Leeland, the Epic Hero
There was a story in the University newspaper; “Black freshman assaulted at local bar.” Leeland would never read it, but it would be used as evidence in the university’s investigation into the incident. Local police also conducted an investigation, and the incident led to charges of a hostile environment for minority students on the predominantly white campus. There was a demonstration on campus led by the Reverend Al Sharpton that was hastily thrown together, though it was well attended and shut down the campus for more than a day. Leeland became an overnight celebrity as journalists detailed the story of a freshman from small town North Carolina who was raised in the foster care system and overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to attend a prestigious university, only to be met with racial hostility at an institution of higher learning.
Leeland missed all of this. He was in a coma for five days after he was pushed down the stairs at a bar. When he awoke, he learned of his fame and the money that was raised to cover his medical expenses. He was also delighted to learn that the people responsible for pushing him down the stairs were facing serious legal consequences and at least one had been expelled from school.
Leeland learned all of this from internet stories; he refused to see anyone after he regained consciousness and was able to sit upright in his hospital bed. He was very aware of everyone’s desire to hear him speak out on the incident, and he took his time releasing a statement so that he could record the experiences that he remembered very vividly from his dreams while unconscious. He had a very long and singular vision that he knew would inspire everyone and help them see him in the truly noble light that he deserved and he would not squander the audience that waited with baited breath for some news from him.
He would wow them all with the unparalleled fantasy that his mind had concocted while he lay struggling for life in the hospital bed.
During the five days that he was conscious, before his discharge from the hospital and before he spoke with anyone who wasn’t hospital personnel, Leeland penned the following epic.
The Dreamlands
1. The Fall
I remember intoxication, bliss at being my naked self and joy at telling truths to those who may not have been happy to hear them. Then, there was a hole, a vertical hole in the ground of a well-attended bar that must have appeared to ensnare me, to pull me down a long ways, away from that present and into the one that I was destined to know, far away from waking reality. I remember the long fall, and my limbs hitting against the jagged walls of the hole that must have been a well dug for water that was reinforced with rocks. I was falling away from a light, I plunged into darkness and assumed that I must be plummeting to my death at a depth that would obliterate my body regardless of whether the bottom contained water or not.
While I fell, I made peace with my maker, my sad mother who beat and misunderstood me, and taught me that I had no home in the south among people who looked like me. But I never hit a bottom, I simply fell from the darkness of the well that battered me, into the night sky of a land that looked truly spectacular from an aerial view. I could see a huge continent that existed alongside a great ocean. The land was deeply green and the sea was deeply violet, and both were dotted with bright lights as though I was seeing the stars in the land and sea. I approached the green mass of land quickly as I fell and though it seemed that I was plummeting to my death, I was eager to learn the source of the bright lights that swam over the landscape the closer I came. And then I fell into it, a mass of bioluminescent insects, and as I fell, a number of them collected under me and floated me gently to the ground.
I landed softly on a field of grass and stood in the swarm of glowing bugs. The landscape around me was breathtaking, warmly glowing and lit by the light of the bugs. There were hills of soft grass that gave way to what seemed to be mountains, and I moved through the grass over a hill until I came to a cliff that overlooked the violet water.
I assumed that I was the only human around, so I sat and spoke to the bright bugs. I think I spoke to them for hours, about my life and the struggles that I had persevered that made me such a strong and interesting young man and how happy I was for them to be in my acquaintance, for if they were to know a human man, they could not have asked for a better one to know.
I don’t know if they understood a word that I said, but after what felt like many hours, I stood and was surprised by a mass of the glowing bugs at my back. They must have gathered to hear me, but in their enthusiasm, the mass pushed me over the edge of the cliff and into the violet water.
The water was more chaotic than it appeared from a distance and I splashed around, afraid that I would drown, until I saw a white ship approaching. I flailed around as best I could, and yelled at the top of my lungs, praying that I would catch the attention of someone on board. But I felt myself losing strength, and I was losing hope that anyone would see me before I slipped below the surface of the water forever.
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