The Prescient Dream

In the dream, the mountain was taller. Perhaps one of the towering Moroccan peaks which block the horizon between gaps of lesser peers. At first I see it from very far away like a postcard. A sheer, undulating face, vividly white against a peaceful sky blue. Sharing its air with a few innocent clouds. As I get closer, the blue skies sink upwards out of view and the sun dips behind a cloud dulling the white. I begin to see a colorfully clad man near the top. He is nervous but not afraid. He is steeling himself for the coming moments. In my dream, I don’t know the man and though he wears skis, I am not sure if he know how to wield them. I am still far off and I never see his face, but I know that he now feels prepared. He begins to inch himself forward perpendicular to the mountain slope. As he turns to face his future, it is apparent that he does not possess the technique this mountain demands. Each movement is ill-formed and heavy with regret. Still he is awkwardly maintaining his footing; sometimes through his own fearsome will and sometimes through that of the mountain itself. For a moment he passes behind a cloud and when he reemerges, I sense that he is beginning to get the hang if this. For a moment, I am optimistic, but a sudden fat lip of snow gives way to emptiness and my heart sinks again. At first, a cold rock wall can be seen behind the falling man. Eventually, all that can be seen is sky and clouds. I am moving with him, but he is falling too fast and soon I am well above him looking down. Now in the distance far below us both I can see an icy ocean. I think back to the moment the cliff appeared and remember the calmness of this stranger as the snow below him fell away. Perhaps his most graceful moment. I realize now that his fate was known to all but me. Skis still strapped to his feet, the man now plunges into the water creating a blimp of chaos in a vast silence. My fear for this man is gone, but I ponder his destiny. As I wake from the dream, I witness the man swimming towards the jagged slabs of ice that stretch off into the distance.