40. Dreaming

I’ve had some strange dreams in my life, but this one starts out simple. I’m walking along a road and on it are different memories from my life: Daisy and May teaching me to bake, learning my letters with Mr. Bilbo, digging in the garden with Gaffer, searching for Elves in the Woody End with Tom and Robin, the Birthday Party, the Conspiracy, Mt. Doom, Gondor, getting married, my children’s births, becoming Mayor, greeting Aragorn and Arwen outside the Shire with Peregrin and Meriadoc, talking with the children about eagles and the Dark Lord, holding my first grandchild in my arms.

The road ends at the Grey Havens and I board a ship which sets sail at once. I’m alone onboard, or so I think at first. I walk the deck towards the captain’s wheel and there stands a tall Elf, grand and imposing. There’s a star upon his brow and a lovely white bird on his shoulder. I stop next to him and he looks down and smiles.

“I’ve dreamt of you before,” I say, recognizing him at once.* Given the excitement of the Birthday Party and everything that followed, I’d forgotten all about that dream until some weeks after. For whatever reason, I never told anyone about it.

“This is no dream, Samwise,” Eärendil says. He speaks in an ancient language I can’t place but somehow I understand him.

“It’s not?” I ask as somewhere down below another firework blooms, brightening the sky. It feels like a dream. “What is it then?”

“You do not know?”

I shake my head.

“Then I shall take you.”

He says naught else as we sail through the sky toward a star as doesn’t seem to move. It grows nearly blinding as we draw closer and I shut my eyes against it.

* - Sam’s dream can be found in “With Their Heads Full of Dreams”.

GF 11/8/12

To be continued...