Snovid's diary

Chapter 10. Wintry city

A couple of days later, I came to awareness once again in a dream. I was on a snow-covered street in a wintry city. Occasional passers-by hurried along, and I found myself in the middle of a landscape consisting of dull old brick houses. To strengthen my awareness of the dream, I looked at my hands. For me, it had become more of a ritual than an actual necessity, marking the beginning of my lucid dream. The hands were covered with woolen black mittens, which seemed both cute and appropriate to me since it was quite cold. It occurred to me that it might not even be present day, but rather the middle of the twentieth century. This was easy to guess from the style of the houses and from the way people dressed, and of course from my mittens.

I recalled that I had to look for a wall of fog. The wall could be at the borders of this dream, which meant I had to leave the city now. I took off, exactly as mom had taught me in my earlier dream. I sailed like a kite, sliding along invisible lines parallel to the ground. Easily, I flew to the gardens that constituted the fringes of the city. Below me was a vast fruit orchard, dormant under the snow. This garden was clearly old, but reasonably well kept. A little boy of about eight was running the the snow below. I reduced my speed and altitude to talk to him.

Hey kid! Which way do I need to go to find the wall of fog?

I shouted to him, about a meter off the ground. He pointed with his hand to the left of where I was headed. I swerved, and headed in the direction he had indicated, and soon I saw it. The wall separated the familiar gardens from the unknown beyond. It spread to the left and right as far as the eye could see.

I landed right in front of it and, not taking the time to catch my breath, I completely immersed myself in it. Once again, I found myself in an endless void between sleep and something unnamed. However, this time, everything was blindingly bright. I tried to move on, but I could only walk with effort. After 5 strenuous steps, I lost my sense of time...