I dream that I’m competing in a game show that is apparently part cooking contest, part Ninja Warrior course. I’m happy because it’s the last day and there are only three contestants left, so even if I come in third place I’ll still win some money.
The first challenge is cooking carbonara, and I immediately panic because I don’t know how. My cousin, who’s also competing, tries to help me but I tell her to just go because I’m hopeless. I end up making a burrito, it does have tomato and cheese. Only one of the judges likes it, my final score is -1 points. There’s a judge who refused to touch my burrito altogether, she’s a singer who shares my name.
On to the next challenge, and now I’m that very singer, petite and with short black hair. I’m supposed to rope down a cliff, when suddenly the rope ties like a noose around my neck! The other contestants are in my same predicament, they’re flailing wildly afraid they’re gonna die. I find a strap that propels me down at breakneck (ha!) speed, and the others are quick to follow my example.
I’m the first to touch the ground and the finish line is near, but the other contestant are much faster runners, and now there’s four of us! With a desperate sprint I score third place, thank goodness. My cousin arrives last and she’s not happy about it.
I dream that I’m playing a complicated quest game that has real consequences with my siblings. We rummage through a box of old photos to find a code that will open an obelisk. We have to compete on a cooking contest. An old man appears from nowhere and asks for a cup of tea. In the end I have a teary heart-to-heart with my sister; I still wouldn’t let her back to my room though.
I dream that I’m at an early screening of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, but like, in a parallel universe where it’s a bad movie. Afterwards I volunteer for a survey, I hope I’ll get to talk about the movie but instead I’m given an hour to complete a Japanese test, paint a picture and then make soup. I can’t finish in time but I still beg the judge to let me take part in the survey. He’s an old mustached professor and part-time drag queen.
I dream that I am the guardian of a magic stone portal. It was built by Leonardo Da Vinci and connects different places in the world. I have to stop the tour headed to Rome because there are magic bubbles blowing in the portal and it’s dangerous to cross.
I dream that there is a tree growing under my neighbor’s balcony, one night I go to touch it. The leaves are soft and colorful. I clean all the plastic and garbage on the ground below it.
I dream about having a cooking contest before Easter lunch. Two people in my family are competing as I wait on the couch with my stomach rumbling. The ingredients must come from one specific little town.
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.
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’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.
DECADE DREAM JOURNAL 