The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin’ through the mountains of a night, goin’ through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and snowin’, hard ridin’. Hard country. He rode past me and kept on goin’. Never said nothin’ goin’ by. He just rode on past and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down, and when he rode past I seen he was carryin’ fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it, about the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin’ on ahead and that he was fixin’ to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. Then I woke up.
-No Country for Old Men
That was my dream. My iPhone hadn’t even started going off, yet somehow I had woken up. How strange, Kate says I sleep like a hibernating polar bear that had been chloroformed. I flipped on Mr. Coffee, and went to start the shower. I paused with my hand on the faucet. Shaking my head, I tried to make sense out of that dream. I hadn’t thought of, or seen my father in years. He was as distant to Kate and I as he could be. An icy sensation prickled my leg hairs until they stood straight up, running up my body until I had goose bumps on my arms. Stepping into the scalding shower, I put aside thoughts of my father and began thinking about the most important presentation of my life.
Today was The Day. I was presenting a new corporate strategy to the board. I had spent the last year creating, revising and testing phases of this new strategy. It represented a sizeable investment on the company’s behalf, mostly in me. Today I had to prove that I actually did something to earn their money. I kept going through the presentation in my head, but every time I got to a critical point, my father’s face, lit only by fire, interrupted my thoughts. Why couldn’t I focus? I couldn’t even finish tying my tie; Kate had to help me. How sweet she is. Why did I have this feeling that it was real, what I saw had actually happened. I mean it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, my dad lived in bumfuck-nowhere north Texas. He had a couple of horses, but why did I—
My face stung from where Kate had slapped me, ain’t she sweet? She told me I needed to concentrate and not go all glassy-eyed. I’ll be damned if I let her down. Finally, I slipped on my Omega, grabbed my iPad, gave Kate a quick peck on the cheek and headed to meet my (bread)maker.
They were staring at me, my presentation was over and their poker faces didn’t give me any hints. What was I doing here? Why did I care about their friggin’ corporate strategy? Was it going to solve any of the problems in the world? Hell no, it was a shitty company, and a shitty concept. I had just wasted a year of my life, servin’ these buffoons. Without another word I stood up, and got the hell outta there.
My flight to Dallas was only a couple of hours, but that gave me plenty of time to download a map and GPS app on my phone for the area around pa’s ranch. I remember from the dream he was up in the mountains, but I had no idear where. I figured, shoot, maybe he was just sittin’ at home with his damn dogs. He’d prolly just shoot me before I even got to the doorstep. But I knew that was wrong. That dream had happened.
The ranch house had been empty, the dogs was gone, but one of the nags was still in the stable. I saddled her up and rode east towards the mountains. My phone givin’ me a map of the area. ‘Bout a mile from the first rock crag the phone just flickered and died. Couldn’t tell if it were outta battery or somethin’ just blew it out. I threw it away and kept goin’. The sun started to go down behind me, the last rays were bahtin’ ‘tween the lumpy summits of the range. No hesitation at the first fork, left was the way; it was lighter. I looked at the watch, but the hands had frozen. I tossed it away and kept the nag walkin’. The first flakes of snow brought goose bumps to my bare arms, and the nag walked on.
The blizzard was hollerin’, I couldn’t see but ten feet in front of me. I still followed that light, left, right, left, left, right. I loosened up my tie and tossed it to the ground, useless piece of shit. Looking down at where I had tossed the tie, I noticed pa’s blanket. Looking back up I was in a clearin’. Peak to my left, peak to my right but in the center of this little valley was the light. The horn and the fire. My pa.
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