Dreams

Yuting Zhang (She/They)

I was walking down a street in a strange place. When I looked up I saw intersections of branches, pink blossoms hanging against the background of a gray white sky. Small blocks of buildings, like those I saw in Hangzhou.

Clean streets. A rare sight ever since I came to the States. I took out my old phone to take a few blurry photos. Where am I? I don’t want to know. I do want to know. I opened Google Maps to locate myself. Kawasage Mountain. Don’t go there. I woke up in terror.

What is with this world? I saw a pink-white checkerboard-patterned floor and a huge, dirty floor-to-ceiling window. A puppet house. I looked through a locked door to see a puppet playground. They were skating, jumping, unaware of the looming danger. I need the keys. I took off my clothes in front of the puppet guard and she stared at me in shock. Did she see me as a freak? I don’t have their plastic joints.

I stood in a parking lot at night, like the one under my apartment building. A bulky monster with four skinny legs and an empty belly to engulf cars. Except the light was dead neon blue. The concrete ground gleamed with ice. I stood with a crowd of actors. Put on your mask. You are monsters. Five in a line. Keep the form. Don’t get caught. 

I moved my legs. I was walking, striding, trotting and eventually sprinting. They are gonna get me. Two faceless black shadows were flashing through the crowd to my direction. I was running so fast that I flew across ten meters after each step, and I had to grip the concrete column when taking a turn to not lose momentum. When I was in the air I even flew above their heads. 

But I was just circling the parking lot, over and over. They are gonna get me.