Mid Summer Nights Dream?

I was coming back from my father’s funeral on the train. Airplanes were for the rich. Money was too tight for the cost of a room with a bed, but a good pillow will make any seat a place to sleep.

The summer sun had set on a long days journey, dinner sat in our bellies, and sleep came easily for the people in that last car once the lights were extinguished. We were deep into the Rocky Mountains, the bright light of a full moon reflected off of the exposed rocks and created strange shadows within the trees. I was starring at nothing in particular when I saw it.

The train reached yet another bridge and I looked down to see if I could spot the moonlit river it spanned. Instead there was a broad grassy glade bathed in a mixture of moonlight and the deep red of a bonfire with low flames. Several dozen people ringed the fire in mid dance. In the seconds the train took to cross, the dancing pairs come together and then pulled apart.

The energy of that dance signaled a vitality that had eluded my life to that point, and it beckoned. The train quickly came to the end of the bridged chasm and I lost my view of that Elysium. I jumped from my seat, stumbled over the feet of my neighbor, recovered, and ran to the rear of the car threw open the door and caught myself on the rail and looked back. Only the faintest of ruddy glows shown above the canyon to prove I had not dreamed.

I didn’t stop the train, I didn’t drop a marker and I didn’t find that place again. Not literally in any case, but happiness once glimpsed and recognized can then be pursued.