Big Time Truckin'; True Trucking Stories
Dispatch 14: The Dream About Julie's Planes
by Kirk Gonnsen
I was in my sleeper in Columbus and I dreamt of Julie - a girlfriend almost a
decade removed from my mind.
I dreamt of Julie lying on a bed. Pretending to sleep. Her nakedness under the
sheet. I turned away from problems, fears and regrets. I turned and kissed her
lips. She said that he.. 'some man,' would not marry her.
I asked her to marry me. She said yes, and we kissed again. I laid on the bed,
pulling her into my arms, making love, kissing, the warmth from her body.
Her father came in afterwards. He was very old, and said very little, in fact he
said nothing so I thought he might be mute or senile. He had shown his love for
her in the many gifts of toy wooden planes. The type you have to put together
yourself. They are made from Balsaam wood. Light as air - almost. Julie had
shelves full of them. She tossed them around during the times we made love, and
as we talked about going away together.
As I helped her pack, I found that every drawer was full of these wooden planes.
She had nothing else. Only the bed, the white sheet she was under, and a room
full of toy planes.
Her father was going to give us his blessing, but in the middle of opening his
mouth to speak, to say goodbye to his daughter, he saw, in an open drawer, a
plane-kit that had not been built. It was a very simple glider. A training
glider - it said so on the wings and right there on the front of the package.
'Your first plane.' She had not built it. Her father was quickly saddened. He
opened the kit and began putting it together.
Mumbling aloud the reasons why she hadn't built this plane. Julie sat far away
on her bed, pulling her knees up to her body. We both watched as her father
built the glider.
He finished building the plane and suddenly he spoke and said that 'its
simplicity was its uniqueness. It had very little style but you would always be
more impressed when it flew.'
And it flew beautifully. He tossed the little wood glider into the air and it
circled around the room twice and landed softly at my feet. I picked it up and I
awakened from my dream.
I looked out my truck window and I saw that the sun was setting behind the
Walmart on I-23.
