African Vista

I had another dream where the view outside my window did not match what I see in reality. I had awoken to find the house shrouded in mist, pressing thickly against the windows. Eventually it withdrew enough to show me that the town had been encircled by a towering fortification, such as might be found ringing the realm of Mordor. The looming grey walls rose oppressively from the mist, and were topped with spiked battlements that weighed heavy on my heart. I called my father to see if he could also see the walls from his residence. He told me that it was a Zionist government plot and to pay it no heed, the whims of power would change and the walls would melt away as swiftly as they had appeared. More confused than before, I ended the call and returned to the window to take photos. The mist had swept in again and concealed the view. Hoping to find a better angle at the back of the house, I went upstairs to the study window.

I was unprepared for the startling change of scenery. Rather than mist and the wall of doom, I was confronted with a sunny vista of an African wilderness replete with winding, sparkling rivers, emerald green swathes of well-watered veldt, in the middle distance, the ruins of a sandstone temple, and in the far distance, a majestic mountain range, above which an immense rainbow curved over the blue firmament. Roaming across this landscape in staggering numbers and variety were the beasts of the bush, all those well known species of an African safari. Rumbling elephants, loping giraffes, whooping zebra, grunting wildebeest, roaring lions, laughing hyenas, snorting rhinos, yawning hippos, snapping crocodiles, strutting ostriches, quarreling baboons, foraging warthogs, prowling cheetahs, galloping gazelles, and flocks of brilliant white egrets. I immediately took out my camera and began clicking away, overwhelmed with wonder, but worried lest the scene should dissolve before I could finish taking photos. As I tried to zoom in and focus on the pink gape of a hippo in full yawn, the camera died and the dream dissolved.