TOW
             
Dreaming; Night of
November 25, 1982

       7:44              After WWII, I was a mean, solitary kid growing up on my own and looking out for myself. I had no responsibilities, only free time to hunt, fish, and swim on the river that most of mankind huddled alongside of. As I grew I broke away from the others, and one day I snuck into someone's house in the next village. I met this girl and fell in love. Her parents threw a fit because I was such a good-for-nothing loner, and they put me in an escape proof prison camp. Somehow or other the girl got into the prison, past the hundreds of live-in guards (I guess she committed a crime, or was visiting). I had tried an escape before this and failed miserably, but my spirit remained unbroken. I ran down the river (at the point where it was but a creek) as if I was trying to escape. When the head of the tribe (girl's father, head guard) chased after me saying that this was it and I was done for, a new feeling came over me and I decided to either escape or die. As he ran along the high bank of the river I allowed myself to float back downstream pushing myself off the high river walls and picking up speed. Finally I got out at the prison's fenced edge. I saw the girl and we made a final break for it over the fence with about 25 others. Only about five of us made it over, the others being shot down (including a small baby who hung grotesquely on the wire fence). This was on a clifftop and at the bottom was another village that no one had ever contacted because of the impossible obstacle of the cliff (huge). They could all be seen down there, cheering us on in our escape effort. The guards were right after us and it was down to the girl and I. I was desperate and figured we were done for, so when she jumped into the river, I followed suit (here, the river was large and fast). The guards, of course, didn't follow us, but stood on the banks, cheering on our imminent decease. As we continued downriver towards the cliff's edge, we went over a small, four-foot waterfall, around several turns, and then over another. The water was in great turmoil around us and we could hear the great falls just ahead. We looked at each other with the happy knowledge that we'd either make it or die together. Then we went over a huge falls...and landed in the pond at the bottom. We were pulled out by many hands, the friendly hands of the lower villagers. They were cheering and slapping us on the backs and everyone was overjoyed. I turned a final eye upon the cliff top where all the guards stood and, in a fit of deserved temper, lifted a finger as I turned away. We were shown to a futuristic hut (like something out of Lost in Space). The man who owned it gave it to us because it had been his "college" hut and he had just gotten married and had to move in with his wife.