Tag: children

Dreary Neverland

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

(I forgot to post my notes yesterday but here’s April 25th entry)

I’m watching Steven Universe, now it’s a Disney Peter Pan sequel, it has beautiful songs. Peter has a new origin story, he was a Greek child who drowned thousands of years ago, and the Powers that Be want to drown every lost boy on the island to make them go home.

The oldest boy, who’s a world-hardened rebel, locks himself up in a shed. Emma Pillsbury is also there, she tries to talk him out if it, but he grabs a rusty saw and cuts off his fingers, one by one. Then his whole hand, then the other. I have to look away. Ms. Pillsbury grabs Fairy Grandmother’s wand and magics the two of them out.

The boy without hands learns that he’s been on Neverland for centuries and his family is gone by now. He is transported back to London, to a dreary little funeral in a dark day. Only a little girl notices him standing between the tombstones. He can see all the ghosts and cuddles with them.

I’m on the balcony and I notice my cat inside another building. I call her and she jumps out of a window, bounces on the ground like a rubber ball and with a supernatural jump lands in my arms.

I run to my mother to tell her, she’s not impressed. We go out, I walk in the middle of the road because I’m afraid of dogs barking from behind their gates. We reach a street market that only sells food because everything else is forbidden during lockdown, I see an old lady that from behind looks exactly like my late Grandma G.: I touch her shoulder, she turns around and she has a big nose and pointy yellow teeth.

0

Nonsense Potter

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m watching a new Harry Potter TV adaptation, the actors are adults pretending to be children and the whole thing is rather irreverent.

In the episode I’m watching Harry wants to travel to a parallel world Hogwarts, so he transfigures himself into a woman to play an excellent prank on the other students. Now he has blue hair, tattoos and a fake tan; he shows his breasts proudly to Ron, and Hermione has to remind him he’s supposed to be eleven. Female Harry is a success at parallel Hogwarts, all the boys and even a few girls fall in love with him. He travels back home on his motorbike, on the highway he sees flying cars and laughs gleefuly.

Another episode starts, Harry and the gang are playing outside on the Hogwarts grounds when they find a strange emblem. They rush to the library, up in the highest tower, and place the emblem on the cover of a certain book: Harry has a vision of Voldemort, sees him talking to his Death Eaters around a table in a dark room. Voldemort realizes he’s being watched and orders Snape (who is a woman) to go get the children.

They run but it’s too late, Snape is already at the library door. Dumbledore apparates in the room and whisks everyone away to safety, the whole scene lasts only a few seconds and it’s quite exciting. In the commotion Mad-Eye Moody falls off the tower and crashes next to the maze, but he doesn’t die.

0

Mysterious Pastries and Paper Hells

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

We have a new kitten in the house, she’s honey-colored and real cute, I try to take pictures but my little sister is always in the way. I’m the middle one of three young sisters with long brown curls.

My old priest comes by to talk us into coming back to church, I’m not home but my two sisters are in their room, already tucked in bed. The older one, who’s about sixteen, asks him for takeaway pizza money, the house has big windows and a mother passing by is scandalized to see the priest bending over a bed, giving money to a half-naked teen. The older sister blackmails the priest into giving her more money because, she threatens him, she took pictures and she’ll release them! The parents come home and she quickly hides a photo album.

Meanwhile I’m in town, it’s a gray, rainy day and a guy named Peace texts me: he wants to meet at a certain pastry store. His coworker demands to know why, she’s a blonde woman with an 80s perm walking next to me. I google the name and find out it was some sort of… fairy tale themed place? My great aunt D., who’s also there, reveals that the store burned down months ago, maybe the guy would like to go to (she points) that pink donuts stand instead?

The truth is, the pastry store has reopened in a new, secret location that only great aunt D. knows, there is a hidden clue embroided with a red thread in her white shirt sleeve. She refuses to show us the sleeve, and later when she’s filming a Youtube video she CGIs it out, just to spite us. Her pettiness doesn’t work because I find the store on my own and I follow her to the nearby sea town just to rub it in her face.

There are too many people around, a crowd cheering on a parade. I try to get away but people surround me, a girl laughs in my face and I yell to keep her germs away. I can’t find my way home.

Now I’m a little boy, and I’m lost, my parents and two sisters have been searching me for years. I walk and walk until I can see the coastline, there are lions on the beach. Eventually I arrive in some sort of carnival town where everything is made of colorful papier-mâché. My family find me as I walk on a stage that is literal hell: there are paper flames and a paper Devil, blond with piercing blue eyes. He recognizes my older sister, the one who took pictures of the priest and is now a prostitute, and tells her she’s doomed.

