I have to tell you about this dream I had. What is strange is that it felt so real, so vivid.

I dreamed I was living in this real nice, small college town that was mostly rural, with a village center that was not yet overgrown. I lived in a modest house near the village, similar to the one I live in, in real life. I remember I was happy in the dream, and everything seemed fine.

But then things started to go wrong. Weird things. It’s like suddenly, in subtle ways, I was starting to live in a “Twilight Zone.” The drinking water in my well started to smell funny, and then to taste bad, too. My pets started to get these tumors that weren’t visible at first, but I noticed them when my cats began acting tired and I was paying more attention. Then, this distant drone, which became more and more annoying and never seemed to stop, began to make me feel moody and irritated a lot of the time. There was also this repetitive banging and obnoxious grinding and booming traffic noises that seemed to be all around me, both day and night. And the air now smelled bad, too.

I started feeling a little sick myself, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Others around me were acting like everything was fine, but I couldn’t get anything to go back to normal again. Everything about my home and my neighborhood felt contaminated, but no one else acted like anything was wrong. In a fight-or-flight effort to save myself from the madness, I took off, running like lightening down the street, only to realize I could suddenly fly. That’s when I could see in the not-too-distance this expanse of rock quarry and an asphalt plant in the middle of my tranquil, now heavy-industry community. It dawned on me that this was the cause of the changes that were happening around me, and that I might not be crazy after all – when I was startled awake by this huge diesel gravel truck that downshifted in front of my bedroom window again.

What a relief! It was only a dream! What is strange is that it felt so real, so vivid and so possible. Could something like this really happen in my town?

Donna Waterman

Gorham

490-8411 (wk)