Red and blue

Last night I dreamt I got killed.

The hero in the dream was another guy, one who was investigating a series of murders in my campus. Actually, only one person had been killed so far, but the case resembled a series of four murders committed long ago. I was the second victim in this second series. I had something to tell the hero and so he tried to take me into a safe place so i could tell him; i think we were in a rest room, or maybe it was a stall; anyway, I died. They split me in half. It didn't hurt, really. I bled red and blue blood. From the pool of blood, some kind of bird came out and flew out of the window. My soul leaving the body, i guess.

Later the same night (afternoon already), i dreamt zombies—lots of them. Some were using wheelchairs. I tied their wheelchairs together, and i guess my plan involved pushing them off a cliff.

CVENCA

Last night I dreamt i was traveling up a river through a city. I think i was helping illegal immigrants into Barcelona. We were not on a boat exactly; perhaps we were aboard a motor raft, but there were so many of us (black kids mostly, but also a cute girl, i seem to remember) that the raft was invisible below the surface. If i tried to sit or kneel on it, the water level would almost reach my nose, and a kid would try to lean on my back. So i chose to pretend to swim ahead, being actually pushed by the raft. This way i didn't get tired. The river was a wide one; there were many boats scattered around and small-sized orcas jumping and diving around us. They were all very friendly.

The rest of the trip was on foot, uphill, towards the northwestern summits of Barcelona. The black kids have vanished. There are some places i remember [i.e., i remember in the dream having been there awake]. Like a street called Damià Peira (or similar) that starts as a tunnel, then continues as a narrow channel under the shadow of an elevated boulevard, with the sunrays still reaching the old, red-painted doors. Or a ramp that zigzags upwards to connect a street with a higher level, and a roofless carousel that looks exactly like a rotating DNA double helix. (On the higher level i entered a small, dark grocery store where i bought me an Okey (˜ American Yoohoo) and a banana. I gave half of the banana to a midget old woman begging for food.) Another image i remember was that of the beginning of Cuenca street, a faraway corner ending in a circular building where you can read "CVENCA" and the sign of a bar named "Garaje". Cuenca St. continues up north from there, winding up the mountains.

Notes:

- I guess most of those places do not exist.

- This blog is now 5 YEARS OLD.

Lincoln

Last night I dreamt i was taking a history exam, and the teacher [N.G., from college—one whose famous tests consisted of one single question] simply asked "in which airport was president Lincoln murdered". He gave two options; i think one was something like "Heatherfield", and the other was "The Old Acton".

I didn't know. Someone whispered to me it was Heatherfield.

Burnt

Last night I dreamt we were having a terrible fire season in Vidreres. Yesterday we had one fire at home. It nearly killed two maids. These fire victims are burnt to the bone, paralyzed, apparently dead, but still blinking. We had our burnt maids lying on stretchers, strapped on, out in the porch.

Today, our neighbor, R., was almost killed by another fire. His son sends us for the ingredients of a medicine to get his father moving again. Back in my house, i am texting him a list of ingredients while the others (i'm living with people from the office, Oscar and Paula and some more) decide our next step. We agree at last that we don't want to stay in town for fear that the burnt will take revenge on us. (Fire victims tend to go homicidal.) I text A., R.'s son, to come in his car and get us as soon as possible. By popular decision, I am to text him again giving him only five minutes to try to wake up R. and leave him if he doesn't succeed. Deep inside, we're all praying for R. not to respond, because we don't want a burnt zombie in our escape car; however, we had to give A. the chance.

Five minutes elapse. We sigh with relief, within our impatience, because this means A. will come alone, having failed to wake his father.

Ten minutes elapse. I receive a text message from A: "Oh, I thought that was a long ingredient" ('come in your car to get us and let's flee the town'). Shit. We'll have to wait some more. The sky is getting darker and darker. A storm is approaching.

Ten minutes later, another text message: "Okay, I'll try to wake him up for five minutes."

We fear we might be taking the killer with us. The car arrives. We run downstairs.

[I can't remember the rest.]

Tobacco spiders

Last night i dreamt a new species of Arachnids.

Tobacco spiders are bone-white in color, with darker reddish brown stripes on the legs. Males are not bigger than 5 cm in legspan; females may range from 10 to 15 cm. They are frequent in tobacco drying barns, hence the name.

Tobacco spiders may be kept as pets, much like silkworms. A male and female must be kept together in a closed box with no light source, filled with dried tobacco leaves. The male will act as a female's servant, cutting the tobacco into a thin floss curled into little balls. Each one of these can be smoked in a cigar. The female stays in a corner of the box, lying on (or hanging upside down from) a very thick silk bed. She is specially revolting.

They are all your children

Last night I dreamt some movie scenes. [When i woke up (by accidentally pulling the bedside lamp to fall on my head while asleep), i was going through this scene by the second time. And i had gone through several others in the previous pass.]

Photo by jarsyl.