I offer myself in exchange for her soul. The Devil lifts me by the armpits, looks into my big, childish eyes and can’t find a trace of sin in me. We go back in time and my sister is a pure young girl again, riding her bike with a purple helmet and a big smile.

0

I’m As Confused As You

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m watching “The Favorite”, it’s set in modern times and I’m so engrossed I feel like I’m also physically in the movie. In the first scene I’m walking in town and holding hands with Noémie Merlant: she is wearing black pants and her hair is short, she’s so beautiful. She whispers sweet nothings in my ear, I’m so happy I could faint.

We stop at a large fountain and she steps in and out the basin. It’s only for a few seconds, but I know − because I’ve read the plot of the movie − that during those seconds she lived for several hours in a parallel universe. Rebel Wilson is with me because apparently she’s gonna be my sidekick. She also steps in the fountain and I follow her.

Rebel and I walk into the new reality and I see around me signs of Noémie’s presence, like a wooden house that she obviously built. Olivia Colman arrives to greet us, she is a Good Queen and her hair is short and curly. She smiles at me and calls me “lover”.

We find a new fountain and jump to yet another reality: in this one Olivia Colman is Evil, long haired and she eats children. I also happen to be a little boy now, I’m no longer watching a movie but reading/living through a story book. I manage to appear back in my town for a moment, where I float in front of Ted Danson and beg him for help.

Ted breaks into a beauty parlor and tries every sink and toilet until he finds the right portal. He arrives at the Evil Queen’s 18th century palace, where he meets with his very own evil lookalike. Everybody is confused, but Ted has a plan: he claims the other one is the impostor! Don’t believe him? Check his emails! Indeed Evil Ted (who has long hair too) has been writing compromising emails, he’s arrested and in the confusion Original Ted, Rebel Wilson and I manage to escape back to our world.

It’s not over yet, Evil Olivia Colman has followed us. As her head slowly emerges from the beauty parlor sink, we get ready to fight.

0

Family Trip

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m at gran’s house, my siblings and my neighbor S. are with me. I’m playing the Sims and really getting into the game, but alas I need to turn off the computer and go home. We all climb into the car, I have some trouble closing the door.

We stop at an old beautiful building, something like a renaissance villa. There’s a comic book exhibit inside, we all take some time to visit it and at the end I ask my sister,

Does every artist really have to illustrate King James Bible at some point?

She says yes.

We arrive in town, outside the park there is a policewoman asking for everyone’s permission slips. She’s angry at us for being all out together, and she’s right, I think, that’s quite odd during a lockdown, what were we thinking? She finally allows us to go home, and as I start walking I notice that both my siblings and neighbor S. are turning into children, like we used to be when we played all together in this very park. My brother grins at me and jumps up and down. His hair is blond just like back then, and everything is beautiful.

0

Walk and Show and a lil Panic

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

There is a toddler −maybe my little sister?− that keeps jumping in my arms from great heights, first from a tree, then from the stairs of a big marble statue. It’s so dangerous and I’m afraid I’m not gonna catch her next time.

My cousin and I are going to see a StarKid show in town, and it’s already my second time because I love it so much, even though I feel incredibly guilty about the crowd gathering in the theater. Not many people are paying attention though, I’m literally the only one cheering and clapping at the stage. A girl is listening to music too loudly and I can’t remember how to say to lower the volume in Japanese; eventually my cousin drags her away and I go sit in the first row. At the end of the show Lauren Lopez comes down the stage and kisses me on the cheek, “Thank you, Lauren” I say, breathless.

I tell my cousin I don’t need a ride home and I’ll just walk, but of course I get lost. I meet an old schoolmate, S., and ask her the way. She points to a tiny alley going down two rows of old stone houses, and I immediately know there are gonna be dogs behind the gates: since I’m terrified of dogs barking at me up close, I go looking for another way. I end up looking at a river banks, the stone buildings and the people playing on the sand are bathed in afternoon sunlight. Again, I feel bad about the crowd, but it’s all so beautiful I decide to take a picture and brag about it on social media.

I look in my pocket and I find a slim white watch. It’s not mine. In the other pocket there is a phone, old and broken and again, not mine. I run back hoping I just forgot my actual phone at the theater, but I’m panicking so badly that I wake up.

