Tag: coronavirus

In Which I Get Along With My Sibs For A Change

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I read that I’m reading a book by Taylor Swift, I don’t like it too much so I’m planning to donate it to the local library. My brother is convinced this is his fault somehow, I tell him no, never, I might have a strained relationship with my sister but I love him no matter what.

It’s the twins’ birthday today, my mother is convinced they’re turning 13, it’s more like, 31. We have pizza, laugh, watch a movie about a pale girl possessed by a spirit. She lifts her mask and underneath she has three eyes, each a different color. My sister and I exchange an excited glance,

If she’s possessed, this means Beyoncé will actually voice Beyoncé!

we say together. Then the twins steal one of my old diaries, tease me about my high school crush.

The three of us go out for a stroll together, when we get to town I realize we all forgot to wear our masks. I fish in my bag for my spare one, my brother say no worries, he’s got them, and gives each of us a menstrual pad. That can’t be right, I think, but I glance around and everyone is putting menstrual pads on their faces, wings and all.

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I Finished Elementary School 22 Years Ago

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I’m sitting through a school test; it’s not difficult but there are too many pages and too many questions, I know I’ll never finish it in time so I just give up. Sitting next to me there’s L., a mousy girl who I haven’t seen or thought about since elementary school. She’s a teenager now, she tells me she has a fever, and couldn’t I buy medicine for her during the weekend? She’ll pay me back on Monday.

Monday is gonna be the last day of school. I lean against the back wall and look at the classroom, so familiar. It’s so strange that I’m about to become an adult and never set foot in a classroom again.

My parents don’t want me to go buy meds for L. There’s a pandemic outside, don’t I know? Also pharmacies are closed on Sundays. Also, also… I’m pretty sure this is a dream, so it’s not like I’m gonna disappoint her.

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I Have No Memory Of This Dream

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I’m walking to the doctor with my dad. I realize I forgot my mask at home, but this is the chance to use the spare one I always carry in my bag. People around me are not bothering with a mask at all. My cousin is trying to steal my magazine pages to use for karate practice (that’s what my notes say, I don’t know!). Gran is also there, I’m mad at her because she won’t stay put at home.

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I Was Just Thinking I Haven’t Done A Puzzle Since Like Fourth Grade

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I’m rushing back home because I forgot my mask. I walk past a toy store and inside I see the old man we used to buy toys from when I was a child. He grins at me. His wife was just saying they need to hire someone to help out in the store, I take a mental note of that.

I arrive at my building, take the stairs but my apartment’s floor is now a hospital ward, rows and rows of white bed with red-eyed children. They stare at me. A nurse runs towards me and says I can’t stay here, this is the Coronavirus ward.

I eventually find my apartment. It looks nothing like my actual apartment, and this knowledge almost triggers a lucid dream, but not quite. I go to my bedroom and find my sister there, making her own bed next to mine. I’m so upset I’ll have once again to share a room with her that I grab all her bed sheets and dump them outside the door. Then, feeling guilty, I tell my sister the I sent a letter to Noelle Stevenson to showcase her art. Noelle sent back a puzzle as a thank you gift.

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The Amazing Peeing Cat

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I’m running late for school, I get quickly dressed in an oversize pink t-shirt and jeans. My mom is waiting for me in the car, she’s driving. Wait, I say, I think I got my period. I rush back inside and to the bathroom. My jeans are a mess. As I’m stripping down my cat jumps on the toilet and starts peeing, a focused, almost painful expression on her face. It’s too late to get to school by now. My parents ask me why I didn’t go, I change the subject and tell them everything about the cat instead.

Now I’m in bed with Corona. I feel fine, I don’t have any symptoms, but my test came back positive and and now I have an app that counts down the days until I die. I’m terrified, I don’t want to die, but all I can do is lie in bed and wait. Six days pass, nothing happens. Maybe there was a mistake? Hopeful, I venture out of bed. My legs feel weak, out of practice. I peek into the living room, ask my family if I could maybe go back to the hospital and be tested again? They tell me to go back to bed and wait to die in silence.

