I don't want to waste any more spells in anyone but myself

[sovay]

Most of last night's dreams were nightmares, but I think the last one before waking was just a metaphor. In the 1920's of an America where people who own land are bound to it like fisher kings, a young Black woman returns from Europe to claim the estate of her white ancestors whose legitimate line has just petered out—she's the only one left in direct descent now that her own parents are no longer alive, but the bindings of the land were maintained for so long by slaveowners and segregationists and just plain I'm not racist, but's that it keeps refusing her ritual and trying to bond to her distant white cousin, her traveling companion who is undiplomatically but accurately summarized with "He's a fifth-degree cadet branch and he's botched up everything else!" (He doesn't deny it.) I have a vivid memory of her walking the bounds of her land while a light like fireflies flares in her wake and small night creatures gather out of the grasses and the trees and yet she can't feel anything within the boundary as she's supposed to: the earth itself is on her side, the estate is not. I had no doubt she would find a way to claim her inheritance. I just didn't stay in the dream long enough to find out how she did it. This country hasn't answered the question, either.

Comments

[shewhomust]

Could you find out by writing it? I'd like to know more of this story!

[sovay]

Could you find out by writing it? I'd like to know more of this story!

I would, too, but I don't know if I'm the right person to write it!

[yatima]

This is one of the most powerful prophetic dreams I've ever heard.

[sovay]

This is one of the most powerful prophetic dreams I've ever heard.

Then I hope it's the right future.

[asakiyume]

Perhaps her and her cousin need to teach the estate--assuming the cousin understands and acknowledges her claim.

Or maybe the land, in accepting her, shakes off the notions of estate altogether. If we belong to the land--and in a profound way we do, right? Though many people don't recognize that and strive for mastery--so if we do, then the land tells us who it welcomes to it. Fall away, racist institutions!

[sovay]

so if we do, then the land tells us who it welcomes to it. Fall away, racist institutions!

I like that.

(Her cousin didn't challenge her claim; he had no interest in the estate as such. She'd picked him up somewhere on her travels, quite possibly doing the vagabond Lost Generation thing. I remember him as supportive but not all that self-starting. Definitely not a romantic interest. There might not have been one.)

[gwynnega]

What an amazing dream. Maybe you could turn it into a poem or story?

[sovay]

What an amazing dream. Maybe you could turn it into a poem or story?

I don't know! I think someone should.

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh! Seconding the 'I want to hear more of this story' comments.

[sovay]

Ooh! Seconding the 'I want to hear more of this story' comments.

Noted!

(Thank you.)

[selidor]

That's a story/poem that in writing itself, clearly needs to be further written. Sometimes the obvious metaphors are the ones people need to hear.

[sovay]

That's a story/poem that in writing itself, clearly needs to be further written. Sometimes the obvious metaphors are the ones people need to hear.

Thank you. I will see what I can do.

[swan_tower]

Chiming in belatedly, but I am another who very much wants to read this story.