0

Going Home and Watching a Movie, the Usual

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m walking home from work, on the streets I’m really trying to keep my social distance. Two little girls approach me, start to chat, they want to know how old am I? Where do I work? I try to send them back, tell them they’re not allowed to get this close to people. Their dad, who’s walking a few feet behind, apologizes. I tell him, look, your kids are nice, why don’t I give you my number and when all of this is over you guys can call me? He gives me his email address instead: I recognize the name, he’s one of my customers.

I arrive home and when I go up the stairs I see two teen girls laughing at me, I realize it’s because I’m not wearing any pants. I get inside my apartment and go straight to bed.

In the living room my family is watching a James Bond movie, it’s set during the Olympics and there’s a grand scene at the opening ceremony. Three of the characters sing on stage, the songs are beautiful and the lights are a spectacle, but I feel bad for the rest of the cast singing the chorus in the background, that always used to happen on Glee. Matthew McConaughey is there, he plays a character called “The King of Thieves”.

In the end James Bond dies and is put in an old coffin. I get up and my family tells me it’s too bad I missed the movie; they don’t know I listened to the whole thing from my bed.

0

Odd Tricks

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m back at school. The teacher is a woman, she looks a bit like a jerk; she asks how everyone’s internships are going, I raise my hand and explain that all internships are on hold until April 4th because of Coronavirus*. The teacher says don’t worry, she’ll find an activity we can all do together in the afternoons. I’m appalled because I was really looking forward to some rest and free time.

All the kids take a service elevator to the basement, it’s just four metal bars connecting a platform to a thin roof and it looks very unsafe. I take the stairs instead. I reach my class and we all sit in front of a clown, who starts entertaining us blowing swirls of smoke inside giant soap bubbles.

(Photo by Alexandru-Bogdan Ghita on Unsplash)

The blond kid sitting next to me starts punching my arm. He must be the school bully, but he grows to respect me once he realizes my arms are so strong after working at the store. The clown scolds us for talking instead of paying attention, then he says with a scorned tone that there’s someone in the room who doesn’t believe in his magic. I think he’s talking about me, but instead he points at Sabrina Spellman, who’s sitting behind me. The clown invites her to try his tricks, she blows a giant soap bubble and the smoke inside it is shaped like perfect little skulls.

When it’s my turn, I simply say I don’t smoke and up and go back home. I meet an old woman at the gate, she asks me if I’m new in the building, I say I’ve been living here my entire life. Then she asks if I have any kids, and for who knows what reason I choose to lie and say yes. She asks what their names are, I answer with my and my brother’s names. She says they sound familiar.

I step inside the building and the doors are all wrong. I walked into a maze again and by now I know it’s because I must be dreaming. I’m not gonna find my way home unless I wake up, but how am I gonna do that? I have with me a package just delivered to my brother, I start reading out loud the list of items inside the box, and just like that I wake up in my bed (not really, I’m still asleep, but in the dream I’m convinced I woke up). I decide I must have sleep-walked from the school to my room, and that’s a great trick to have up my sleeve.

*That’s unfortunately true IRL

0

Good and Not So Good Encounters

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I bump into a car in the parking lot, the driver is one of my most unpleasant neighbors. She yells at me, threatens to sue me. I notice her car is full of plastic bags, they are in the front and back seats. The bags are see-through and they’re clearly full of garbage: now I also get mad and accuse her of never recycling.

I get inside my building, and it’s a maze again. I try to find the right door, but end up in a pediatric clinic. The doctor inside is THE Doctor, Jodie Whittaker herself wearing a white robe. She and the nurses start searching for my home, or possibly for the new season of the show.

0

Four More Snippets

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I remember this little scene: my coworker S. tells me to take 20 from the cash register and then he hugs me. It feels really nice.

A young man with red hair and glasses knocks at my door. He’s carrying orange flyers and I can tell he’s from a rival phone company. I smile, cross my arms and lean against the door. “Ok, convince me,” I say.

I have a baby with me! Not mine technically, but a sibling’s. I think it’s a boy at first but it’s actually a black-haired girl named Logan. Then I’m sitting at a trial where they’re deciding who’s gonna take care of the baby, and I realize I’m inside an actual TV soap opera.

I watch an old Star Wars movie set in the 1970s. The characters are high school students, they form a band to join in a musical contest, Luke Skywalker is playing the electric guitar and Princess Leia is the drummer. They lose against two white kids rapping, but it’s amazing to see them dancing on stage. I feel so lucky to have new footage after all these years, especially of Carrie Fisher.

0