Something about… my Gramma G. sitting in a hospital, or an institution, or a prison, maybe? And I’d be using tunnels to rescue her.
Tag: hospitals
Eerie Shopping, Eerie Cooking
I’m inside a hospital with my mom, the ceilings are too high and the corridors are dark. I need to buy a pair of headphones, we look around for a store and end up in what soon we realize is a well stocked supermarket built entirely inside the hospital. We have a shopping cart now, mom starts picking snacks and coffee, the products are lit with artificial, sterile light and the ceilings are so high you can only see blurry darkness above you. There’s a general feeling of unsettling quietness. We finally come across a pair of headphones, mom says they’re too expensive (they cost a little more than 10 bucks) but I buy them anyway.
We have hired a professional chef to come cook dinner for us, it’s a chubby lady with a 1900s pompadour. My parents order pig stew and she gets to work extremely slowly, and while we wait she shows us a picture of the pig she’s cooking: the animal has a sad look in its expressive eyes, its head is bowed under the foot of a man standing triumphantly above it. I decide I’m not gonna eat the pig, even though the finished product looks juicy and smells really good. I order fried prawns instead and I watch as she tosses them into boiling oil along with big blue raspberries.
I never get to eat any of it, the morning after I try to remember why and I see myself as a young woman cheated on by her husband: to get over my sadness I end up sleeping with a beautiful lady guest who wants to recruit me as a spy. Now I’m so hungry I can’t stop crying, I start tossing things and yelling at my poor sister. I also need to pee so badly.
Ooooh Anxiety
I have a second job at a hospital, in a virologist office; I’m given a white doctor’s gown to wear, even though I have no idea what I’m doing. My cousin is also there but she is in her element, quick and efficient. There is a big square table in the middle of the room, with many patients sitting around it. Most of them are coughing. I’m terrified I’m gonna catch the virus too and get my parents killed.
My shift finally ends and I meet with my cousin and Boss Lady in an RV, I tell them I will be glad when the emergency is over and I can go back to work at the store. My cousin reminds me with her patented mean voice that I have two free mornings and there’s no reason I shouldn’t spend them at the hospital! It’s too much and I tell them I’m not going back to the hospital, I don’t know why I signed up in the first place, I don’t enjoy it like I enjoy working at the store, also I’m not qualified for it and I’m afraid I’ll get sick. Boss Lady gets utterly mad at me and fires me on the spot, I’m so upset I wake up.
I fall asleep right back asleep and the dreams continue. Now I’m home on the couch, and my mother is telling me my sister is coming back home. Sure enough here she comes with her suitcase, and I’m already su upset I tell her she’s gonna sleep somewhere else because I don’t want her in my bedroom. She’s angry as usual, I tell her I’ve had a horrible day and I don’t care if she’s just arrived home, I’m getting into the shower first. On the couch, my mother is calling all our relatives to tell them I was fired.
Trains and Cars and Superpowers
I’m at a train station trying to get home, there are some classmates with me. We check the timetables, only find one train going the right direction and it’s still hours away. There are only a few people around, I know today is supposed to be the town festival but everybody is quarantined at home.
As we climb the stairs to go look for the ticket booth, a classmate stops me. Wouldn’t I like to rent a car instead, she asks? It’s a service provided by the local hardware store and it’s only 16 bucks. I accept.
Now Steven Universe is the one who’s renting the service: along with a car it also offers a complete superpowers package. You only have to cover your body with transparent film (food wrap, basically) and you can jump very high and even fly. Steven is enjoying his new abilities and takes the chance to kiss a girl, but as soon as she feels the film on his lips she pushes him away, disgusted.
Steven is so upset he jumps on his rented car and crashes against a wall. At the hospital, while his body is in a coma, his spirit wakes up and doesn’t realize what happened; wearing only one of those backless hospital gowns, he skips around and dances outside in the garden.
Good and Not So Good Encounters
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.
Morning Or Night Visit
I need to go to the hospital to get my blood tested. It’s almost 11 in the morning and I’m running late, but I decide to stop at a local bookstore.
Sitting at the counter inside the store there is my nosy, gossipy neighbor C. She eyes me suspiciously and asks me why I’m not at work. I explain I’m going to the hospital, she doesn’t seem convinced. A bit miffed, I ask if she has The Secret of NIMH books, she says absolutely not. I’m sure I saw a children’s book with Mrs. Brisby on it, right there near the entrance, but maybe I’m mistaken?
I don’t want to argue, so I leave the store. I look at my watch (I’m wearing an old analog watch on my wrist) and see it’s still 11. Then I remember the hospital does blood work only very early in the morning, so my neighbor must have thought I was lying! Also, I forgot all my prescription papers at home, and I somehow have in my pocket my old Nokia phone from fifteen years ago. I have no choice but go back home.
I explain to my mother what happened, she says there’s still a little time to go to the hospital. When we arrive, it’s 8 P.M. and the long hallways are bathed in twilight. There are a lot of people waiting, I see a young blonde woman lounging on a chair, she is wearing a lilac shirt and looks bored out of her mind.
A doctor peeks inside the waiting room, she asks if there are any patients here to see doctor Hans (or a German-sounding name like that). Mom realizes this is who we need to see and chases the doctor in the hallway. I think maybe I won’t be waiting so long after all.
DECADE DREAM JOURNAL 