Wooden Dreams

I find myself walking around the grounds at the festival during the week. No one is in attendance yet there are quite a few people here and there. They’re the ones that work on the grounds. I stop in here and there to say hi to the people I know. They all have a warm and willing smile to give. As I walk around I notice the woodchips underfoot and smile at how comfortable it is to walk around them.

I come upon an area whose walls consist translucent silky veils. ‘I know this place and I know the owner’, I thought to myself as I entered. She was just stirring from her slumber as I entered. With a surprised look and bright smile, she jumped up, ran over, and gave me a big hug. She had me sit down on one of the cushions as she prepared herself for the day. She just chatted away as she darted here and there. Soon as she finished she appeared before me on all fours on the ground. Very catlike she crawled up to me, parted my legs, and wiggled herself up between them. “So many things that we’re going to do,” she suggestively said.

Just then, a voice behind one the veils said, “You must come with us,” as a hand came down upon my shoulder. There was no malice, just a determined and purposeful statement that something must be done before anything else can proceed.

I get up and follow them out through the veils to their awaiting truck. I climb in back of the pickup then they headed off into the woods.

I found myself among the trees of the forest. There are many others around here that tend to the forest, I am not the first to find myself here. They let me off and said they will return later. I climb down and walk among the trees. I make it a game to see how far I can get without touching the ground as I bounce from log to log and branch to branch. I know I’m being watched and I here soft whispers of “he is good” but I ignore it all as I’m having fun in my little antic.

The people in the truck return and say that I must get back in and follow them. Reluctant to leave my game of balance behind, I climb back into the truck. They drive through the forest and come upon a gated, wooden wall. We go through the gates and enter into a most horrid smelling area. It’s where all the privies are kept after being fully utilized. Going up and down the endless aisles, they are looking for something. They let me leave the truck and so I scampered over the tops of the units, not touching the ground. I overhear them say “no, we cannot drop him off here, it is too much.” Before we left I commented on how it looked like Privy City. No chuckle from the drivers, just a determination that they are on a mission. I looked down at one of the smaller units and listen to the sound of the running drain water.

We pull out of the gates and proceed to another area. We go through another set of gates and this time the area is not filled with the putrid aroma from before. In this area are fallen logs of all sizes piled on top of each other. They are piled high above us and all around. They allow me to scamper out of the truck and onto the top of one of the piles. I look down the other side and notice that it goes down further than the level of the land. In fact, it goes down into the water and I think to myself that should one make a wrong step, they would end up underneath the logs and under the water. ‘Not good’, I say to myself.

“We will drop him off here,” I heard one of the drivers say. Handing me a small cooler, one of them said, “Wait here and we will return for you.” I gladly accepted the cooler and watched as they pulled out of the gates. I scampered back to the top of one of the wooden piles and began my game of bouncing from log to log. I jump from the highest down to the lowest just to see if I can maintain balance and accuracy. Then I jump from the widest possible without touching the ground.

After a while I realize that they will not be returning and that I should start looking for a way back. I begin to bounce down the side of the pile of logs down towards the ground. I look ahead as to where it was leading and notice that the path looks a bit foreboding and wrong. I turn around and above me are a bunch of familiar, and friendly faces from the festival. They saw the question on my face and they all pointed to the top and to the other side of the large wooden pile.

Back to the top I go and upon reaching the crest I see the other side drops off to a small cliff. Below is a mucky path that leads back up to the place I want to go. I jump down off the pile and before I hit the muck, I notice there are still some logs here and there. Fortunately I was coming down into the direction of one of them and I firmly landed on the log without falling off and into the muck. “He is good,” I overhear someone say. I proceed up the path jumping from log to log. Near the top, and the muckiest part of the path, the logs ended. Only a few more yards before I reached the area I was trying to get back to. ‘If they thought that bouncing from log to log was something, wait until they see what I plan on doing next’, I thought to myself. There was no way I was going to touch the muck so I got to large branches and used them almost like stilts. I used the branches as extensions to my arms and proceeded to “walk” through the muck and towards the wooden platform a few yards away.

Upon reaching the platform I raised the branches and jumped down to the wooden floor. I smiled in the accomplishment but before I could enjoy it much further someone with a large bo charged me. I defended myself with the branches I was still holding. WHACK-WHACK-WHACK! They hit and each whack was deflected by one of my branches. I then wielded the larger of the two branches and knocked the bo from the hands of the attacker. Once removed, the attacker stopped their assault and moved away. I proceeded up the platform towards a wooden bridge that would lead me back to where I wanted to go. Before I could reach the bridge another opponent appeared but this time with a bit of malice and jests that he will finish me and slice me up. In each hand he wielded a blade, the larger was in his left. He looked down at my wooden branches as if he was judging his opponent. He quickly, and forcefully, took the longer of the two blades and swung down hard on one of the wooden pillars between us. He used it to break a piece of his blade down to a smaller size. For what reason, I could not fathom. He then came charging from around the pillar wielding his blades in a continuous circular pattern. Using the branches as my only defense, I blocked each of his swings. When the blades hit the branches pieces of wood went flying. But, pieces of his blades also broke off upon contact. ‘So his blades are not that hard’, I thought to myself, ‘perhaps I could whittle them down’. The blade in his right hand was nearly gone as he said, “I will take this small blade and slice you up.” I said nothing as he continued his assault. The blade in his right hand was now gone and so he focused more power into his remaining blade. Each swing was powerful, yet each swing that contacted the branch broke his blade down in size.

Pieces of wood flying, pieces of metal flying, we danced our dance. Not knowing the outcome for sure, I was comfortable enough to know that my branches would outlast his remaining blade.

With nothing but a wooden stick left in my hand, the opponent stopped his assault as his blade was finally gone. The dance ended and he smiled. But it was not a smile of malice, it was a smile of friendship as he stated, “You are now accepted.”

All images & contents copyright © G.A. Trammel 1992 - 2003