It’s Just A Dream

It was 5am and I was awaken by my own cries. My heart was beating like it was catching up to a punk rock song, my face drenched in a pool of sweat, eyes uncontrollably teary.

It’s ok. It’s just a dream, I’m here, soothed Raja as he pulled me closer.

Apparently I’m a big baby. I’m slightly over a quarter of a century and I still have nightmares. I mean, come on. Grow up already.

As much as I tried to remember what I dreamt about, I couldn’t. There were so many possibilities from being run over an ice-cream truck to the alienation of human kind by clowns. I’m thinking it’s more of the ice-cream truck. Perhaps a little payback from my brain for gobbling everything in my way. And for stuffing more ice cream in the freezer.

The more I tried to remember, the more vividly I recollected the nightmare I had when I was a kid. There was this monster called The Mushroom Man. No surprises, it looked like a mushroom, only with added features resembling a human’s face. And a straw hat, mind you. So it was kinda like a mushroom scarecrow hybrid. And for some reason it was out to get me.

I hated that thing. Why couldn’t it have just killed me and get it over with. Instead, it made me run the entire dream. Seriously, the ENTIRE dream. I know it was just a dream, but I was 7 and I had no shoes on. Plus it was chasing me up the hill. It was tiring and torturing. I hated that thing.

Towards the end, I somehow managed to kill it. With an aerosol spray nonetheless. Please don’t ask me why, that’s just the way dreams are supposed to be. Strange and unusual. But yes, I killed it. Come to think about it, that’s pretty disturbing for a 7 year old. Clearly, I have some issues to solve.

Anyway, here’s a pic of Raja and his cousins taken during Hari Raya. Something that makes the nightmares seem like a Pluto away. Where the only screams heard are the screams of happiness.