Author: Decade Dream Journal

A Village and a Crime

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m visiting an old English village, the kind with pretty stone cottages. Unfortunately there has been a big fire and the buildings are all black and charred. I’m a BBC journalist and I’m walking around to assess the damage; I see the older villagers gathered under a tent, gossiping about the fire – judging by their clothes I’d say we are in the early 80s, they all look out of a Murder:She Wrote episode.

I walk to the local high school, where the teens are wearing corduroy bell bottoms and colorful vests, and ask to speak from the school intercom. Everyone gasps in delight when I start speaking: I’m a trained journalist, there is no mic feedback and my Ps simply don’t pop, they whisper pleasantly from my mouth.

I announce to the school that the BBC is gonna make a TV series about the village fire, and the revenue money is gonna pay for the reconstruction.

…after all, you have an award winning actress living here!

That’s right, Meryl Streep lives in this village.

Then I dream that my dad has agreed to work with a young man and woman to stop an underage prostitution ring. He’s talking with someone on the phone, another young woman*, he has my elementary school notebook open in front of him and he’s reading from it.

I’m very disappointed in him, I think he should talk to the police instead of believing these two people. And indeed they start acting crazy, the guy takes a saw and cuts his dog almost in half. There is no blood but I still cry in despair. The girl, who is his sister, patches the dog together with a long white gauze, and the poor animal seems as good as new.

*This is a person who IRL was arrested in my town a few days ago for selling out her underage sisters, so there’s an awful rage still fresh in my mind.

0

Hair Anxiety

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I need a haircut. My cousin and I go to a new salon, where we have to wait in line for a while. I finally get seated and the hairstylist asks me where I usually go to cut my hair, I’m embarrassed to admit I’m a regular somewhere else and try to change the subject. I can tell she is disappointed by my answer.

I explain I usually go very short with my hair, but I have a job now so I need to look more professional. The end result is awful, my hair is long in the front and almost shaved in the back; when I protest the hairstylist gets angry, cuts away another big chunk of hair and kicks me out of the salon.

I go back home really depressed because I look awful. I say at this point I might as well go bald. My cousin says she’ll do it, grabs an electric shaver and shears me like a sheep. I look in the mirror and cry.

0

Remembering a Romantic Trip

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

My penpal C. is visiting again, all my schoolmates are excited because she’s quite popular, apparently? I feel guilty because we used to be so close and now we barely talk anymore.

I find an old journal that describes a trip to Paris C. and I took together ten years ago. It was incredibly romantic, I’d even asked everyone at school to help me confess my love, and that’s why they are all so excited now, they still remember it.

I decide to recapture the magic by accompanying her to the airport, I tell her I’m so sorry she stayed so little. There are other Asian people at the airport, but we suddenly realize they are all robots and she’s the only human. She ‘s worried climbing up the ladder to the plane, she thinks everyone is gonna be racist because of Coronavirus.

It’s late evening and I’m walking down a street in my town. All along the street there are shelves upon shelves from a store that is closing up, a failing business, probably. I want to look through the shelves but I’m afraid it’s not allowed. Eventually I see among the other products a stand with stickers and I rush over: I don’t care if they’re not for sale, I want all the damn stickers!

0

Lonely

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m once again with Boss Lady and my cousin G. It’s a sunny day, we are in a garden and I’m presented with a square wooden drawer with a bunch of holes on each side. My job is to insert a socket wrench in every hole and rotate the wooden panels until a certain font is selected.

There are high school kids playing volleyball nearby. My cousin wants to join them, I remind her she’s an adult now and can’t compete with them. The kids are mocking me, I become very upset.

Back home my sister also teases me about the giant tree house I built, with a big green vine to make climbing easier. I’m still so upset I yell at her, and then yell at her boyfriend. I tell him he’s an asshole, he can see how my sister is treating me, how she’s treating her whole family and he never says anything to her.

Back in my room, alone, I start crying. I whisper to myself that I only yelled because I’m so lonely.

0

Pirate Ships and Washing Bins

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

My brother and I are watching a special DVD edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with two whole disks of extra content.

