Morning light was on the tent when we awoke. No surprise there since the sun rose around 5am. As usual Emil was up long before me. Truth was he had to wake me every morning. What can I say? A growing boy needs his sleep. In my case he also tends to be as lazy as the moment allows.
Uncle Emil had spent his quiet hour sipping coffee and churning over his dreams. Not always an easy thing to do.
"First I've to remember them. And that can take a bit of conjuring, rummaging around in the basement of memory. Open my brain up and see what pops out. Sometimes it's the smallest image that's the hook. Once I find the hook I can start reeling. Usually the dream fleshes out. Then I have to figure out what my dream is trying to say. It's like we live in two worlds. Each world speaks its own language. It's something like being awake in English and dreaming in Russian. When I'm awake I do things. My dreams give me hints why."
"When I was younger I figured dreams were just so much gobbledygook. Then I had one that caught my attention. Snapped me awake in a panic of fear. Bothered me so much I figured it must be trying to tell me something. That's when I started to learn the language of my dreams through trial and error. I've gotten better at it but am more like the three blind men trying to describe an elephant than I should be. One thing is for sure, my dreams only deal with my life and the images my dreams choose only mean something to me. All those dream books at the book stores are just so much crap. A man has to take his dreams seriously and figure them out himself."
"From what I recall of last night's dreams, both involved water. So that's good. In one I was doing my best to net some flying turtles. Like the little ones that sun themselves on logs back home. Nice to see but they sure ain't fish. I usually check them out, smile and paddle on. But flying turtles, that's something special. Rare even. Worth stopping to see something that unusual. The thing was, I didn't want to be netting them. Figured in my heart I should just let them fly but was scooping them up because other people wanted me to. Even though I felt it was wrong, I was still netting away."
"In the other part, one of us caught a huge lake trout. Probably thirty-six inches long. I measured it with a twenty-seven inch ruler. Who in the Sam Hill has a twenty-seven inch ruler? Well I had one and it wasn't long enough to measure the whole fish. I recall saying the ruler was nine inches short. Don't know if it was me or you who caught the trout. But it was sure one fine fish glinting away in the sunlight. So those are my dreams and they've told me what to do."
Best I could come up with was, "Huh? I don't get it."
Emil went on, "The way I see it the turtle dream is about me. And I'm not going to net any more. Once in a while a man has to take a stand. Do what he feels is right and not be bent by what he's expected to do. In my gut that means I'm done fishing on this lake. Doesn't matter all the work we've put into this trip. Most would say a man would be a fool to come this far and put down the rod. But that's okay. If I want to feel good about myself I can't throw another lure in this lake even if it's only me and you who know. But I will feel just fine if we spend a few more days here."
At the sound of those words my heart stopped and my jaw dropped. Done fishing? Say it ain't so Uncle Emil.
"On the other hand Archie me lad, you're not by any means done. There's lessons to be learned out on the water. Maybe big ones. Dream fish are all about seeing the truth and one of us has to catch that three footer. I feel it's my job to help you out. Put you in the right places and let you cast 'til your arm falls off. Deal?"
My sigh of relief put a smile on Emil's face.
"By the by, not that I put much stock in numbers, but twenty-seven is three times three times three. Three to the third power. The fish was three times three times four which figures to thirty six inches. The ruler was three times three inches short. That's a lot of threes. And one four. And it's the four, the lake trout, that maybe gives completion to all the threes. Sometimes dreams are too weird for me. And something to chew on while we're out on the water. Like I said, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to dreams."
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