A Story From the Past Part V: The Dream

Continued from: http://prayforari.blogspot.com/2009/09/story-from-past-part-iv-how-i-met-my.html

By Travis Lane

Now this is the dream that I have had many times in the last two weeks. Keep in mind it was actually part of a day of our lives. (Not the soap opera but an actual day of our lives). I think it still sounds like I am talking about the soap opera. I wonder if any of you remember this day. It was on a hot summer day. Remember when it would rain in Page in the summer time? Now not just a sprinkle of rain but when it would rain for about two hours causing the streets to almost flood with water and if you would stand out in the rain for just 30 seconds you would be soaked.

Josh and I were behind his house playing in the river of water that was created from the run off coming down the street into the desert. We would sit right at the beginning of the start of the water and slide down about 10 feet. Josh and I thought that we were reliving a part in the movie the "Goonies" We walked back up to slide down again and Tammy, and Shanna were there. I remember the first thing I noticed about you two is that you didn’t have any shoes on. I thought to myself "are these girls crazy" You two would run around on those rocks just as if you were wearing the best pair of hiking boots.

Here is the rest of the dream, which is actually a past reality. We played there for what seemed like a long time. Then Andrea came walking down the street with a purple umbrella. I remember the color distinctively because I had never seen a purple umbrella before. It appeared that Andrea had already known or met Tammy and Shanna. The four of us continued to slide down this little river over and over again while Andrea would stand right on the edge of the sidewalk in front of Jones' house watching us go down the small river and then hike back up. Then after that became boring someone suggested that we actually crawl up this drain that came out from underneath the road. That is where the majority of the water was coming from.

I don’t know who was headed in first, and it definitely was not me or Josh. That is when Andrea warned us of all of the bugs and insects that were inside that pipe. It scared me enough to not want to do it but that did not stop the rest of you. I remember acting like I was talking to Andrea so it did not look like I was afraid to go into the pipe. I remember you guys made it look like so much fun all of a sudden you would come shooting out of this pipe from nowhere down a small waterfall into a 10 foot long river.

After witnessing the enthusiasm of Josh, Shanna and Tammy I thought I would try it. Sure enough it was not as fun as you three made it look. (It hurt) I remember thinking am I missing something because this hurts really badly. I didn’t give up I tried it again, the second time it hurt even worse. I thought are they really enjoying this? Then Andrea asked me is it fun Travis? I replied with an enthusiastic excitement "It’s the funnest thing ever you got to try it!" (I think that was the first lie I told in my life) I could tell after my response Andrea was really wanting to try it but she still hesitated. I went back for more and oddly to say the third time was enjoyable. I think what had happened is I learned where the big rocks were and I learned to go around them, making it a more enjoyable ride.

Then Tammy was telling Andrea how fun it is and she’s got to try it soon after all of us were trying to encourage Andrea to take part in this crazy activity. I remember Andrea kept saying "my mom will be so mad at me if I get my clothes dirty." Finally with much debate Andrea indulged on the safari. We were all down ready to greet her hoping that she would find the same type of insane excitement that we had found. Andrea got up and trying so hard to fight the tears back, mustered the words " That was really fun." At the time Andrea and I knew each other the most out of all of us. I could tell that her experience was much similar to mine and the words "That was really fun," were a complete lie.

After everyone ran to the top to go down again, I said to Andrea "Are you ok?" She responded with a wrinkle in her eyes, a squinted nose, and tight lips. "No, it hurt." I then said, “On the third time it is fun." She responded "I have to go down one more time before it is fun?"

Tammy became adventurous and scouted out another natural amusement. She had followed the water and it lead us to a much bigger waterfall that at the end dropped us into a pool of water of about three feet. We all walked around it sizing it up to see how it compared to the one up stream. There was no way that I was going to go down it, that was crazy and suicidal. All of a sudden, I see Andrea lunging into the waterfall with her eyes closed sliding down this jagged ravine. Then it shot her in the air into this pool of water that she was submerged into. For a split second, I thought she was seriously injured or maybe even worse. All of a sudden she sprung out of that water with both hands in the air shouting "That was so fun!" She was right. It was a blast. I’m not going to say that it did not hurt, but it was fun. The adrenaline made up for the pain. We played on that waterfall for what seemed like hours. I remember thinking to myself “I don’t think life can get much more enjoyable than this." Afterwards, we all hiked up the hill to Jones’ house and Sister Jones had hot apple cider for us. It was the first time I had ever tasted apple cider. I felt like an oddball because everyone else had tasted it but me.