There is a deleted scene with Harry and Ron on a pirate ship. It’s a red and gold steamer with three black funnels, it’s smaller than a regular ship and it belongs to Captain Hook. Harry and Ron have been kidnapped along with other children, at twelve they are taller than the others so they try their best to look scared and innocent. I think it’s great to see them both so young again, it’s like going back in time.

More deleted scenes are shown, one is just a storyboard, one is really bad CGI, in one we see Harry from afar but it’s clearly a body double with glasses and gray hair. One scene is preserved only thanks to a couple of Indian voice actors in their booth, Hermione is too high-pitched but the boy playing Harry sounds remarkably like him. My sister catches us watching and says she’ll want to watch all the extras too when she comes back home.

I’m now at work, from my desk I can see inside my boss’ office because there is a closet missing, and apparently there never was a wall behind it. A customer is inside, I’m supposed to transfer her mobile data from her old umbrella to a new one. I ask my cousin for help and she tells me to use a standard cable.

Boss Lady walks out, demands to know why Saturday’s files weren’t archived. I promise her I archived everything I was given that evening and somebody must have hidden some files from me. Cousin G. gives me a new task, to wash our uniforms in a bin outside. I set to work in a sunny garden, and I wash with such gusto that I somehow end up drying the clothes as well. Boss Lady is even more impressed when I kill a mosquito that was walking on her neck.

I go back home and my sister is sitting on the living room floor. I’m really heartbroken because I was hoping she’d be gone forever.

I wake up and fall asleep again for a few minutes before my alarm rings. I dream about having to carry an old dying man to Hell. His wife is asleep in their room, unaware of what is happening. I take the man by the hand and we fly away, stars and building zooming behind us.

Once arrived to Hell, a demon cuts the old man’s penis off. He won’t need it anymore, the demon explains.

0

Magical Night at the Lake

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

My boss is giving out birthday presents, I knew it, I knew she was generous! One of my coworkers unwraps a black console, and I gasp: is it… a Playstation 2? No, it’s a cheap Made in China rip-off. I unwrap mine, there is an old SNES inside. I already own one, though! Not to mention, the Super Mario cartridge in it is fake.

On my way home I stop at the local toy store, I’m planning to buy some toys to entertain bored children at work*. I choose a wooden truck, a white plushie and pink plastic goggles. The man at the register says it’s gonna be 18 bucks, I’m taken aback because I only have 20 in my wallet. It should be 12, max! The man points out I’ve taken two pair of goggles instead of one. I confess I can’t pay that much money and walk out the store.

At home my dad is opening some boxes that were just delivered. Inside there are black-covered Penguin books for my brother, we tease him but he insists he won them. I pick up one, Anne of Green Gables, and decide to enter a contest with it.

The night of the contest I present an essay on the book alongside a cake inspired by it: it’s lemon cream, honey and cookies. There is a big ceremony happening in a hotel on Lake Como, and all my family came along. It’s a summer night, the hotel garden is green and glistening, all the guests are dressed fancy and laughing pleasantly. I want pizza so I venture outside, order some from an intercom outside a big yellow gate. More of my family arrives and I find out they are serving pizza at the hotel, I wasted my money. A movie is being showed in the garden.

(Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash)

I win the contest, alongside three more kids from around Europe. The morning after we are gathered for a photoshoot on the lake. I choose what to wear, gray pants and a gray waistcoat to go with it, I feel very elegant. My hair is red, short and unruly, it gets bushier and bushier with the humidity until I look like Annie Warbucks.

Each of us is given a sign saying our name, our age and the title of our essay. Mine says I’m 18, older than the other kids. We walk in the lake and are told to hold our signs up and smile the wildest, happiest smile. Our pictures are taken. I review them later and they are not bad, I’m jealous about the professional camera’s quality compared to my phone’s. There’s also a photo of the cake I baked perfectly framed against the lake.

I want to send some of these pictures to my penpal C., but I decide I look too bad. Not the ugliest, because with my puffy hair I look a bit like my Grandma, but I don’t want C. to think I’m anything else than gorgeous. Instead I write her about a chapter from Anne of Green Gables that I really liked.

