I woke up this morning with the most vivid dream in my mind. You were in my mind, my dear Jodiette.
I seemed to be at a world’s fair, lots of pavilions and shops scattered over rounded green hills. Exquisite. But I had lost my shoes. I searched through lots of them at store entrances … but nothing. I was sad. Strangely uprooted.
But there was a beautiful girl with me. (I do believe that her name was Jody!) She smiled at me so warmly. Our eyes met for so long. She didn’t care that I was shoeless. It didn’t diminish me at all in her eyes. I was Bruce, and that was just fine. We held hands in the shops and we meandered from display to display. Sometimes, in a big store, Jody went one way and I went another. Just as in “real” life, I was happy, knowing that Jody was somewhere in here and sooner or later I would round a corner and there would smile my beloved.
As we roamed the aisles of one shop together, I reached over to examine some article. I turned to Jody … and she was gone. I searched the whole place. Still gone. And the neighbouring shops. Still gone. Such horrible sadness to lose my beloved.
Still wandering, I came upon a tight space. It was a dead end, surrounded by rough wooden walls. And then I was face to face with a bearded gatekeeper. He was a gruff guy who started lecturing me about the need to invigorate. Huh? And then he let me pass.
***
Awakened. Unexpectedly happy. After all, I had just lost my wife in L.L. Bean or some such place. I lay there in bed, knowing that I had only lost the physical form of my dear girl. The gatekeeper had let me pass through … to where? Some realm, I know, where Jody and I are together – right now and always. A realm where I don’t even need any shoes. For I’m walking on air.
Goodnight, Jodiette.