29 May 2012, edited on 11 Sept 2012
I went to sleep after drinking some
mango-flavoured malt mixed with orange juice. Before falling asleep
however my phone buzzed and there's a facebook message from one of my
best friend in Uk, Amal Mar. I guess that must be the reason to this
crazy adventure that I am going to embark on when my head hit the
pillow.
I dreamt of meeting someone by the name
of Amal Mar. I was sneaking down to my kitchen in my house back in
Brunei and I opened the cover of the Tudung Saji (food cover) and
found some very cute “kawaii!!” snacks under it. They seem to
have been left behind by a cousin of mine who visited us recently. I
grabbed some of them and went out of my house to meet a friend. When
I reached her place, I shared some of my treats with her. Amal,
however, couldn't accept the sweets. She explained to me that the
reason for her refusal was that the treats were somehow 'stolen', and
not mine to give. Coming from a strict family, she was taught to act
like a proper lady and has this odd peculiarity in that she doesn't
like it when I call out her name in public. Her reason being that
people do not like hearing her name. Although she has the exact same
petite stature and strict nature that my friend has, this Amal that I
met in my dreams somehow is not the real her, but a different person.
Despite this set-back, we started out
our marvelous journey by touring around Kuala Belait town and end up at my old school (CHMS). Upon our arrival, the first person I saw was
Teacher Minu, who was my physics teacher in junior high. She was
marking some test papers while busy watching something on the
computer instead that looks very much like news on politics. The next
person I met was Teacher Leong. Oddly, she wasn't as enthusiactic at
seeing me as usual, after observing her for a while and asking how
she is doing. We learned that she is having a weird sensation in her
fingers and hands, much akin to the feeling of numbness. Upon hearing
her problem, I immediately thought of the physiological possibilities
as to why that is happening. I hypothesized that she might be having
some problems in the somatosensory areas of her brain or S1as they
call it. My hypothesis turned out to be true and was confirmed when
we started seeing blood running out of her eyes. Much to the horror
and dismay to the onlooking crowd which prompted someone from the
crowd to immediately call the ambulance. Amongst the chaos, we walked
away and.............
We ended up in a museum with storeys of
collections. The place resembles an over-stretched tent that
stretches several storeys high and the interior looks bright, flashy
and extravagant. Bold yellow and red was splashed onto every visible
wall and decoration. The bright lights, noisy chatter from other
people all around and carnival music playing in the background add to
the happy and festive atmosphere of the place. Dominated by yellow
wallpapers and red spiral stairs in the centre that seem to narrow
down as you move from top to bottom so that one would only have to
slide down to the first floor. I remember so because in the dream I
was wearing this short, blue, pleated skirt that is very useful in
fulfilling its job as being sexy and cute and somehow never exposing
what I didn't want it to. In this seemingly carnival-like museum, we
worked out way up the different storeys but lingered for a while on
the floor displaying African american artworks or Indians they call
it, from North America. Relics and busts with weird inscriptions on
it. After seeing a multitude of fierce Native American statues, I
turned away from the glass cabinets and walked towards the stairs.
Right there, a few floors below us, stood a geisha who is starting
her performance. She looks so exquisite and so in place, just like a
live doll on exhibition. We made eye contact. Her eyes were black and
beady and she had purple tear drop patterns below her eyes that
spread out like rays from the sun on a drawing. I started walking
down the stairs. People gathered around the stairs, my friend and I
rushed down the stairs to feast our eyes upon the performance. We
ended up somehow, on the last floor past the floor that the geisha
was performing, not where we wanted but decided to exit the building.
Next we ran into a run-down karaoke
bar. Blue-stained light flooded the area. An eerie light bulb
flickered once in a while in the background. Somewhere beyond the
corridoor that we are walking in, we see only blackness. Grey and
white posters that looked like newspaper clippings decorated the
walls. From the surrounding rooms, we can see some red lights and
flashing television as people were singing. A few people singing in
unison to some tacky love song. Mar turned to me and suggested that
we get a room to sing too. I looked at her strangely as if to hint
that this place is as scary as horror movie scene waiting for the
horror to start and insisted that we get the hell out of here fast.
She pouted her lips and grabbed my arm and opened the next closest
door that we find. Instead of opening into a square room with plushy
cushions surrounding the wall and a big screen TV in the middle with
two microphones standing guard on the table below it, we went through
a wrong door and ended up at the back of the shop. Just when I was
about to let out a sigh of relief, we turned and saw a guy standing
there staring at the pair of us, as if to say: “Ladies, I guess you
got yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time.” With mop in one
hand and spiky hair, the “Rock Star” janitor cocked his head to
one side and sneered his golden teeth at us. We smiled sheepishly and
walked pass him to the other door and exited the building - much to
Mar's dismay and my jubilance.
We kept walking and stumbled upon an
outdoor collection of street shops with vendors selling little
handicrafts, such as necklaces and ear rings made of beads and such.
Now, this is more like my cup of tea. We roamed around eagerly to
find if there's any suitable candidate for purchase and noticed
something special about this mini market : the walls are made up of
an extension of one single huge stone. The vendors would set up
their booths around the edge of the smooth stone floor and form a
circular layout in the centre for people to browse through the market
in a systematic way. The rocks are smooth and greyish-brown, they
curve to form a dome-like structure that has a second storey as well
leading to the road. The stairs being a part of the 'stone shop' so
as to speak. We walked up the stairs and reached a highway. The sun
is bright and cars were zooming past us. We can see from the horizon
that we have somehow reached a place similar to that of
Montreal...........
Then, the scene dramatically changed
and the characters of the story was re-organised. I for one is not
present anymore in the storyline but I can see what was happening as
if it was a movie screening. My “friend”, however is still
present. She met a guy and they went out to several different place
to have fun, without the knowledge of her parents. On this particular
night, my friend and her new boyfriend had a couple of drinks and
totally passed out on a bed at the guy's place. With them both
semi-naked and her laying on top of him. But they weren't doing
anything, just laying next to one another, sleeping and shifting
their positions once in a while.(I assume that this effect was to
show that time passed by.) When they woke up, they started talking
and subsequently turned into a fight. Fuming, he turned his back on
her to face the window. She screamed something in response and walked
away while grabbing his blanket. The blanket somehow transformed into
a transparent sheet of inflatable plastic. She stormed out of the
room while clutching his blanket. Still deep in thought, he looks out
of the window at the night scene with the numerous buildings and city
lights as the backdrop. Suddenly, reflected on the wall of the
opposite building, he sees the shadow of a person holding a
transparent sheet around his/her body, who, in an instant,
transformed into a great creature with wings. With his heart
hammering against his chest and his head still confused at what he
saw, he picked up the heavy “swoosh, swoosh” of wings. Glancing
up and turning his head to catch a better glimpse of the creature, he
saw from above his head and over, flew a swan into the dark of the
night.
~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I was then woken up by some noise
coming from the bathroom. Slightly annoyed and surprised, I got out
of bed to check and saw that the commotion was caused by my roommate
who has just returned. I rubbed my eyes and sat down at the computer
to write down this amazing adventure of mine before it slips out of
my memory. Satisfied , I then went back to bed, hoping that I will
encounter yet another crazy and wild adventure in my head. I guess I
might have to few more sips of that mango malt concussion
again.........
PS: DEAR MAR, if you read this....pls dont feel grossed out!!! I have no idea why I dreamt of you. But it only meant that I MISS YOU TOO MUCH!!!! hahahahah!!
