Quite early in the morning yesterday, I found myself casually hovering beneath an impossibly clear blue sky, some feet above a vast expanse of even more beautiful blue water.

Before you start falling at my feet singing paens, making me offerings of flowers, and calling me a Divine So-and-So, let me clarify. It was in my dream. Yes, this is one of those posts about a dream of mine which fortunately for my readers (debatable!) I remembered clearly the next morning.

So…

There I was, hovering like I said, beneath a blue sky, over blue waters which stretched as far as the eye could see, broken only by tiny islands full of trees whose beautiful green canopies I could see from my vantage point above them. By the way, when I say hovering, think helicopter, of course minus the tail or even the rotating blades above. What brought a helicopter to mind was the ripples I was apparently causing in the water by my ‘hovering’.

Anyway…

I hovered here some, then there some by which I mean I was thoroughly enjoying my newfound power, sourced I know not from where, by happily flitting around. While thus engaged, a thought suddenly occurs to me, ‘What if…?’

Yeah. For those of you who are new around here, I am the quintessential ‘what if’ kind of person. Speculating ‘What if?’ on just about anything is kind of a hobby of mine. Hence it was no surprise at all that the next thing I knew I was wondering ‘What if I couldn’t keep up the hovering?’

The answer obviously is that I’d drop straight into the water. A worrisome prospect. Beautiful blue or not, said water would then swallow me up and send me straight to its depths, because you see, I cannot swim. Not even to save my life.

No sooner had the thought occurred than I noticed with horror that whatever the power was letting me soar, was running out of juice. Try hard as I might, I could not lift myself up any further. The beautiful blue water was slowly and surely getting dangerously close.

Right then I noticed with growing horror a group of sleepy looking ‘white’ crocodiles sunning themselves on a narrow strip of rock jutting out of the water. Some had their snouts open wide with needle sharp rows of teeth menacingly on display.

For a moment I wondered what the future held for me, a relatively peaceful end in a watery grave or a more violent end of being cut up by razor sharp crocodile teeth and sloshing around in their tummies.

Before long, the inevitable happened. Having lost steam completely, I had reached the water and went through feet first, right next to where the crocodiles placidly rested.

Instinctively, I grabbed on to the sides of the rock and tried to scramble up its slope, slipping and falling in the process, but finally making it to their midst. The commotion disturbed the crocodiles and fully awake now, fixed me with their baleful eyes.

By the way…

In my dream, I am never the same person as when awake which is actually a good thing. I am able to think on my feet and get answers on the go. No sooner had I frantically sought my next course of action – How To Save Myself From The Vicious White Crocodiles – all was revealed to me in a jiffy: “TICKLE THE DAMN THINGS!”

Huh? What? Really?! You think that’s wise? Them with their thick scaly body and all, where exactly do I look to tickle? What if they snapped my hand right off?

Of course I didn’t ask any of those. For all I know, you, you and you too might waste time asking those questions. Or even that woman, the What If Shail, who in her wakeful state is forever asking questions and looking for answers. But the Dream State Shail, ha! she is made of different stuff.

Wet through and through, and covered in mud and slime from head to toe, lying prone next to scary looking crocodiles, I didn’t hesitate one bit on my next course of action. I started tickling the nearest crocodile, and then the one on my other side and then another which came closer, and then another climbing over the other three to get to me.

Suddenly I noticed something. The damn things were smiling! And what’s this? The mean and skinny looking crocodiles were now all beginning to look plump and cheerful. Omg. What magic was this? Who knew crocodiles enjoyed tickling and could turn all chubby and cuddly?

Next thing I knew they were changing colours too. They now were grey and white, like the soft toys you find in shops. Some of them were on their back, showing me their soft white bellies to be tickled, their cute little legs waving in the air. Awww…..

Well. This is where I stop, though the dream went on some more, of how a boat full of people (smugglers actually!) found me, and ‘saved’ me. They took me to their home, where I pretended to be a simpleton who couldn’t put two and two together and arrive at seven. Yup, I am smart that way. In fact towards the end of the dream, even the L&M makes an appearance, having coming in search of his missing wife and I had to pretend not to know him for fear of putting him in danger with the mean gangsters. That would seem carrying things a bit too far. Right? 😉

©️ Shail Mohan 2024