The River, The Opal

[smokingboot]

I did see it though, that black and silver river.

Dreams rose, seeing myself in a carriage where appeared a small Nosferatu/elven type creature. I was very prepared and basically kicked its arse right out of the carriage, but it appeared again, with a ring as a gift from its 'master.' The ring had a stone most like one of those black opals full of fire. He took forever to persuade me to take it, merely as a gift, no strings attached... but it did have a wish in it, if I ever wanted/needed.

Then I was on the silver river and the night was black above us all. All! There were loads of people, in dinghies and coracles and little boats, whole families, many with their pets (lots of dogs playing in the water) and along the banks were walkers travelling in the same direction, some pausing for a while to sit around fires, maybe eat a bit or just tell each other stories. There were so many of us, beasts and people alike, all headed in the same general direction, that I wondered if a major event had happened and we had all died. Were we on the way to Hades? If so Charon was clearly out of a job. It made me think of the song 'Future' by Madonna, 'Not everyone is coming to the future/Not everyone is coming from the past.'*

Meanwhile, some people were not - I couldn't get it right, the picture in my head - not joining us. But the physical barrier was something like a page being turned. And I remembered the ring, realising that if I reached event horizon, the wish was still there. I could go to any point in history or space or imagination, I could reincarnate if I chose. Then for a moment, I saw the old train station at Hue and then somehow after that, the Cao Dai temple in South Vietnam.


*Remembering her performance of this at Eurovision19, it seems fair to say that that even Madame X must face this possibility.