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Oh No

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

(I don’t remember the details but the first dream was about getting Covid, I suddenly woke up coughing with a sore throat and panicked for a solid minute, then fell back asleep.)

Then I dream that a creepy uncle is watching me. He’s sitting on the couch across from me with a sleazy smile. I try to escape and he is still following me on the streets. I get to a Sunday school, pretend to be a child and hide inside, I sit on one of the little desks. He’s still there, next to the chalkboard, watching me.

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A Very Specific Anxiety That Didn’t Exists Last Year

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I go to work one morning and outside the store there are hundreds and hundreds of people. What’s going on?! I ask someone. TV says we’re about to go on lockdown again, they explain, and everybody got here while they still can.

(Photo by Rob Curran on Unsplash)

I walk inside and there are more people amassed behind the counter. Even the back office isn’t safe, I sit at the computer trying to ignore the countless eyes watching me, waiting to ask me questions, impatient because I’m filing old documents instead of helping customers. When they start taking out and reading the office’s binders I have to yell. That is private information!

I see my coworkers turning the lights off and putting they jackets back on. I follow their lead and run outside just as the shutters come down. Even bigger a crowd has gathered outside, there are journalists with their cameras and politicians giving interviews, blaming the government for this mess. I run away.

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Busy Night

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I dream that I’m having a fight with my sister because, as usual, I don’t want to share a room. I grab her sheets and throw them out.

Then I dream that I’m late for work. Then, that I’m singing to some cowboys. Then I’m in a Dragon Ball episode. Then, it’s November and there are no Christmas ads on TV because of Corona. It’s rather sad.

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C o n t a g i o n

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I need to go back to work soon, but before I need to do a government-mandated Covid test. I receive an email explaining that my body will be cloned and the copy will be surgically examined; that horrifies me, it’s a complete violation of my privacy! I freak out and decide I won’t undergo the test.

When the day arrives I yell at the team of doctors that came to collect me, and refuse to get out of my house. The head doctor hears what I’m screaming and laughs at the misunderstanding: only the really sick patients need to go through the cloning procedure, he explains, but a cotton swab will do in my case. I’m relieved.

After a few days I get a letter with the test results, it says that I’m not positive at the moment, but I’d already caught the virus a month ago without symptoms. Now I freak out about my parents, did I already infect them?!

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Mountain Outing

Posted on by Decade Dream Journal

I’m with friends and family at our mountain house, we are all sitting around a wooden table. One of the guests is Sharon from FBE, I’m telling her all about my neighbor S. and how he’s like a brother to me. He’s also here with my siblings and they’re all cuddling with kittens, I try to take pictures but my phone layout is all wrong and I don’t know how to fix it.

We see a group of American tourists walking in our vegetable garden and plucking up our food like it’s a quirky, fun thing to do, I hang out from the second floor window and yell but they don’t hear me. I run downstairs and to the garden, I tell them I took pictures of them (a lie, since my phone is messed up). A woman says she’s gonna sue me for that, I say that I’m gonna sue them first for stealing!

Another of our guests is Alex Danvers, she’s my girlfriend but it’s a secret. I feel quite self-conscious comparing myself to her, she’s so gorgeous and I’m chubby, plus my hair has gotten so long since the lockdown started. She assures me I’m beautiful no matter what, then as a romantic gift she transfers a Pokémon to my phone, I don’t know how she managed it since I can’t seem to work my phone at all. I promise her I’ll visit as soon as the travel ban is lifted.

It’s evening and time for our guests to go home, I offer to accompany them. We walk down the mountain path, Alex and I a few steps behind, holding hands and hoping nobody will notice. About halfway to the village we stop at a tiny airport. My guests are going to take a small tourist aircraft, they stand on the landing strip and I can see under the floodlights dozens and dozens of people sick with Covid-19, all lying on stretchers and waiting for their turn to get on the plane.

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