In Which I Just Wanna Go Home

I dream that I stop at a stationary store. As I’m buying two pens (a fine liner and a brush pen) the owner tells me the store is going out of business. I crumple on the floor crying. This was the last stationary store in town, I sob, what am I gonna do now?! The pens cost five bucks, I’m so upset I demand to only pay three.

Instead of going home I end up at the mall to blow out some steam. I decide to take a bus to go back, I don’t have a ticket but I can always pretend I forgot it. It’s too late when I realize the bus is going the wrong way. How am I going home now? We arrive at a small rocky alley, the driver makes us all get out of the bus, we dismantle the roof and carry it to the other side. Above our heads there are tall, narrow houses made of white rock. From a balcony, my late great-aunt E. waves at me. She looks like she always did, with her white hair in a tight bun. She asks how my parents are.


I dream that I’m taking my telemarketing job to the next level and selling door-to-door. I arrive at the house of an old man called Peter Minniti, he is apparently a great politician of yonder. His house is a small villa outside Florence, it’s late evening and he’s a bit upset about the intrusion, but his wife makes me tea. I try to sell him a phone subscription, he agrees to come by the store and asks for my number. I can’t seem to be able to type it in his phone and it’s getting late, so late, I’m sweating with anxiety. I eventually write it down on a piece of paper and leave in a hurry.

It’s so dark outside, I don’t know my way. I send my car forward on its own, then realize I was supposed to sent it north, and north is the opposite way! What can I do? Start walking and hope for the best? The old politician and his wife appear on their window and tell me they saw pictures of my nephew on Instagram, I don’t know what to say to that. A funeral procession passes by.

I walk and walk and walk and know I will never reach home, and then I realize I can just wake up and be home in a second.

Great Critical Bun Off

I’m in my house, but I’m also participating in The Great British Bake Off. It’s the finale, and the two other contestants are Liam O’Brien and Taliesin Jaffe; our assignment for the final round is “butter” and we rush into the kitchen –that is, my own house’s kitchen.

Taliesin definitely knows what he’s doing. I cut open a bread roll and start buttering it, making quite a mess; next to me Liam has dipped in oil a bruschetta and is now frying it on a pan, damnit, he’s gonna beat me at my own bread game! I fill my bun with soft goat cheese, because it’s white like butter, I guess. It’s still too plain and I’m starting to panic. What can I add, what can I add!? I remember I have some trail mix in the pantry and toss it in my bun, mixing it with the soft cheese. I add some sugar on top and slam it in the electric oven next to Liam’s bruschetta.

(Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash)

It’s now time for the judges to try out dishes. The three of us are sitting on bar stools in my living room, a screen behind us is showing our journey through the show. When it’s my turn the screen shows a young Asian woman dressed in a Brazilian outfit, dancing with a group of men in shiny jumpsuits. Wait, was I competing in Dancing with the Stars??

I know my dish is no good and Taliesin is gonna win, and indeed Paul Hollywood is very brutal when he tries it. The other judge, an unnamed lady, is kinder. I’m so disappointed I start stress-eating my buns and Liam’s dish, which tastes like cream and honey cookies. Mine is slightly better, I think, but not enough. As I shovel both the cookies and the buns down my throat, my mom, who in this dream is Angela Bassett, looks at me from the couch and shakes her head in disappointment. I know, I know, I’m gonna get so fat.