Camille Turner

English 302- Section 01

Journal Three

08 February 2012

Prompt: Make use of these trigger lines for easy freewrites. Pick one of them— quickly; don’t think about it too much— write it down and keep writing. Anything at all. Whatever the prompt suggests. Keep going. A little bit more.

The Return

In this dream…

In this dream, I was sitting outside in a forest, sunbeams streaking through the trees. It was sticky hot and the dirt was damp, the earth cool in comparison with the hot air. My feet were bare, smudged with rich soil. All of the colors surrounding me where vibrant, almost fake-looking. The wood wasn’t particularly thick and there were spaces of green grass in between all of the trees. The grass was the brightest, deepest green I had ever seen. It was incredibly comforting to see no man-made objects lying around— it was nature in its purest form. More comforting than that, was the silence that surrounded me and stretched on forever. I knew that it never ended; I just felt it.

I was completely alone, and it was the most incredible feeling to know that in this world, there was no other human being. I, myself, was only part of the forest, of the ground. I was not an imposer, nor was this my world, my wood. My solitude dawned on me and was like an awakening from a horrible nightmare into comfort. There were no expectations, no one to please, no one to quarrel with, nothing to destroy, nothing that I needed. The question of survival was nonexistent since this was a place of constant tranquility. I was in total peace because I no longer existed beyond the wrinkling tree roots of this world, this reality.

I floated onto my back, softly nestling my whole body into the dirt around me. Home, home at last. I watched the ground, which seemed to lift slowly upward, as I sunk into the earth, becoming no more than a part of my surroundings. My body felt so good, and I tingled in all the right places. Knees slightly turned out, I was at a complete ease with myself, something I couldn’t remember ever feeling before since no one is allowed to hold on to their childhood. But here, in this soft light, I had no past or future, and my present was simplified into one feeling: peace.

By now, I could no longer see or feel my body separated from the ground; it had sunk too deep. I was almost completely absorbed. My face continued to fade and I was returned to nature with a euphoria that I had never before experienced. Suddenly, violently, I was yanked from the ground, uprooting grass and soil. My body returned to me and I was thrust upward into the sky. The tree branches tried to cling to me, and I to them, but the force was too great. I went wheeling into the sky, landing with a huge THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP in my ears. My throat, feeling constricted, opened, grasping at the air, as my chest filled and my head jerked. The artificial light stung my eyes so that I could only see shadows of people surrounding me. Something beeped nearby, and I heard relief in the voices around me. I shut my eyes in deep sorrow, and tried to recall the image of the forest, but it was gone.