Acrobatics

I woke up from a dream around 5 this morning. It started as me walking into a stage area. It felt like a stage in a warehouse. Almost big enough to be real, but without any of the detail of real life. There was a single tree. A stage tree. I was big, overweight, wearing a cream-colored dress with an empire waist that made me look more fat. I had come to the stage for inspiration, and just to live out my imaginings that I had written into a novel / play. I carried the pages of my writings with me. I laid down, melodramatically, looking into the sky and talking to myself in a monologue reminiscent of a child playing pretend, but made the more pathetic because I didn't sound like a child. A man I didn't know startled me as he strode purposefully into the room. I was not expecting anyone. He looked like he had a very specific purpose. And he walked straight to me. I'm not exactly sure how the next thing happened. The stranger did something with the stage rigging and with the tree, and then I was being lifted into the air. And then there was another man with me in the rigging. It was a man that I felt I could trust. Perhaps it was the same man as before, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me, and I never really focused on the man/men. The rigging was made up to resemble branches. They were quite vine-like, as they were really a conglomeration of cables. And there was an endless mass of them. They stretched up and away from the tree, going farther and farther until I felt they had circled the room. And the feeling, as I was carried along with them was that it was a circus and I was an acrobat. I was terrified. I felt that the tighter I clung to the ropes, the more in danger I was of falling. Once, I accidentally slipped and was sure that I was going to fall. But somehow, loosening my grip made me feel more secure. I began to experiment, and after a short time I was moving like a true acrobat. I delighted in the freedom of flying, the feeling of strength as I flipped myself upside down. I landed once, and a man -- a man with kind eyes and a gentle face, black skin and bald head -- seemed to be expecting me. Though it was more of a general expectation that I would land, and not so much of expecting me to land at any particular time or place. He looked at my joy and exhilaration. It seemed he understood, but more than understood. He actually saw the experiences I had just had, remembering them as I stood before him. And he watched them pass through my memory as if he was watching a movie. And odder still, when he watched the movie, I saw that he was the main character, though it was my memories of my own experiences. And then I knew that summer vacation was over. I had to go back to my mundane life. Disappointment began to color my excitement. Though there was also hope. "I wish I could stay forever," I said, and his kind and wise look empathized with me, but showed me how going back would take me to greater joy than I had just had.