Dream of: 06 May 1982 (2) "Merchant of Death"
I
was standing on the bank of Symmes Creek, the creek that twists through the Gallia
County Farm. The Farmhouse was just up the hill behind me. I was busy looking
out at two black geese swimming on the creek. A large black dog was standing
beside me, and someone was explaining to me that the dog had been brought to
protect the geese. Looking at the other side of the creek, I saw something
slipping down the bank, into the water. I thought it was a skunk and that it
was going to try to catch the geese. The person said, "Now watch."
The
dog suddenly dived into the water, and when it finally surfaced, it was holding
the animal in its teeth. The dog swam back to the bank and climbed out of the
water. Once on shore, the dog dropped the animal from his mouth onto the
ground. The animal was still alive and immediately took off running. Other dogs
and the black dog quickly gave chase, pursuing the animal back and forth on a
nearby hillside. Finally, a large, brown dog trapped the animal, and brought it
back to where I was. The dog dropped the animal in front of me; it was a small,
brown squirrel; apparently the skunk had escaped.
Seeing
that the squirrel was still alive, I thought I might be able to save it, but
before I could do anything, the dog again picked up the squirrel in its mouth.
The dog reared its front legs up on the side of a car sitting near us, so that
the dog's head was so near my face I could clearly see that the squirrel's head
was being crushed by the dog's mouth, and that in fact, the squirrel was
already dead.
I turned and walked up to the Farmhouse. Once inside, I looked further
up the hill toward the old tobacco barn where I could see many dogs running
loose in the field between the barn and the House. I saw large, black dogs,
white dogs, and four small puppies. I counted 30 dogs altogether. I also saw a
collie in the House with me—that made 31 dogs. I thought about looking for my
grandmother Mabel, to tell her that she had 31 dogs there on the Farm.
I turned around and walked back into the living room, which seemed more like
the living room of the House in Patriot than the living room of the Farmhouse.
The little village of Patriot was only fifteen kilometers away from the Farm. Now
it seemed as if a family reunion was taking place in the living room. Along
with my relatives, I also noticed several classmates from law school in the
room.
I sat down in a circle with eight or nine other people sitting on
couches and chairs. One fellow reminded me of a law school classmate, Wallace
Smith. As we all sat and talked, this fellow who reminded me of Smith began
talking of how he wanted to acquire some land for raising tobacco. He spoke
about how if he could just raise some tobacco, he could soon become rich.
Someone who was listening mentioned my father's name, and the fellow who seemed
like Smith replied, "Yea, Leroy knew how to do that."
I
could not stand it anymore. I stood, pointed to the fellow who seemed like
Smith and said, "Yea, but you know what you'll be called then, once you do
that? You'll be a merchant of death."
I
launched a tirade about tobacco and its evils. I shouted out that tobacco
knocked seven years off the average person's life. I looked at one person and
asked, "Do you know what a person's lungs look like who's been smoking for
25 years?"
"No,"
he answered.
I
said, "They're just black."
I
was ready to say, "My lungs are pink and healthy, cause
I don't smoke," but I was suddenly interrupted by someone turning on a
small television sitting on a table to my left.
My
uncle George was one of my relatives in the
room. George had been crippled with polio since an early age. He had lived out
most of his life in the House in Patriot, never able to walk, always having to
scoot around on the floor with his legs bent back under him. George now began
complaining about a small, portable television which my grandmother Leacy had
taken and left with my mother. I recalled that my mother did indeed have a
television similar to the one which George was
describing; but I had never realized my mother had obtained the television from
Leacy.
George
continued to complain that he had once visited my mother and had tried to watch
something on the television, but he had been unable to see anything. Someone
else spoke up and maintained that George had never been able to see anything,
because he had been turning the channels too quickly. The person said George
had changed the channels so fast that it looked as if the shows were doing
somersaults over each other.
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