A man who has just lost his job is walking past a mall in the middle of the night, when he is somehow lured inside. He enters, then reaches a room where the lights are on. It is filled with wooden mannequins, perfectly aligned. They're not some ventriloquist's puppets, but toy dolls representing natural-sized, sad-looking, ten-year-old boys.

The man comes in doing some kind of magic trick to amuse his wooden audience, like crawling through the ceiling instead of walking. Then he throws another doll at them—one he was carrying with him as a present. The mannequins don't move (of course). He retrieves the doll by pulling an invisible string attached to his hand. Much to his surprise, however, once the doll is back into his arms, it hugs him and starts to silently cry with joy. Small chips of paint snow down from its face onto the man's shirt. I've even dreamt the soft guitar music in this scene, but i wouldn't know how to put it down.

The man is puzzled. He stands up and tries to leave, only to find that all the mannequins are "pulled" towards him, as though moved by invisible strings attached to his hand without him knowing. He finds them all hugging him and crying noiselessly, while a voice through a speaker says, "they are all your children".

Oceanica

Last night I dreamt a series of scenes where i was near Claudia in some way, but she either ignored or despised me, and i didn't do much to be nice to her either, although deep within me all i wanted was to get some attention from her. The closest i was to her was in one scene in my room in Vidreres. There was four of us. She had just joined us and i was quitting what i was doing so that we could go together somewhere, though more likely we were planning to split in pairs and she was not coming with me, for she never spoke to me; but she did observe me as i finished a page where i had painted three caracters at the top and then i wrote in pencil: "I'll finish this once i've become an inhabitant of Oceanica".

[Loving someone sucks. Most of the time.]

Baixador

Last night I dreamt i was ascending to Vallvidrera on foot up the north side of Collserola, not the south side, where Barcelona lies.

After climbing for quite long, i reached a building in the middle of the woods which seemed to be the Catalan railroad unstaffed station of Vallvidrera on this side of the mountain. It looked just like in the picture — a large, brown brick building with three phone booths on one side. I took a photo of this building with my cell phone camera, but i was too tired to keep my hand from shaking, and the picture came out all blurry.

From here, i came across some other tourists on my way up. One of them was a very fat man with his wife; he was looking for a studio in the neighborhood where he had just been hired as a designer; i heard him asking other people for directions.

Finally, i reached Vallvidrera at Carrer de les Alberes. Not far from there i found a grocery store where i could recover my strength after the long trek.

[When I woke up, i knew this store does not exist. I'd be lucky to find a single open shop there now, so i gave up the idea of going up there today.]

Pear

Last night I dreamt i left home in the afternoon for a long walk. Somewhere i got a text message from a friend of mine about the guy he was chasing. [In real life, this friend is a journalist currently tracking down a fugitive prosecuted for tax evasion or something.]

Later i entered what seemed to be a basement or a warehouse. I found L. and a guy playing a one-on-one handball match in a narrow corridor. I think he was teaching her, actually. I said hello; she seemed happy enough to see me. She said she had read the pages i gave her (i can't remember having given her anything), and she was ready to give me her opinion on it. So she asked me to come back in five minutes, when the class was dismissed. (I made my mind right there that i would come back in SIX minutes, in order not to look too impatient.) It sounded like our first date, so i was very eager.

I waited around outside and got a phone call from the same friend above. He was sobbing. He had discovered that the guy he was chasing had taken his long beloved one with him, some Elsa. My friend sounded heartbroken, but i was about to face a crucial moment in my life, so i hung up on him.

Wonder Woman

Last night I dreamt i was walking through the Parc del Guinardó after having seen my parents in their neighborhood. I climbed up some stairs and looked for some place to sit when i reached the top. Right in front of me, four people, three of them white-haired, were sitting on a rock under the sun. A little on the left, Marta and her boyfriend were sitting on a step in the middle of the road. He saw me; she didn't. I pretend i haven't seen them and turn right to get away from them—i don't feel like talking to her. Unfortunately i reach a dead end, where the road plummets down a cliff into the water. As i retrace my steps, she finds me. She's very excited, like almost every other time she's seen me after we broke up.

"Hey, at last! I've been all around looking for you! How're you doing?"

"Just having a walk", i say.

"That's good, we'll walk together."

You can't escape her now, you can't just make up an excuse for her and turn around at this point, she can make you feel really bad for that. Besides, it's been almost two years, so i consent and we go for a walk. After all, judging by the time it took her to run after me, she's said goodbye to her boy to meet me.

We enter a civic center in the middle of the park, then a room with a big screen TV where a big party is expected, but guests haven't come yet. There is only a barman and lots of empty seats. She decides to settle here. By this time she's undressed, and her body is painted like Wonder Woman's uniform. She acts all sweet now, and i don't notice this is a dream before i've started to make plans again and realize that she can still make me hot as fuck, no matter how long i play the offended guy.

Photo borrowed from rjonesdesign2007.