Early this evening I napped an hour. It was still drizzling outside. Through the north window of my bedroom I could hear raindrops falling onto tin cans and aluminum basins stored in the rear, service passage. Two sounds were distinct, a regular, high-pitched clink-clink-clink-clink and a slower, heavier clunk...clunk...clunk...clunk... As I drifted off to sleep I envisioned two gnomes working in a forge located in the service passage. One of them was middle-aged and burly, with a bushy beard. The other was a slender young man, most probably his son. They had no shirts on but were wearing shiny, leather aprons. Their arms and hands were muscular and bare. I slowly rose from my bed and went out into the passage through one of the three doors of my room. That was the exact point, of course, when I was already asleep and dreaming.
The gnomes continued working and did not look at me, but I knew that they knew that I was there. Neither did I speak nor attempt to communicate with them. Their forge was directly below the stainless steel water tank at the back of the house. They were pounding with iron hammers on what looked like strange weapons or tools on tiny anvils. I'd never seen metal objects like those before, and I struggled to keep them in my mind so that I could remember them and make sketches of them as soon as I woke up. What was most amazing, though, was that their forge was a water forge. All it took was steadily falling rainwater to shape those enchanted weapons and tools.
I thought that the gnomes wanted me to see them at their forge. Watching them work industriously and tirelessly made me think of the fairy tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker". I wanted to ask them if they lived somewhere inside our house or somewhere nearby, but I still said nothing. I stayed awhile, then silently withdrew into my room.
Whenever I wake up from napping in mid-afternoon or early evening I always feel like a newborn baby. I feel that the dream I woke up from is a special dream, a gift of sorts from one of the many spirit worlds, and I feel obliged to record everything that I saw and experienced for others.
Whether they believe me or not.
The gnomes continued working and did not look at me, but I knew that they knew that I was there. Neither did I speak nor attempt to communicate with them. Their forge was directly below the stainless steel water tank at the back of the house. They were pounding with iron hammers on what looked like strange weapons or tools on tiny anvils. I'd never seen metal objects like those before, and I struggled to keep them in my mind so that I could remember them and make sketches of them as soon as I woke up. What was most amazing, though, was that their forge was a water forge. All it took was steadily falling rainwater to shape those enchanted weapons and tools.
I thought that the gnomes wanted me to see them at their forge. Watching them work industriously and tirelessly made me think of the fairy tale "The Elves and the Shoemaker". I wanted to ask them if they lived somewhere inside our house or somewhere nearby, but I still said nothing. I stayed awhile, then silently withdrew into my room.
Whenever I wake up from napping in mid-afternoon or early evening I always feel like a newborn baby. I feel that the dream I woke up from is a special dream, a gift of sorts from one of the many spirit worlds, and I feel obliged to record everything that I saw and experienced for others.
Whether they believe me or not.
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