“Sure look, wasn’t it grand, and didn’t it all work out?”

DREAM the LION: Our Roots

Article from “Dream the Lion” website
under “About Us.” September 20, 2024

Dalliah Daugherty hears a tentative knocking sound. She is mid-flight in lighting a cigarette. It’s a drisly afternoon on February 22, 2011. She listens carefully to see if it’s the Great Spotted Woodpecker, drumming on the woodshed. The knock comes again. She grabs a shawl, stubs the Sweet Afton into an ashtray, and approaches the front door. She unhitches the latch.

“All right, all right, I’m coming!”

She opens the door. A blast of cold salty air swoops in. “If you’re asking on behalf of the wounded vets, I already gave.”

“Hello,” says a rumpledy man in a well worn raincoat and tartan brellly. He doffs his wet hat. “Mrs Daugherty?”

“The same. Who the hell are you?”

Almost inaudibly, he croaks, “Jordy Fraser.”

“So?”

“I’m here to apologize.”

“What bloody for? Oh blazes, you must come in then, we’re going to get a fright of cold. The downpour made you drookit, it did. In with you.”

“Dinnae fash yersel,” he mumbles.

“Off with your shoddin and slicker.” She gets out of the way while he shakes off his boots and coat, like a border collie. She shuttles him in front of her, making Get on with it! motions behind him.

He sits in a chair and looks at his boots. He watches light glinting off the rivulets he left behind in the entry.

“Mr Fraser, luvvie, you must make a start. Reeling in the Years is coming to the apex.”

She re-lights the ciggie, and takes a deep drag. She blows the smoke in his direction to see if there is a flicker of response.

“Mr Fraser, I am going to set a timer.”

“No, Mrs Daugherty, that won’t be necessary. I am here to make amends for pilfering your idea.”


“Which one? I’ve had thousands. Pilfering is a pleasantly archaic term, my dear.”

“It was the interview with ITV where you mentioned your inspiration for calling the main character Cordilia. Not, you said, from MacBeth, but from The Godfather. That the Corleone family name is from Coeur de Lion, as in “Richard Coer-de-Lion” and that the same thugs, who pillaged and ravaged across huge swaths of the Holy Lands and…”

“You mean the Grand Inquisitors and the Crusaders.”

“The exact ones!” Mr Fraser is hitting his stride.

“Cut to the chase, Jordy lad.”

“Well, I submitted this to a contest called I’ll bet you never knew this! and I won!”

“Congratulations, love, I hope you put your winnings to a good cause.”

“That’s just it—I won the Grand Lottery.”

“After taxes rounding off to….”

“16 million pounds.”

“Smashing! What did you do with it?”

Breathlessly he expulses, “I’m frae Inverness. I’m senior bookkeeper at Strathbairn, Locherby and Mullion. Initially I thought of tucking the funds into…”

“The short version, please, Mr Fraser.”

He swallows the wrong way which induces a coughing fit. In a raspy voice, he manages, “I invested it in bit coin and it doubled in size.”

“Jordy, Mr Fraser, I am neither investor, nor psychic. I can’t help you there.”

“I came to make amends. I had a dream.”

Dalliah Daugherty, world-famous novelist and humanitarian, sighs.

“Oh, Great Odin’s Raven! The finale of Reeling in the Years consigned to the dust bin. At least it wasn’t about the year 2007.” Bowing inwardly to reality, she switches off the telly with a flick of the remote.

“You had a dream. Was I in your dream?”

“Well, ae! Yes, you were! Or, no, not exactly.” Jordy starts to cough again.

Daillah leaves the room, commenting, “I’m getting you some water, Jordy. Swallowing water is easier on your throat than hacking. Take some calm breaths, that’s it. Back in a dash. ”

She draws two large glasses of water, collects some chocolate digestive biscuits into a dish, and places them into the pass-through to the sitting room. She is too unsettled to make tea. Anyway, water clears the fuzz from her brain better than Barry’s.

Jordy gratefully takes the glass of water. After a few minutes’ hiatus, he has lost steam. “I’m fair scunnert,” he croaks.

