I had a dream

In this dream I was in an apartment building.

There was no elevator

only stairs.

Stairs that seemed to stretch for eternity.

As I walked these stairs,

with many others,

I came across an old man,

struggling,

pulling a mattress up the stairs.

As I watched those ahead of me,

I was shocked at what I saw.

A young girl pointed and laughed at the old man

as her mother pushed him aside.

A teenage boy pushed the old man to the stairs;

he slid down six stairs before

coming to rest.

As he sat there,

a very drunk man, holding a beer,

staggered to him.

I thought for a moment he was going to help the old man,

but instead

he pulled a jesters hat from his jacket pocket

and put it on the old mans head.

He pointed, laughing ,

as he walked away.

Many others laughed, 

as they too, simply walked by.

I saw the old man reach out his hand

to a teenage girl,

who was with another teenage girl, who was talking on a cell phone.

“Help me, granddaughter,” the old man said.

She hurried past the old man

waving her hands at him in disgust.

The girl on the cell phone asked

“Who is that-a?”

“I don't know,” the other teenage girl said,

“Some disgusting old pervert.”

The old man was now standing again.

He took one step.

Two tough looking young men approached him.

One grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the railing.

I saw him pull something from his pocket

and make a stabbing motion at the old man,

while the other tough looking young man 

took the old man’s wallet.

The old man clutched his side and slid back to the stairs,

as the two tough young men

hurried away.

One stopped near the mattress and pushed it back down the stairs.

It rolled end over end,

over the old man.

I put out my hands and stopped it. 

The stairs were now more crowded that ever.

People rushed past me,

past the old man;

no one even looked at either of us.

Now they were pushing me aside as well,

as I stood

supporting the mattress.

“STOP!”

I yelled.

Everyone on the stairs

stopped and looked at me.

Then they all disappeared;

leaving me,

the mattress

and

the old man, sitting on the stairs,

still holding his side.

I leaned the mattress against the railing

and hurried up the six stairs to the old man.

I gently took his hand from his side.

There was no blood.

“I am okay, young man,” he said weakly.

I helped him to his feet.

“I saw them hurt you.”

He shook his head,

“No, they didn’t.”

I shook my head,

“Why are people so cruel?”

He smiled again.

“Do not blame them. They don't know what they are doing.”

He began to walk the six stairs,

down to the mattress.

I stopped him.

“Let me do that.”

I walked to the mattress and lifted it.

It was light as a feather.

“You guide me for I cannot see.”

We walked six stairs and I heard him say,

“We are here.”

I leaned the mattress against the wall.

I looked behind me.

The stairs seemed to stretch for eternity,

downward.

I looked in front of me.

There was a landing

and a single door.

I looked up.

There was blue, cloudless sky,

a rainbow and a single white dove.

“Thank you, young man.”

I shook the old man’s hand.

“You are welcome.”

“Where do you go now?” he asked me.

I looked around.

“I don't know? Back down I guess.”

I looked back at him.

“What about you?”

“I am moving, leaving this place,” he said,

a sadness in his voice.

“I have given all I can give, done all that I can do.

I have nothing left.”

He shook my hand and smiled again.

“Good bye,” I said as I turned and headed back down the stairs.

“Young man,” he called.

I turned back to the old man.

“If you could have one wish, what would it be?

Riches?

Success?

Power? 

Women?”

I thought for a moment.

I shook my head

remembering

all that I had seen earlier.

The cruelty,

Lack of compassion,

Evil, Lies, Deception…

I finally said,

“I just wish that we would all get along.”

The old man opened the door

and pushed the mattress through.

He turned back to me for a moment.

“So do I, my Son. So do I.”

He closed the door.

I started down the stairs again.

Laughter filled the air.

I looked over the stair railing.

Flames were rising up from below.

April 16, 2014