dream

It’s another glorious day, the sun shinning like a big orange ball in the sky, the road stretches before me, shimmering with the heat, the mountains ahead in the distance rise up like sentinels. The air conditioner is on the fritz, I feel rivulets of sweat running down my back. I’m alone in the car, the radio has lost the station, static is all it is putting out, I turn the dial each way, nothing but more static. Turning it off I hear only the hum of the tires on the blacktop. I appear to be hurrying to get somewhere? The speed on the dial, reads 90mph.

By afternoon the road starts to curve round and up the mountainside, clouds are gathering, dark and ominous, like my thoughts. As the first raindrop hits the windshield, I hear the sound of the thunder in the distance rolling toward me getting louder and louder. The rain is heavier, slapping the windows; visibility is down to a couple of yards. I begin to slow, I hear something hit the roof of the car, rocks from above are raining down. Pulling the wheel to one side to avoid them, they carry the car over the edge of the road; we are falling, I’m screaming, falling.  The darkness consumes me, I feel and see nothing, I hear buzzing, fighting through layers of darkness like a drowning man, surfacing, taking a gulp of air only to find the alarm clock buzzing and flashing 6:30am, the radio alarm has lost the station.

In the mirror, I see dark circles under my eyes, in the shower; my body is black and blue. My suitcase is laying open next to the door; looking out of the window my car is scraped and dented.

Was it a dream?