I was reading a novel by Danielle Steel entitled "Message from Nam." I bought the slightly used book at P70.00 and it's worth the read. I was halfway through it where its main Character, Andrew Paxton, an undergrad journalist just arrived in Vietnam to uncover the truth behind the enmities between America and Vietnam and its allies.
Teacher Belle sending a text message that she wouldn't make it to her morning classes prompted me to leave the bed early and so after a couple of hours before lunch, right after reading some installment of the book, I decided to doze off. I couldn't sleep fitfully and I felt like I was just lying in bed while images kept flashing in my mind.
Our office turned into a residential place. I could see unfamiliar people turning our stations into bedrooms, the lobby into a living room, while some Filipino teachers were being interviewed by whom I thought were Koreans. The interviewer in the living room was having a video chat with my boss as seen on the computer newly placed on the desk in the area.
Later I felt like I was taken outside, in a rustic place where there were so many mango trees enjoying the serene, misty, and the fresh smell of the morning. Chinese or perhaps Vietnamese people wearing blue satin clothing like that of Kung Fu's kept flying to and fro. I heard there was some kind of a competition and I even saw my boss' wife pounding on him to join the contest. A few moments later, my boss disappeared and before he arrived, I heard some of the Chinese people in their conspiratorial tones trying to conjure something to crash my boss, to see his defeat in the competition.
She displayed that usual look of a girl who was raised in a country and spent just a few years trying to adjust to what living in the city is. She is my cousin Aileen and looking at their house bridged the chance for us to see each other again and have a few exchange of thoughts and ideas after a long time.
We were looking at their house with wide amazement in my eyes, having not seen the shelter in a long time. I was wondering why their house all of sudden grew up in size with a wider courtyard this time. My cousin was doing all the explanation with ease in her rustic voice. The neighboring houses which I saw and which made the area looked so congested vanished like trodden mushrooms. The house was really big that I was unable to repress an air of envy. On the other hand, it looked portentous matched with the gloomy, foreboding atmosphere around.
Beside the house was a private road adjoining a fenced in yard further right. The yard which seemed like a pine-tree seedlings garden was so commodious and was fringed intervally with pine and juniper trees. We saw some people busying themselves with a sundry of unusual, peculiar, odd-looking, and gargantuan dead sea creatures. I saw some fish bigger than a horse, three times a horse's size perhaps. Just behind us was Aileen's father tending to his horses, giving them molasses in small buckets and guiding them to a hearty grass indulgence. Later, my uncle told me that those people in the pine tree garden were selling the creatures at 750 pesos per piece. My eyes glowed and the excitement in me swelled internally. I had been thinking of making 'calamares' or fried squid bathed with flour.
Seeing their big size, my uncle beckoned that he wanted one and so the seller bustled in our direction unbelievably carrying a heavy weight of the giant squid. He threw it towards the front yard but was unlucky enough to notice the horse indulgently grazing some grass just in front of the house. The weight landed on one of the horses and it right off the bat gave the four-legged animal a lethal wound on its trunk. The horse was motionless for a couple of minutes and my uncle was really mad.
The horse was bleeding to death and before it gasped for its last breath, the seller turned frantic and uneasy to show how apologetic and conscientious he was with the horse's misfortune. He started hopping upside down. His head was like an electric drill hobbling on the tablets serving as a pavement towards my uncle's house. The guy reminded me of the character in the game, pogo loco. My cousin and I were amusingly watching him do the stunt. He was amazing.
I got me thinking again about online casino as we were boarded on a bus en route to work. The dusty road shoving off nano-particles of dust onto our faces through the bus windows didn't veer my sight off eying the online casino on the side of the road. Then, I just realized I had to post a dream which have been marooned in my unpublished posts on blogger.
AJ with his nephew and I are headed for the Casino. We play roulette with tens of faint faces of Casino goers but we don't win. Because of AJ's prodding that we have to leave the place avoiding hooking up more amount, we see ourselves bounding out of the place and realize that the day has turned to gray. The way out of the pavement extending from the entrance of the building is dark and its silence is somewhat scary. Marred with agitation in our facades and the fear growing in me, I turn my back to see who's behind us. I see a suspicious guy wearing a maroon shirt, his eyes fixed on us. He looks belligerent and diabolic with his red eyes blazing in the dark. I panick as I suspect him to want to stab any of us. I see him hiding a knife on his back.
He would have stabbed AJ had I not warned him to run away. Three of us all run for our lives. I feel so bad though that AJ scamper off first and never bothers to care for me and his nephew. I also run as fast as I can, make some pauses, and wait for AJ's nephew. AJ's nephew tumbles his way to escape and I see him transform into a teenage boy.
I also dream of an incident where I see myself and AJ naming three baby girls. They are new born babies though I am not sure whose babies they are. We give the names, "15", "Iri", and "Dorro Inni". AJ's mom tells us though after a witty comprehension that Dorro Inni is the reverse of the word "toilet" in our vernacular.
At home again and am alone. All the family members have gone out. Later as I am about to leave the house upon closing all the windows, I hear a knock on the door followed by a faint voice of a woman. I open the wooden door and I see a woman in her 40's carrying an empty straw bag and has started reaching for the biggest lemon fruit in the front yard. The sight of her stealing prods me to motion to her and tell her out loud to get only the big and the ripe ones.
