<align="center">The Dream
The Dream
By
U.T. Haugen
First Serial Rights
Music by Ronan Hardiman
My daughter and I had grown weary of just sitting at the house, so we
decided to just ride around and see what was going on, I think this is
where we made a mistake.
I found a nice place to pull over and let her drive for a little
while. We climbed out of the old Nissan wagon and traded places.
As she pulled out, we decided to take an obviously less used dirt road
that seemed to have sprung out from nowhere, as we could neither remember
seeing it before on our way to visit friends in this neck of the woods.
This will be a ride we will never forget and could never discuss openly,
if we make it back.
A shimmer occurred as the front end of the car sort of disappeared for
a few seconds, than we watched as the land changed drastically from
just before the shimmer to afterward.
I think we had the same thought as she stopped the car and tried to
back up, but the scene was set, as she backed up, the scenery just
stayed the same, only in reverse. I knew, somehow it was going to
take a while before we could find that shimmer again and go back where
we belong.
Looking around I noticed crude man made roads of crushed rock and paths
just wide enough to drive a single car on, and off to the right there
looked to be a village of sorts, and people working out in the fields.
It looked normal enough until she mentioned that there were no power
poles, and ours was the only car anywhere."Cool!" She said more to herself
than me.
Looking up the road, I happened to notice someone on a horse-drawn cart,
it looked like they were wearing a long nightshirt and what we call a
'witch's hat', usually worn on Halloween.
As the cart pulled up beside the car, he lifted up the hat so I could
see that it was a rather handsome man, probably in his late 50's.
He smiled at us for a moment than stepped down from his cart and asked
me to step out of my 'carriage', which I did after checking all my mirrors
and windows for any sign of trouble. He was a tall man, fairly thin,
his hair was long and silvery, and his beard was of the color of 3
shades lighter than battleship gray. I must have looked a sight, with my
jaw about even with my shoulders, or so it seemed. He had a deep, solid
voice, the kind of voice you find in very intelligent, educated folks that
either teach classes in the Ivy League colleges or were recent graduates.
His voice was clear, and Amber had a time of not staring at him.
He smiled at us both, than said, "Follow me to a safe place," and climbed
back upon his cart and led the way down the long crushed rock road to a
village and than to a huge, what looked to be a castle.
We sat at a long table with him-our escort-the wizard and four other men
that reeked of great importance. They asked about how much things had
changed, but before we could answer, our friend with the tall pointed hat,
invited them to look at our carriage. Upon urgent requests we managed to
get everyone in the wagon and I drove us back to where we had entered, the
shimmer was there and I drove like a bat out of hades to get through it
before it could disappear again.
I had forgotten for the moment that I had a full load of strangers riding
in the car with the backseat down.
The gas needle was on quarter of a tank and I knew we were going to be
doing some serious driving, and I doubted very much that there would be
any gas stations to be found on the other side of the shimmer, so I filled
it up. They all complained of thirst and, "what manner of merchant is
this?"
I asked them to wait just a few more minutes and that we'd be at the house
and they could drink all the water they could hold, or they could have tea,
coffee, perhaps a bath-which I enunciated with great care as these guys
had some serious B.O. going on-maybe a sandwich or something to eat.
When we arrived at the house, my husband, Vince wasn't too far behind,
seems they'd had a slow day at the restaurant and he was off the next two
days. We put the leaf back in the table, while the kings borrowed clothing
so I could wash and dry theirs. We sat around drinking coffee, mead that
Vince had made, sandwiches and homemade beef and vegetable soup.
We sat there for at least two hours, talking, comparing, eating and
more talking. We than followed Vince and the kings to the back yard where
they practiced their sword play and learned from each other, new and old
techniques.
Vince and the kings continued to practice their sword play, than I was
brought into the sword fest, and finally Amber. They were quite impressed
that she and I could actually swing a sword and handle them quite well;
Than when I brought out the chucks, they were beyond curiosity at how such
a weapon worked. I showed them, than within the half hour of practicing
each had racked themselves at least 3 times.
"How can these people help us?" At that the tall man with the tall hat
replied, "They are a part of the solution and more," the man continued,
"they have been where we are from before and now have more ways of helping
us". Looking at Vince, Amber and myself, he asked, "Can you ride a horse?"
Vince looked up and grinned, "hell yeah, I can ride a horse! I'm a little
rusty, but it won't take much to get used to it again!" Than the man looked
at Amber, "Can you ride a horse?" She looked right at him and said, "I can
learn quickly!" To that he muttered under his breath, "You just might have
to learn really quickly!" Looking at me he opened his mouth as if to ask me
the same, but instead leaned over to Vince and the kings and said, "There
is no question about her, she also may be what you call rusty, but she was
and is a warrior at heart. Yet," he paused and looked at me long and
thoughtful; I was beginning to wonder if I had perhaps something caught
between my teeth. I excused myself to go look and check the status of their
clothes.
The tall man with the tall hat began to speak again, "You, my lady are
gifted!" With that, Vince spoke up, "How the hell would you know?"
The four kings began to laugh, a long needed and well deserved laugh,
which I don't think they had laughed like that for years. Than, looking
around, the wizard said, "You are missing one from your house, a boy,
strong, yes, I should like to meet him as well, for he is also needed to
complete the puzzle. Can you bring him here?"
"He is at his father's house," I said, but the hat man insisted, so we
called to let his father know we were picking him up.
While Amber and I had gone to pick up Joe, the kings and the wizard took
their long needed baths and were able to get back into their own clothes.
Upon arriving, the wizard, looked at Joe, sucking on his long stem pipe
and looking some more. "Yes! He is the one!" The kings had at once gathered
around Joe, looking, harrumphing and the eldest king said, "Are you sure
its him? Are you sure this is my youngest grandson?"
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