I dream that it’s the last week of school and I’m doing an internship in a really big building, almost a skyscraper. I don’t really like the job, it’s a bit too corporate and heartless, but my cousin is there of course and she’s not letting me go home until I clean my room; my own bed is indeed on the ground floor.
That night I play a videogame set in the same building, I find a secret room full of pizzas but my HP bar is full and I don’t have much use for them. The morning after I’m determined to find the same room in the real building, but I find a long line of sick people waiting outside the main doors. I’m not wearing a mask so I cover my face with both hands and beg to be let inside because I’m an employee. The ground floor has turned into a hospital and I can’t find my room anymore.
I dream that I’m watching a new OITNB series about Kimiko Glenn (except she was called Kyoko). Then I dream I’m watching a heist movie about immigrant women. Then I’m looking for a job and it’s so frustrating.
I dream that I’m back at work, and both Boss Lady and my cousin are already pissed at me for being slow and overwhelmed. My anxiety rise and rise right to the point I decide to quit, and then a beautiful sense of calm and peace takes over me. Boss Lady is furious. You’re throwing away your life, she says. Look at me, I own a house!
And I saw a beautiful sunset yesterday, I say with a big smile, knowing that there’s something better than money out there. I get up and leave.
Then I dream that I’m going to see a vet about my cat’s gastritis. I travel to a beautiful countryside building that is some sort of university. The doctor is a middle aged woman with short auburn hair, I give her a surprisingly accurate recap of my cat’s issues, she gives me “pills” that look like bulbous roots.
I dream that one morning I find a line of booths along the road just outside my window, a dozen or so of them. They have a seat and screens for people to make video calls, I assume especially old people who don’t own a smartphone. Behind each booth there’s a young employee ready to help. I realize this would have been a great job for me, why didn’t I apply? Maybe I can tell the phone company they didn’t get my resumé by mistake.
As usual I dream that it’s the last day of school and I’m going to skip my finals because I already got my degree, I just want to go home and watch the latest Supergirl episode.
I’m walking home and now I’m Spiderman, I legit look like Tom Holland under the mask. I can climb walls, I’m not shooting webs because actually I can flap my arms and fly. I meet up with Black Widow and we go investigating in a phone store; it’s a rival store and my old boss sees me in there (she doesn’t look like my actual phone store boss lady, more like a mix of all the employers I’ve had in my life). I want to tell her I didn’t betray the store, I’m here on a secret mission, but she looks the other way and pointedly ignores me.
I dream that I’m back at work, but instead of being inside the store I’m sitting on a narrow staircase in a building nearby, reading a book. An Ape scooter parks nearby, I recognize the two men stepping out −one old, one young with long hair− as former customers. The young man asks me if the apartment above is up for rent. This, I know, is the same apartment I used to rent back in college, that is now somehow the store’s property. I tell him no because I don’t like his face. He tries to push open the door, I look at my watch and it’s 12:45; the store’s closed, I say. He leaves.
My cousin and the other employees appear from the door soon after. I tell them about the long haired man, cousin says he can’t be trusted because he’s a union leader. We don’t take the bus to go home and instead walk down a mountain road, I try to take a photo of the landscape but shoot an Instagram video by accident, you can hear my cousin swearing in it, she’s not happy. She’s in a feud with some Peruvian street vendors over a broken CD they sold her, she’s trying to spot one so she can kick their ass.
I dream that I’m in a house that has two floors and a garden in the middle. I want to kick everyone out of the second floor and go to sleep, even though it’s the middle of the day. There is a group of people sitting at a table studying. I grab two pencil cases from the table and toss them out the window, nobody seems to notice. One of the women at the table has a wooden hand, another has knife scars all over her face.
Resigned about the fact I won’t be sleeping, I start explaining web marketing to them. A man and a woman in business clothes are listening intently and asking questions. “Good,” says the woman, “You’re hired.” I’m very happy and ask where the job is gonna be. In California, she replies. I’m so mad I knock the table over.
I had all these details in my head when I woke up, I grabbed my phone to take some notes and suddenly it was all gone. All I could come up with is: “working at yet another store, singing A Whole New World, being angry at my sister, being horny.”
I dream that I’m working at the new store, the one above our regular store that I dreamed about last week. I’ve always wondered, when something seems familiar, is it because I’ve legit dreamed about if before or is it just my mind playing tricks? Well, now I know! This time I’m wearing a name tag on my chest that says “I’m new, please be gentle with me.” Indeed I’m so slow that my cousin kicks me out.
The next day I don’t want to go to work, I’m not even sure if they actually hired me back or if this is all just a dream. I go out with friends instead, we stop to buy pizza but the guy behind the counter seems very unhygienic, I slip away without my friends noticing. I’m hungry now and it’s night already, I stop at a restaurant that is just a series of tables under the stars. I’m very suspicious about hygienic standards, I order a simple cheese pizza (the least dangerous, I assume), it takes them ages to bring it to the table.
The next morning I’m walking home after skipping work once again, I hear someone calling me, I look up and see my neighbor C. waving at me from the attic window. I go up to her and she’s sitting at a table eating, she starts telling me all about some gossip she heard (typical!) when a goose flies in from the window, a big brown goose, rather angry. It starts honking at C.’s ear, doesn’t calm down until it’s offered some food.
I close all the doors and windows in case the goose wants to come back, then go down the stairs. I’m in a beautiful old mansion that belongs to my grandfather. It used to be in ruins when I was a kid, now my uncle has renovated and it’s so beautiful it looks more like a museum. I know once grandgfather dies my uncle will kick us out and I wish I could show all of this to my penpal in time, but she’s visited me just a few days ago (I DO dream about old dreams!) and it’s gonna be a while before she comes back. Maybe I’ll give her a virtual tour, once new technologies allow it.
I look at the portraits on the walls and imagine what I would say to 18th century people to explain TV screens.
It’s like a big mirror, but instead of yourself you see other people and stories. It’s connected by a series of wires that transfer electricity, it’s the stuff lighting bolts are made of.
My uncle arrives and catches me looking at his art collection. Just like grandfather, this guy isn’t one of my IRL uncles, he’s a short, balding man with glasses, and expensive suit and a nervous expression. He noticesI’m crying because I’m so moved by all these beautiful neoclassical statues, he says he cries all the time too, maybe he can get along with my siblings and I after all.
We organize a sack race so we can bond, I’m a teen girl, I have a teen brother and a toddler sister, suspiciously similar to A Series of Unfortunate Events characters. The toddler wins the race.
I dream that (ex) boss lady has opened a supermarket right above the old store; it’s the same damn supermarket, the only kind that exists in my town. I’m hired not at all legally, when I get there I see a dead goat next to the entrance, she looks like she’s sleeping. She’s on sale, obviously.
My cousin is my acting tutor again, being a bitch as usual. Customers are rude as hell. I don’t know how to use the cash register.
DECADE DREAM JOURNAL 