Dalliah urges him on: “You had a dream. It was both about, and not about, me.”

“Ach, aye! Aye, aye. I’m in a bank vault, the one like, under the Royal Bank of Scotland. But it’s a prison, and you are behind bars. Bars of gold. You are saying, Let me oot! Le me oot! And you’re not even Scottish, you’re Irish. But you say it with a Highland brogue.”

Dalliah is blowing large smoke rings and smaller ones into the larger ones, towards the ceiling.

“Mr Fraser, do you subscribe to the Jungian theory that dreams are not about external persons, but aspects of ourselves?”

“You think the dream represents my inner Dalliah Daugherty? Trying to get out from the prison walls of the bank?” He receives an angular eyebrow raise and appreciative nod.

“Well, yes. Delila and excira! Are you a dream interpreter in your spare time from the firm?”

“I have my wee avocations. Dreams characters are not always self-referential. And there are prophetic dreams. Now, I’ve crossed the North Channel, in this dreary dreich weather, to deliver my realization.”

“Specifically?…”

“Since the Coeur de Lion idea was yours, and the source of my windfall, I propose to dedicate half (or some percentage agreeable to you) to the charity of your choice.”

“Of all bright gusts through the winter door! That’s a corker of an idea! Good on you! Right then, Mr Jordy Fraser lad. Since you’re after taking ideas and making them into mountains of gold, here is an idea. I hereby proffer it without strings. I suggest 49.1 percent of your original winnings go to a pet project of mine. It’s not yet seen the light. But with your evident proficient Protestant Ethic and the Spirt of Capitalism, I know you are the champion to make it happen. I mean that in the fondest way, Mr Fraser. I adore my Scottish cousins.”

“Wait a moment Mrs Daugherty, can I make notes on your computer?”

Her dream scheme was to build a recovery center in the Scottish Highlands. In a huge estate or hotel with a view of the Moray, Buelly, or Cromarty Firths. With 50 rooms minimum—each with its own bathroom, view, and on-demand hot water. Plumbing fit as a fiddle and fit for a queen. Basement, first story and second story only. At least 3,000 acres of wild land. Six kitchens, 2 in the basement, 2 on each floor. Each bedroom with its own sitting room. Seven living rooms. Views from all windows and natural light in all kitchens and bathrooms. Sea loch to the west, fresh water loch to the south. Meadows for horses, outbuildings in good condition. One unit a combination of Combat Stress and Men’s Workshops, Scotland. The Peaceable Kingdom compound, a forever home estate for dogs, horses, children, veterans, and laid off factory workers. Art and crafts studio open 24 hours a day. Well lit, spacious well heated cottages for all the employees. Non-denominational chapel open 24 hours a day. Free for all participants, in perpetuity.

Jordy Fraser and Dalliah Doherty became great friends and a potent philanthropic partnership. His wife had died in 1999, and she had never married. They became well respected, beloved members of the Highland community. Jordy Fraser retained his clerkship at Straithbairn, Locherby and Mullion until he turned 70. After that he indulged in a passion for the archeology and geology of Western Skye.

Dalliah edited several volumes of Jordy’s ruminations and discoveries, which are part of the Natural History section of Dream the Lion’s extensive regional library. When Jordy Fraser died in 2022, he left all of his considerable savings to Dream the Lion Recovery Village.

In 2023, Katie Knobwell, granddaughter of Andrew Carnagie, paid a visit to Dream the Lion Recovery Village, at its founding home in Cairnness in the Black Isle. She brought a photocopy of a document written in her great grandfather’s handwriting. In it he described hopes to fund a center for healing and restoration for people and animals wounded by “the slings and arrows” of modern life. She was certain her great grandfather Andrew Carnagie would be delighted that a refuge such as this was planted and grew roots so close to the Carnagie family estate at Skibo Castle.

Dalliah Doherty is still alive, and was last seen applying for a visa to Bhutan as a gift to herself for her 101 birthday on 22 Sept 2022.

And this completes the origin story of the internationally admired “Dream the Lion” Recovery Village. Serving underserved communities since 2014.

“Sure look, wasn’t it grand, and didn’t it all work out?!”