I was walking on a bridge over a river, in B. I knew the surroundings; they were the scenery where my childhood happened. I could even see the children of those times riding their bikes along the quiet road. But the bridge itself was different to what I remembered. Instead of flat, it was constructed as an elevated arch, in a way that, once in the middle of the bridge, I could see the horizon as I had never been able to see before.
From my knowledge of geography, and some famour landmarks, I could identify places and even cities, very far away.
I could see that I was facing East, not just by the position of the sun, but because I could see mountains and other landmarks that I knew from memory that were on the East from where I was.
However, my destination was M. or thereabouts, so at some point soon I needed to find a way of walking South. When people asked me, I would answer I was going to M. for shortness.
Not far away from where I was there is the railway to M. This does not trace an exact straight line from North to South in reality, but in my dream it did. So I just walked alongside the railway knowing that I was playing it safe, going straight South.
Again, against what it is in reality, the railway was in the bottom of a narrow gorge, and my path was more elevated, on the side of the mountain on one side of the railway. On the other side of it there was another mountain.
I had some one besides me I could talk to.
I told this person I would have expected the railway to have some bridges over it, to allow us to cross it and then be able to use the best available path. But on this railway there were no bridges. My friend’s response was that this was the country side, not the city where there is obvious need to cross the railway constantly, and even then, there are not enough bridges, and there are often parts in cities completely isolated from each other for a few miles just because there is a railway in beween.
I felt we were travelling very slowly. I could see the railway at the bottom of the ravine, and, in the distance because the railway was straight, a stopped train. I thought it would be faster to get on that train even though it seemed stationary, but I was sure it was only momentarily.
As we approached the train we realised it had just had an accident. Some of the wagons were off-rail. It looked awkward but the people fixing it did not seem too upset, it didn’t look like there were victims. It was just a severe delay.
We asked for permission and we got on the train, assuming, without asking, that the train was going South, and hoping that it would be soon.
Finally the train was fixed and started moving. As it gained speed, I realised in horror that it was going North, back to where we had set off from, not South. The train was already in full speed so all we could do was hoping for a train change once we got to the first station.
I settled myself on the train, accepting the conversations that were offered to me, regretting forever having gotten on this train trying to save some time. Still, I thought, even going back the miles we had walked, if we got on another train making sure it would go South, we would still be saving some time.
The train station where we could get off was huge. Finding a train that would suit us was messy, but at least we were on our way.