In it Anne is sitting in a wooden train car with her mom and newborn brother. A black woman walks in with a little boy, who is crying because he was too late to enter the book contest. The woman is about to get mad, when Anne’s mom asks his name. “Chemical,” says the boy.

“Well, I’m not gonna call you that, it sounds like a pill.”

Anne’s mother tells him everyone is tired and sad sometimes, he just needs to take a deep breath. The boy’s mom is so moved hearing these words that she takes the baby from the other woman’s arms and start breastfeeding him.

*I actually want to do this IRL.

0

A detail

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

This is all I remember from tonight. I find an old VHS tape, something out of my childhood. I turn the tape in my hands, examining it: the label says “Disney’s Fire Truck”. I know I taped over it though, if I still had a player I would find Robocop and Home Alone 2. I reflect with nostalgia about a simpler time when I could just tape every movie I wanted directly from my TV.

0

Severed Sex

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

While channel surfing my family and I notice a church with a bell tower very similar to our city’s clock tower, tall and covered in reddish-brown bricks. I do some research and find out both towers were built by the same architect. The only difference are the colorful statues on the other city’s tower: they paid to have them painted, while ours are just simple brass.

Along with my siblings, I climb up a mountain road to see the tower from above. My boss is also there. From that far up we can even see the supermarket one city over, I’m confused because I’d never noticed it before. It was built recently, mi siblings explain.

I follow my boss to her villa, where I’m supposed to do some computer work for her. I point out that I’m gonna need two monitors, she reminds me she bought me a tablet and I can use. While we talk I try to subtly hint about my birthday coming soon, because I’m hoping she’ll get me a present. She’s a generous lady!

A young man bursts inside the house on a red fire truck. Boss Lady is appalled, so I assure her I’m gonna deal with it. I point out to the man that his father was here earlier today (also on a fire truck) to hook up with Boss Lady but had to come home empty handed. The man won’t listen to reason. He gets down the truck, leaves his penis neatly wrapped on a coffee table and goes to the living room to watch TV, saying he won’t leave until he’s satisfied.

Boss Lady’s secretary steps up, a thin blond man who looks almost ill. He says he’ll sacrifice himself for the good of the Company. An awkward hand job with the detached penis later, fire truck man emerges from the door with a big smile, declares himself satisfied, and leaves.

0

Space and Cooking

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m traveling on a cruise spaceship. A woman asks me why I’m not wearing a jacket – I think she’s supposed to be my grandmother, but she isn’t really. I tell her I’m not cold. It’s really cold in the ship and I’m clearly lying.

We arrive to a planet, start orbiting around it. An alien robot knocks on our glass door: he looks like something out of Futurama, tall and metallic, with a goatee that make him look like the devil, and four arms. The first thing he does inside our spaceship is turning the AC off, because it’s so cold. He tells me he used to pretend to be human, but has learned to accept himself. Then he goes back home, sits at his pipe organ and plays an evil song, which I think sounds very familiar.

Steven Universe exits the spaceship, and now my sister and I are watching him on TV. The planet’s ground is reddish brown, and the sky is purple. He buries some seeds: we know they are supposed to show his true love. A ghost-like projection of Connie Maheswaran emerges from the ground, and the real Connie looks at it confused. Steven blushes and runs away.

My dad is driving me to school. From the car window I see three people walking near the local park, two old classmates, both short with glasses, followed by Nicole Maines. I tell dad Nicole is a new student at my school.

I need to pass an entrance exam to start the new year: it’s a cooking exam, the teachers/judges are two Asian women. One is very nice, the other is extremely mean and keeps telling us we’re gonna fail.

I prepare two sandwiches, I put eggs, salad, shrimp and tomatoes inside. I find a shrimp oil bottle; it tastes rather strong, but just a few drops should be enough to give my sandwiches the right kick. The mean teacher notices this and tells me I’ve made the wrong choice and already sealed my fate. The girl sitting next to me smiles sympathetically; she is steaming something in a pressure pot and looks very flushed.

I bring my sandwiches to the judges, making sure to put the best looking one on the mean lady’s side. She immediately swaps it and takes the ugly sandwich. As she eats it, I realize with horror I forgot to put eggs in it, and indeed she gleefully tells me how bad it tastes. At least the other teacher seems to really like hers.

0