She gets mad instead at my condescending request and starts mumbling derogatory expressions. I become repugnant and my face glow with disgust more than it did earlier upon seeing her face almost covered with bulging and festering blotches like she is ill with leprosy. The blotches look fresh and they look like they just popped out. For all I know, they look gross. I start to think that she might have evaded from one of the care homes somewhere and she badly needs to go to a leprosarium. I remember her taking the five biggest lemons in the yard and I kvetch telling her we need them for Christmas. I keep yelling at her but to no avail. I don't know why but I can't even lay my hands on her. Instead, she smugly proceeds to another tree picking more fruit and that turns me more indignant as if there's a smoke coming out of my ears.
I try to follow her with the attempt to quell her injustice but then she turns into a young girl, perhaps a seven-year old girl. What amazes me more is that an old man perhaps in his fifty's comes to her rescue. The man is garbed with a baroque-like costume. With him is the biggest bazooka I have ever seen. He certainly looks belligerent as he approaches me.
I chicken out trying to defend our fruit tree in the yard and I see me scampering off the scene. He, however, manages to pull the trigger off the bazooka and starts aiming at me while I am doing the chicken run. I feel the magnitude of the bazooka's trajectory on my entire body but it isn't enough to destabilize me.
Phew! I wake up alive.
I am at the church with the uneasiness drilling me on to get out of the sacred place. My friend who now works abroad is about to have the best time of his life. He will tie the knot with a woman he met in Taiwan but whose face is an obscurity to me. Disgustingly, I see myself dressed as a farmer, I am a reflection of a scarecrow wearing a buri hat and a pair of slacks rolled up just below my knee. My presence is an infringement of the consecrated structure.
And with my flip-flops on, I decide to sit down onto the pew at the back near the entrance of the church. I am trying to fight the force that has been wanting me to leave and ignore the special moment. I carry a backpack on my back and my ears are plugged with an mp3 player's ear buds.
ear buds. I look at the obfuscated faces mostly women taking pictures. The color pink radiating from their garments is a stand out.
I eventually see myself leaving. I can't see my friend around anymore though I know we were just talking earlier while he was smoothing over his black socks. As I turn my back towards the main door, a fabulously painted cupboard hangs down from the ceiling. It looks huge but I don't see any of its doors open. Instead, I see a small slot like that of a jukebox. A coin is necessary to unlock it.
I am now in trouble with that big pendulum hanging by the door. It literally blocks exit. I know it is easy to bend my way out but I just can't. I start looking for a coin in my pockets but they're empty. I turn towards the altar and my friend is now visible with his obscured wife having some picture taking. He gives me a coin, then I am out of my dreamzzz world.
Varicolored cars are lined up as they are aesthetically parked around the resort. They look like toy cars on display catching the attraction of the so many customers trying to ease themselves with a cold swim. The swimming pool is huge and kilometrically stretched around the area like an L-Square.
Myself is seen holding a pool vacuum, uncomfortable, uneasy and my eyes just keep wandering around. I seem to be looking for that high school friend of mine. He is nowhere to be seen so I continue my business.
I can't keep but be amazed at how the resort looks like. The tall palm trees with their fronds happily swaying with the breeze of the wind catch me in awe. The hot and humid air though gives me the feeling that I myself should get a splash. Had it not because been because of my best friend's mom's stern face, I would have had the liberty to plunge in the cool water of the pool.
A few moments later, my best friend's mom call me to water the fringe of plants surrounding the pool. I then get the coiled and long hose in the filter room and when I go back to where I was, the sight of my handsome best friend sends me beaming with joy, delight, and uneasiness. He is still one of my crushes. While watering the plants, my friend and I engage in a relaxing talk about good old days. All of a sudden, her mom screams in disgust. I just realized I have been shooting her with the water down her skirt instead of the plants. I fidget and stay motionless as I watch her slowly transform into a banana tree.
The swells of the sea seem mesmerizing. I am absorbed in its waves and its swishing sounds drifting me off to old memories.
This dream of mine takes me to a beach resort where I see myself sunk in its white sand. The thatched roof cottages are sporadically located in the area and there are modern houses made of concrete and galvanized iron placing the beach so accessible to my home. It's weird that I live in the mountains 3-hour away from the nearest beach and yet I see my house around the resort. I am enjoying my loneliness watching the billows of the sea when two milky-white skinned foreigners catch my attention. They are half naked and they take me in awe. I earn my guts to talk to the more handsome guy, trying to build some rapport, and something nasty later. Again, the animalistic lust in me gets triggered by the presence of two prospects.
The guy is surprisingly friendly. He tells me his name which my memory can't recall because his face and well-built muscles seem more notable. We take a leisurely walk ashore and around the village.
After some time, I just realize that any moment my boyfriend AJ shall be coming to call me for our lunch date in one of the cottages. I remember the guy telling me he is from Durasian- a country I have never heard before. I ask him if it is somewhere in Europe and he affirms. I feel so happy that even before AJ could arrive, he invites me for a luxurious lunch at his rented hotel room where his friend (the one I saw earlier)has been waiting. I beam in excitement as he holds my hand on our way for some meals. Before anything nasty could happen, I awake in disappointment.
