Visions in the Dark

I am walking through the neighbouring backyards towards my parent's house. As I get closer to my parent's backyard I see that there is a large, suspended wooden and rope bride that goes back into a vast forest behind their house. The forest is like the one that existed there when I was a kid but this one isn't small and continues far out into horizon, what would in reality the rest of the city, now untouched wilderness. The day is bright and warm and their is a clear blue sky. It is close to the end of summer and some of the trees are starting to change colour and drop their leaves.

At the foot of the bridge is a pack of wolves play fighting with each other. They are not small but seem not quite adults yet. There are about five or six wolves and they are wide varieties of colours. One wolf is almost completely white except for a patch of black on his face and left side. One wolf is completely black. One wolf is kind of brownish grey and the rest were grey and white. I have the sense that there are several species of wovles present, but they run and play together as if they were one pack, one family.

A few of the wolves take notice of me but do not approach or make any hostile gestures but seem nervous. I think that it is so cool that not only is there an endless forest behind my parent's house but there are wolves living in it. The wolves stop playing and gather into a circle with their heads pointing in. I hear one of them say something in a strange mix of wolf growls and human speech, but the sound wasn't horrible nor hard on the ears. It was almost musical. When he is done talking all the wolves look up at me, then back at themselves, then back at me (which kind of freaks me out a little) before suddenly turning towards the bridge and running along it into the forest.

Almost at the same time many people arrive with cameras and binoculors, from around front of my parent's house, and ask where they can find a newly released pack of wolves. They are tourists and they want to see the wolves in their new home. I suddenly feel very protective of the wolves and demand that the people get out of my backyard. I feel that they will not be able to survive if tourists are allowed to disturb their privacy all year round. I have the overpowering urge to run down the bridge and try to catch up with the wolf pack. I do not get on the bridge right away but wait until all the tourists are gone. I do not want any one to follow me.

When it is safe I start running along the bridge and it twists and turns through the thick forest. I run for some time but do not seem to get tired no matter how fast or far I run, but running on the bridge is difficult because it sways and rocks quite a bit and I do not want to fall off of it (even though it is suspended, it actually is not that far off the ground). After a while a small clearing appears and the suspended bridge comes to and end at a small wooden stair that leads down to the ground and to a wooden boardwalk that continues on into the forest. My unlimited endurance disappears and it is now very tiring to follow this path. I continue on along the boardwalk anyway and as I walk I pass or am passed by all sorts of people dressed for autumn hiking.

I suddenly become aware this forest is a national park. The wolves being reintroduced is a big deal or something because it is the first project of it's time (to reintroduce wolves into the wild so far south in Ontario) but the reason why most of my home town has disappeared and been replaced with a forest is not revealed in the dream and I am confused as to why the edge of the national park is literally in my backyard. Why is it so close to the edge of the city? I walk for a while and the boardwalk comes to an end. A well worn path in the earth continues on for a bit before splitting into two directions at the bottom of a steep hill. The path leading right circles around the hill along a marshy lake or pond. The left path is straight up the steep hill and over. I choose the path on the left because there are less people on it and it seems to lead back into the nature reserve. I am still hoping that I can find the wolves, though I start to feel that I am doing exactly what I want to save them from: constant disurbance of their privacy. I come to at what I first thought was a clearing but turned out to be the sudden end of the forest. I walk out into a parking lot for visitors to the national park. The sun is begining to set.

The parking lot circles around the north park of the park and comes to an octangular tower, beyond which is a soccer field and a rose garden combination. There are many people standing around a fountain in the right side of the field. The fountain is covered with a rose bush that has large, bright red roses on it. The vividness and beauty of the roses seems to contrast the unusually large black thorns hiding underneath the flowers. I walk through the feild and on the other side is a street with houses along it. I see the pack of wolves running up the street towards an overpass that has a large drainage pipe that leads along the ground back into the nature reserve.

I try to catch up with the wolves but they run into the drainage pipe. The wolf that is white with black patches watches me for a moment, like he is waiting for me to catch up before taking off into the pipe as well. I reach and enter the drainage pipe and find that there is ankle deep water and debris. I cannot see the end of the tunnel but parts of it are lit up by light shining through sewer grates along the top. The dream becomes fuzzy and I do not remember exiting the pipe but somehow I end up in the forest behind my parent's house near the suspended wood and rope bridge.

I run along it again, and when it reverts to a path through the forest, this time it leads to an field beside a large cliff. On the side of the cliff is a glass display case containing a minature representation of a city which is labelled "Old London" and I know it is refering to my hometown of London, Ontario.


I cannot remember anymore of this dream.