourself if everything is real, what if it is?

~For every adventurer in the path of knowledge, this “fable” might bring you some auspicious memories, of when we were children – or let’s say – true believers and explorers. For now some of us are caged and can only have some glimpses of the outside world. 

~This story happened to Alice, as she was twelve and a half years old. 

Today as I was resting in the woods, the exuberant trees covering almost all of the nine o’clock sun, I felt satisfied and comfortable. And relaxed. Very relaxed. The little breeze up there pushed even more my relaxation. And the shy sound of the river convinced me to sleep, although I did not want to. It was too good of a feeling to miss it. I was mighty lazy and relaxed. I was dozing up. Almost slept when I started hearing noises, and felt myself trembling, what gave me a scare. And then I heard it again, a very strong buzz.

I stood up, felt the leaves tickling my sole, and walked through the river shore, a boat was passing by with some people in it. Inside there were a queen carrying an enormous stick, the devil, and two men, both in a very weird pose, as if travelling upside down. I was having a good time observing them and I felt there was someone behind me as well, but that I could never see. I found a good place under the trees and sat on a bunch of leaves. The boat came so close to me, that I could see all of their faces clearly. The queen had something between a fork and a spoon on her hands, that was as as much as double of her size. She seemed so powerful, but at the same time so bitter! Although so close they didn’t seem to see me. 

The boat floated on and I lost it of sight. 

I walked more and more, without getting tired, so good was my mood and the temperature. Until I got to a bonfire, three men were sitting around the fire. I somehow felt afraid, they were wearing all black and they had weapons. They didn’t see me so I could hide myself and then little by little I tried to escape. But I didn’t have no luck.

“Hey you!”

A man with a big pipe came in my direction. He looked so devilish, so horrible. 

“Do you have meat or bread?” He asked.

I said no with a head movement.

“Did you hear some shooting around?”

I said no again.

The man had so hairy arms, his face was partially covered by a hood, and he stank a lot, like burnt animal.  

I was almost very afraid. But there was someone behind me, that I couldn’t see, and this presence somehow made me calmer.

Although scary, that man did not felt to me like absolute evil. He was somehow smiling too, and I could relate to him in so many levels. He felt like libertinage in an almost freeing way. So I though it would be nice to talk to him.

“Who are you?” I asked.

With my question, the man got so angry and out of himself, that he grabbed a dagger from his pockets and pointed it to me, rustling some indistinguishable words. 

I got so frighted this time! I turned back and started to run.

This time I did not run, instead I started flying, not more than two centimetre from the ground, but so fast, so fast! This frightened me even more. So I woke up.

Still amidst the woods, all was perfectly in peace. The bright sky was now a bit grey, it would rain soon. For one moment, I could not believe in what have just happened. I stood up, walked a bit, but had to sit again to process everything, I was still shocked. It all felt so real!

The symbolism and the feeling I experienced were still fresh within me. I knew I wanted to go back to that state again. Can we get used to doing that? Well, if we got used to be caged for all this time…

I told this story for some adult people and the grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside the memory of my dreams, whether them real or not, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar.

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”

Whenever I tell this story and someone says “Well, that is a nice dream” and moves to next topic, I don’t even further discuss how different it felt but rather just skip to the next topic, that normally is politics, authorities or another kind of gossip. 

Maybe it was just another little dream.

Maybe not.

Have you ever questioned yourself if everything is real, what if it is?