While tubing down the Chatahoochee river [near Atlanta, Georgia], I noticed the rapids ahead getting closer. I tried fighting the current to avoid hitting the rocks, but as the current sped up, I felt myself becoming more and more relaxed. This feeling made me want to go faster and faster, so I stopped giving resistence to the current and allowed myself to drift aimlessly down the river.
When I finally hit the rapids, I was pulled under. I held my breath and struggled to reach the surface. Unable to reach it, I felt my lungs begin to burst. The pain was so severe that I inhaled to end it all. Yet instead of water rushing in, I felt cool, clean air fill my lungs.
I kept going down deeper and deeper, but I didn't care now because I was so shocked that I was still alive. When I finally struck bottom, it didn't hurt. This amazed me, yet the surroundings amazed me more. I was in a totally new world, a world beyond my imagination. The surface in front of me was a swamp of some sort. It was orange in color and had plant life resembling cattails. The horizon had a yellow tint, which offset the gray, bleak land in the background. The land was covered with dead cypress trees. The sky above was a misty purple. In the sky were creatures that resembled elephants. They had gigantic tusks and large butterfly wings. The also had ears that looked like bat wings and slanted red eyes that seemed always to be staring at me.
From my vantage point I was looking directly at a lizard sitting on one of the cattails. It had a fin on its neck that made it resemble a stegosaurus. The expression on its face was one of utter terror. It had good reason to look that way, because at that very moment one of the elephants with butterfly wings was diving down at it. The lizard tried to fight for its existence by leaping into the swamp, only to find itself stuck in sticky, orange muck.
I noticed another elephant land in the swamp, but there was no sound of the splash. Suddenly, I noticed there was no sound anywhere at all. I said to myself "Oh my God, I'm deaf!" Not wanting to accept such a horrible fact, I yelled out to make sure I could still hear. But to my astonishment I heard myself. I thought "Why couldn't I hear the elephant land in the swamp?" I never had a chance to think about the answer to that question, because the swamp suddenly began to bubble, the dead trees started moving, and the entire world began to decay.
Even though this action was strange, I was not afraid. But just then an elephant spotted me and began to take off. I started runing, but it came closer and closer. Not paying attention to where I was running, I stumbled over the edge of a cliff. I tumbled and fell farther and farther down. Then I awoke to end the most fascinating dream I had ever experienced.
© Copyright 2002 by Robert J. R. Rockwood. All rights reserved.