The Great below

The Thames in Twickenham.



I dreamed in the night, probably more this morning than last night as I don't go to sleep until at least 3am every night. But I was standing above a rather large, brightly lit and very very deep swimming pool which was perfectly square. I was naked but warm and felt quite comfortable. It was dark through the windows that the pool was housed inside. I must have been about 100 feet above the surface of the crystal clear water looking down onto the small square which had other swimmers in already. I wasn't standing on anything solid but almost floating, suspended on some kind of invisible line. Without my wanting I was moving around over the pool in a random series of movements and just new that I had to jump. I was quickly deciding where & when to jump so as to miss the other swimmers, but just then I started to fall anyway! I began to build up speed all the while looking for a good spot to land. I heard the rush of air pass by my ears as my body built up more speed, almost deafening in it's strength, falling and waiting for the impending frozeness of the water as I would inevitably plunge into it. I was also terrified I might hit someone else! The other swimmers were completely unaware of the heavy danger that was about to fall into them. I didn't call out for them to move out of the way thinking that that might make things worse. But on the way down I learned that I could control my direction to a certain degree and land in a safe area. Finally I reached the water and disappeared under! The only thing was that I just kept going down! Deeper and deeper! I could see the surface and millions of tiny air bubble dragged down with me as I looked up and began to swim very hard to try to reach the surface. The water was very cold and clear and I was all alone down here and I could see the bottom approaching and the small square of the surface, swimmers and all when I looked up. All I could think of was wether I had enough air to reach the surface and breathe air again but I kept on falling deeper! I woke just as I started to struggle for breath. From where I was now, looked very similar to what the view had been just seconds earlier when I was standing above the pool. I must have drowned right there in the water!

Jason




(C) JPT 2006