This article is written in the dialect of East Texas. A dictionary is available upon request at williamdavidellisauthor.com.
Dreams can be caused by a lot of things. If you live in East Texas on a small farm and eat breakfast most mornings at a small café, the number of things contributing to vivid monster-manifesting dreams is huge!
So, needless to say, I had a dream. Woke up with cold sweats (could be attributed to the fact that my wife sleeps under a ceiling fan and has another oscillating fan blowing across her. and therefore me), but I think this dream was caused by something darker (like a hidden Lego in the middle of the night, or a dog who knows better but leaves a gift for his owner to step in on his middle-of-the-night trip to the potty). Yep, this one was mystical. It creeped up out of the foggy bottom near our house. Note, I did not say “soggy bottom” that is a whole different subject and is usually caused by the noncompliance of dietary restrictions. Yep, I think this dream crawled out of one of the old graves,(probably my ex-mother-in-law's) slid down the moss-covered gravestones of our local cemetery, slithered through the swamp, and then under the door and into my bed.
Hopefully, I have created anticipation. Maybe you are intrigued and thinking, “I wish that idiot would hurry and get to the dream.” Fine! Treat an old man with more wind than wisdom like that, but be warned …as you are, once I was, and.. Oh yes! As I am, so you shall be. Now back to the dream.
I dreamed that I was sitting in Jamie’s café in Moab, Texas, eating my standard fare of hot fresh cathead biscuits covered in sausage gravy when in walked the new reverend. Now, that is nothing to write on about… cept, this one had an aura! I mean a dark shadow draped around his shoulders like a python around a circus performer's neck.
I spit coffee and biscuit all over my friend Archie, then pretended to be hocking up a hair ball.. All the time screeching to myself, “I am not seeing this! Uh-uh, no sireee! Didn’t see that, nope!” So, I grabbed my fallen courage, tucked it back in my pants, wiped my mustache off, dried the spilt coffee off of Archie, blinked, and looked again.
Yep, it was there and hadn’t moved. As a matter of fact, it had become a great deal more vivid, and this time our eyes met. Slitted reptilian eyes glowered and then it stuck our its twitching forked tongue.
Quite naturally, I choked again, but this time Archie ducked, and I hit Jamie, the proprietor instead. She shrieked and started beating me with a spare dish towel, cussing and yelling, words I hadn’t heard since the last time I made her mad.
But this time I was ready. I stood up, brushed the biscuit off my overalls, and looked that shadowy beast square in the backside. Seems the dark reverend had turned around to talk to a local parishioner and left me squared off with that thing's rear end. Needless to say, it was a sight easier to barer, and I did make out the critter's species. It was a dragon., a real life, fire-breathing, razor-clawed, straight-from-the-chest-of-drawers-of-hell dragon.
Then I woke up. The sun was breaking through the oak branches on the east side of our pasture, and it was time to get up. I ran through the shower forgot to turn the water on and stood there gaping. .Eventually I shuttered free from the trance and finally, I made it to my spot at Jamie’s café. My seat, my time, my coffee cup. I was starting to settle down. The first warm comfort food of fresh biscuits and gravy were easing my considerable fears, when the door opened, and the new reverend walked in.
My therapist says I should be all right, but I need to chronicle these dreams. The therapist hasn’t explained why our community has had a rash of house fires and cattle mutilations, and attendance has definitely improved at the church. Seems people are afraid not to go, and I.. well I have written some novels about it… Some call it fantasy.
William David Ellis author of The Princess Who Forgot She Was Beautiful lives in Ben Wheeler Texas on a small farm. He is a beekeeper and raises blackberries. He has two masters degrees and one doctorate in theology. He has published five books, three of which can be found on Amazon. His first book Dragons and Romans is currently ranked #1 Dragons and Mythical Creatures ( free kindle) His wife is an English teacher, his daughter is an English teacher and his father was an English teacher, in spite of that he still writes.
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