I dream that I go to the computer store to buy a desktop (something I’m planning to do IRL). I explain to the young woman in the store uniform that I’ll be able to buy a new computer with my next paycheck, and could she save one for me?
Fast forward to Christmas, and now my new desktop is sitting in my bedroom and I’m real confused: how did we get here? It was June just a moment ago, why can’t I remember these past months?
Somebody kidnapped me. I was taken away in a big truck with other young people. We were taken to a large room and chained to beds for months and months, until the Stockholm syndrome kicked in. We were then more than happy to help our captors, a group of international criminals and spies.
Now I’m back to the free world and a trained assassins. I shouldn’t remember the brainwash I went through, but I do, I do.
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.
While channel surfing my family and I notice a church with a bell tower very similar to our city’s clock tower, tall and covered in reddish-brown bricks. I do some research and find out both towers were built by the same architect. The only difference are the colorful statues on the other city’s tower: they paid to have them painted, while ours are just simple brass.
Along with my siblings, I climb up a mountain road to see the tower from above. My boss is also there. From that far up we can even see the supermarket one city over, I’m confused because I’d never noticed it before. It was built recently, mi siblings explain.
I follow my boss to her villa, where I’m supposed to do some computer work for her. I point out that I’m gonna need two monitors, she reminds me she bought me a tablet and I can use. While we talk I try to subtly hint about my birthday coming soon, because I’m hoping she’ll get me a present. She’s a generous lady!
A young man bursts inside the house on a red fire truck. Boss Lady is appalled, so I assure her I’m gonna deal with it. I point out to the man that his father was here earlier today (also on a fire truck) to hook up with Boss Lady but had to come home empty handed. The man won’t listen to reason. He gets down the truck, leaves his penis neatly wrapped on a coffee table and goes to the living room to watch TV, saying he won’t leave until he’s satisfied.
Boss Lady’s secretary steps up, a thin blond man who looks almost ill. He says he’ll sacrifice himself for the good of the Company. An awkward hand job with the detached penis later, fire truck man emerges from the door with a big smile, declares himself satisfied, and leaves.
DECADE DREAM JOURNAL 