Mike Metrinko (an American counsel in Tabriz, Iran, when I met him in 1978) brought seven or eight people into a small room where I was and then left. I began asking the people who they were and how they were related to Metrinko. One man, whom I didn't know, spoke like an Englishman. A woman said she was Metrinko's stepmother. She pointed out another older woman and said that woman was his mother.

I told the assemblage I had been in Iran with Metrinko for eight months. The lady with whom I had been speaking said, "Oh. Steve Collier."

"Yea," I answered.

I thought Metrinko had been held hostage during the eight months I had been in jail in Iran and I asked her if they had been more worried that time than the second time Metrinko had been held hostage. She replied, "No. It was all the same."

She said she remembered his writing about me in a letter. She had asked him about me and he had said that he liked me. I began thinking back about when I had been in Iran and realized Metrinko and I hadn't talked much to each other. I thought that was because people in prison – although they were close – ceased talking much to each other.

We stood, walked out of the room, and stood next to a body of water. A funny type of boat had come in and was carrying hostages back from Iran. The boat looked like a string of coffins held together by beams from one coffin to the other. The coffins were in two tiers and the lids were open. The hostages were lying flat on their backs in them. They had floated all the way from Iran that way.

I was standing on an elevation above the water and I watched the coffins float by. Many had blood on them. I began thinking that many of the hostages had been killed. But the ones floating by were still alive. However none were moving. Finally all the hostages rose, stepped out on the shore and lined up.

I saw many females among them and noticed they were wearing Indian clothing. They seemed to be in a ragged condition.

Rod Keith (a law student) was standing beside me. We walked along together and talked. We said we still had a long boat ride to take and we wanted to talk with the hostages to find out what their experiences had been. I looked one of the females in the eye and she starred back at me. I thought they were wondering if we had also been hostages although we were relatively unscathed compared to them.

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