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Dream Deja Vu

I have been a duck hunter my entire life. It must be in my genes as I came from a family of waterfowl hunters. I have often dreamed about hunting ducks in the Florida Everglades, imagined the thrill of hunting ducks in the midst of overhanging trees. The ducks have many places to fly where the shot is not going to be able to hurt them. It has to be some of the fastest and trickiest duck shooting available for any hunter. It would challenge the best shooter, a very tricky hunt, better than Arizona quail!

Out of a clear blue sky my job presented the opportunity of a trip to Florida. I never thought anything about my job when I got the news, or what I was being sent there for. The first thing that came to my mind was a duck hunting trip in the Everglades. When I arrived in Florida and got checked into my hotel. I had everything ready for the work I was expected to do at our company headquarters on Monday.

I realized I had the whole weekend to myself. I started looking in the phone books for hunting areas and found there were numerous places I could go duck hunting. Some were private but there was much federal wetlands available for all hunters to use. I am rather tight with my money so decided against paying some hunting club a few hundred dollars to take me duck hunting.

Friday night I rented myself a little boat to carry on top of my Jeep. At first light I was waiting at the area on the map that I decided to check out first. It had a uncanny, very familiar look to it as the sun was rising. My mind was flashing pictures of the entire place like a high speed slide show but I had never been there before? That place was enchanting, beautiful yet bizarre.

I unloaded the boat and started heading out into the swamp, there were many small creeks and tributaries all flowing to the south. There seemed to be ducks flying almost everywhere and no other hunters in sight. I paddled my boat for about half a mile and I came to a spot where the little tributaries all seemed to end at a small island. I could see there was a fairly large pond of water on the opposite side of this little island. I decided to walk across and do my hunting by the edge of the water on the other side, there were fewer trees to shoot around there.

As I started walking, a great horned owl let out one hoot, then watched me from high in a tree. The hair seemed to stand up on the back of my neck. I stopped quick, looked behind me and all around me, everything seemed familiar. I could not understand it, a very eerie feeling, an inner voice warning, beware. Strong feelings gripped me, as if I had been there before, I could not comprehend it, never felt anything quite like it.

I got ducks back into my mind and started walking across the island, telling myself a gator is not going to get me, the jeep is a half mile away, your not going to get lost. In front of me was a large darker colored area of mud near some Lily pads. It was just as if I had walked across that Lily pad area before. The more I thought about it, I came to realize, I have been here before, it was in my dream about duck hunting but I was confused about the ending.

My desire to start shooting ducks momentarily overcame the uneasy feelings conjured up from my dream déjà vu. I made about four steps into that darker mud and instantly started sinking in a pool of quicksand. Good Lord, this is the dream where I end up in the quicksand.

My cell phone is in my lower pants leg pocket, there is no way I can reach it as the quicksand is pushing and squashing my body. I was in a panic. How did I let myself walk into this trap? I now know it was set for me. Feebly, all I can come up with in my mind, why does it all end like this? I recognized the whole scheme dream, from start to finish. Why didn’t I turn back? I will not wake up safely in my bed this time.
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