I had dreams again. Last night as I slept, I was several places. First one I remember was befriending a crowd of junior highers outside a school building in North Dakota. They were leftovers - still had eighties fashion splattered all over them. Within minutes they had gathered (it was morning - school was just about to begin) by my bidding. I was stuck in the middle of their cluster when one of them lit a bundle of hash. The weed erupted into a thick cloud of smoke and I stumbled to escape the high (the rest leaned hard into their own). The principal yelled as I fell through the mass and out into the open. I knew the man, and as the outcasts scattered I fumbled through words explaining how I had been misled or misunderstood - I hadn't known of their intention to break the rules. The principal assumed no guilt on my part whatsoever, "Not you Jeremy, I know." I noticed an uneasiness inside me as I accepted his pardon….

Then I remember chasing a falcon across my yard. A kite string was hanging from its feet, and as it flew just high enough for the string to be out of my reach, I chased it. I caught it only moments before it landed on a power line. I tried to let go - for fear that I might be shocked - but couldn't, for I had tripped down into a ditch and my hand had tangled with the string. Then I wept. Seeing the string, while unable to carry current to me, was sufficient to ground the bird (because I was holding it) jolting the bird once - and then it died. The silver haired man with the beard found me later (it was his falcon). He was sad, but he forgave me. I was still crying in the ditch… 

Then I was at a YMCA (somewhere in the mountains) and I reported a fallen power-line in one of the weight rooms. They said they (by the time I ha  found them) had already addressed the problem. 

And this is the one I believe I woke to…

I was atop a crest in the Rockies - overlooking miles of mountaintop (jagged and beautiful - glowing shades of red & amber as the sun was  about to set). Amos was with me, and he responded to my [being tackled by] joy as I noticed a full halo of rainbow encircling the sun at its outermost edges. It graced the entire horizon (with a background of blue as noble as ever) hanging over even grander mountains in the west… 

"Do you want to drive somewhere to see it set?" (There were people all over here - people who didn't care about the sun and its rainbow - or perhaps they didn't notice…) I did. Amos said his car was at the base of this summit, so we had to descend.

Fifty yards to our west, a line of people were already heading down. They had picked (most of them) the hardest route - straight down a washed-out crag. "We gotta go this way," Amos said, pointing to the crag. "Why is everyone being so risky?" I asked. "You'll see," he said.

At the first edge - where you must carefully crawl into the crag - we stopped and waited for twelve people ahead of us. At my turn, I clung to the chest of this mountain and slowly lowered myself in. A chunk of rock (the size of cut firewood) broke loose and shot down the crag with speed unwarranted by gravity alone. I watched horrified as it struck another climber's arm. He was a stocky man, and though a bit agitated, seemed unhurt by the matter.  

My mind reeled, though, as I considered what damage it may have caused further down the mountain. "Why did we take this route?" I wondered aloud. "You'll see," had been his reply.

I reached for another hold with my left foot, and found a yellow slab the size of a park-bench backrest. I pushed on it slightly (to be sure it was secure) and it shifted beneath my weight. Again, I was puzzled how so many people had descended and not one had moved this rock.

I withdrew my foot, and held my breath as the yellow slab loosed, and shot like a rocket down that crag. It took out the stocky climber this time, and several others with him. Even then, I couldn't bare to think of what it might've wrought further down. I stopped to cry, but was told I couldn't. We had to get down. "BUT WHY?" 

"You'll see." 

Somehow, amidst the tragedy, we made it. I don't remember the climb (or the descent), but I remember the relief once we reached the bottom. "No more tragedy," I prayed. I asked my companion (who was no longer Amos), once again, why we came down such a dangerous path. One more time he answered me, "You'll see." He pointed in the direction of an old carnival trailer - the kind they sell stuff out of - and implied I was to approach it. 

A line was assembled on the far side of the trailer, and as I drew closer, I noticed the signs… "FREE SNO-CONES FOR THOSE WHO DESCENDED THE CRAG!" 

I stepped into line with a numbing disgust. In a moment, I was at the counter, "What flavors do you have?" I asked. "Red, and peanut butter," she answered. "I'll have red," I said. She handed me a peanut butter sno-cone and silently implied, "There you go, silly fool, red's just for looks."

I turned to find my companion. I wanted to ask him one more time why we took the crag. But I knew now… sno-cones. 

Funny how I didn't care much to go see the sunset after that.