saralando

03-KEELE- protection



The tower stood out clearly against the sky, casting its shadow on the nearby trees.
There was no entrance, nor window, nothing that could suggest someone was living inside.
When He pressed the palm of his hand against the wall, however, he could feel it throbbing as if it was alive.
He touched the wall again and something below his hand seemed to move. Slowly on the surface of the tower the shadow of a face appeared.
“What are you looking for?” the voice seemed to come from the air around him, or from inside his own head.
He looked around then answered:
“I need to talk to Keele. There is something I want to ask him…”
The face changed and moved a little higher on the wall.
“Keele is dreaming,” she said.
“I wonder if you could wake him up just for a minute, it will not take long…”
“I am sorry,” said the face, and moved again, “You do not understand: not only Keele is dreaming… he is the dream.
This whole tower is made of his dreams. If I woke him up he would not exist at all. The tower would be gone, and him with it…”
He was confused: “How is that possible?”



…When I first met Keele it was raining. I was sitting under a tree, waiting for the sun to come out again, so that I could go back to my village. He passed by and saw me.
He sat next to me, offering to share a sheet of hide he was using to protect himself from the rain.
Before the rain stopped I already knew I was in love with him, who was so kind and whose soul was so similar to mine.
Back then Goor was stricken with wars. Keele’s village was one our enemies.
If I knew where he was from, I would have probably refused his help, but the damage was done and a heart filled with love cannot be controlled by the voice of reason.
We used to meet here, at night, picturing a better place to live together.
Before the sun would rise, we returned to our villages, waiting for a new night to arrive.
This clearing became our special place, and somehow it looked like there was another dimension, here: the door to a perfect world.
After some time we realized that our dream were starting to solidify. Not in the sense that they were coming true, but they were building an enclosure around us.
When we were here no one could see us. People crossing the clearing would somehow see an obstacle and would go further on.
We started spending more and more time in our dreams, going back to reality only for enough time not to alarm other people.
But these moments were more painful every time; leaving each other was an unbearable suffering.
At some point we decided that we would not let other people keep us separated.
In our dreams we were free.
Neither my people nor his could knock this tower down.
They tried for a long time. Maybe some of them actually missed us…
Then they stopped coming to the clearing and the grass started growing back again.
But Keele was afraid that they would come back that if we lowered our guard they would get us. He started reinforcing the tower’s walls, making them completely inaccessible.
One day I woke up to find Keele trapped in the dream, where he is still now.
I don’t know why I keep on waking up. Each night I fall asleep next to him, hoping I will not…



He took his hand off the wall and the face was reabsorbed, or maybe had never really been there.

Maybe it had all just been a dream.