I'm visiting Hawaii. I want to see the fire-fountains. Bike through a suburb. The top of a magenta fire-plume peers over the hill-shoulder. Steady climb up the slope toward the summit and a full view.

A bloom of red ahead. A house burning on the summit! Seems to be just the one, so I push on toward it, astonished and curious. Then I notice a heat-shimmer over homes and cars just blocks away. A cloud of scorching hot but invisible gas is leisurely advancing--an advance guard well ahead of the flames. Takes a while to ignite houses and gas tanks. But it takes far less heat to kill me.

I think "this is bad" and take a deep breath of normal air and turn round and try to coast my bike away, but it's already curling round me, an invisible over-affectionate cat, and my face and hands start to sting and I'm running out of breath. Soon I'll be forced to inhale that oven air. If it's even air, not poison gas.

I heard no sirens warning of danger; my curiosity seemed innocent enough.

But stifle or roast, now I'm going to die.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Tropical volcanic island, fire, deadly yet no warnings:
  1. When Lahaina on Maui burned, the emergency sirens never sounded; "mustn't cause panic." So over a hundred died.
  2. I just reread JW Dunne's famous nightmare predicting the eruption of Mt. Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique. In his dream he warned the island's authorities, but was ignored. But here, I'm the one who ignores warnings.
• Fires; hot gas stings hands & face: for over a week I've had little mystery inflammations--ear, fingers, gums. Woke with a new one at the corner of my right eye. But hey, ignore that heat-shimmer...
• Suburban homes destroyed: today I helped take my friend Alder home from a post-surgery clinic in Pacifica. Across the street, whole rows of homes have fallen in the sea--rising water and rougher surf caused slides. We see the signs of global warming, yet don't heed them.
• ACTION: These inflammations warn of real danger. Quit overworking! Back off... or die.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sh - Si-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites