Right now I can't say I am living the dream, rather I am not just there yet.
Right from when I was a kid, I have had many dreams — big dreams, small dreams, and even stupid dreams.
But have you ever found yourself living a dream in a dream?
That night, my siblings and I were binging the popular series Vampire Diaries. It was our first watch, and we were enchanted by the film. It was a film we wanted to watch for a very long time, but back then it was my mom that bought CDs for us, and she never agreed. She would say they were demonic. So we had to wait till we were able to get it ourselves.
We watched the movie all through that week. Then one night, almost to the next morning, we were all tired and already dozing off one by one. I was far away on the couch with my brother when my sister woke us up to go sleep on our beds and switched the TV off.
Then that night, after I lumbered half asleep with my sister directing us one by one to our beds, I had one of the few sweetest dreams that I can remember as vividly as possible.
In the dream, I found myself in a large field of different beautiful flowers, enhanced by the light from a bright sun. The field looked endless, and every other thing was a blur. I started picking the flowers, and each one I picked changed to ice cream of different flavors according to the color of the flower.
I didn't know when the ice cream vanished, and I started floating up into the clouds. It felt so peaceful in a weird way.
Although I am normally scared of heights — and sometimes even in my dreams — I wasn't scared this time. I don't know if it was the beautiful fluffy clouds with a tiny light pink to them, which looked like cotton candy.
I floated above the clouds and found myself in a huge dining hall. I sat on the only chair at the table. Then my mom came out and casually asked me if I was hungry. I said yes, and she left.
The next second, all sorts of food were on the table, just like in the foreign movies when they have Thanksgiving dinners with so much food — but this time, it was only me.
Then a chef came in with a plate and serving spoons.
Guess who the chef was?
It was none other than Damon Salvatore — my latest crush from the Vampire Diaries series, lol. He just kept on serving me food, which I didn't touch, and I kept on blushing like a fool.
Then I woke up. The dream was so good, I woke up still smiling uncontrollably. I didn't move from my bed, I just stayed there, reminiscing on the dream. I didn't even notice my sister was sitting in the room watching me behave weird.
“Zainab!" she called me back to reality after watching me for a few minutes.
“Hmmm, why are you smiling and blushing like that?" she asked curiously, with one eyebrow raised.
“I had this dream, and… never mind, you will not understand,” I said.
My sister rushed to my bed beside me and now looked even more curious to know what the dream was.
“Tell me please, tell me please, tell me…” she held my arm and shook me continuously.
“Okay, stop! Stop! Let me tell you," I said.
She stopped shaking me and listened attentively. I told her what I could remember from the dream, and she started laughing.
“Wait—wait, so you dreamt of Damon, that is why you are smiling like that?” my sister kept on laughing.
I started regretting telling her already. "Don't tell anybody.”
"No, no, mummy must hear this one,” she laughed.
"Please don't tell mummy, I don't have strength for her problem this early morning," I begged.
"Don't worry, she would just laugh,” my sister kept laughing at me, trying to soothe me.
But everyone knew my mom. She always blew those kinds of things out of proportion with her spiritual superstitions. And she never liked the film from the very start. She would just say, “I warned you beforehand, but you would not listen. That film is demonic!”
It was always funny when she would be seriously warning us with superstitions, and we knew it was just the effect of being born in the olden days.
My sister went out of the room straight to my mom. I stayed in the room and waited for the drama. Not long after, I heard everyone burst into laughter.
Then mom started her usual on her way to the room.
“I warned you people that that film is not good, but you people will never listen…” I heard her voice get closer.
She entered the room with my siblings following behind, ready to watch the drama. And I was prepared already.
"Did you eat anything?” my mom asked as she entered the room.
"No,” I answered.
"Talk now o, because the enemies want to use food and collect your destiny. But God forbid for them to succeed,” my mom warned, holding her ear.
“Nothing happened, it was just an ordinary dream,” I replied, totally embarrassed as my siblings laughed in the background.
“Hmmm, you better pray, and rebuke every vampire demon from the kingdom of darkness,” she said before she left.
My mom later came back and anointed me with holy oil. In the end, I and my siblings laughed about it as they mocked me with the words of my mom.
But still, if that’s not living the dream — lots of food in paradise and my handsome crush — even if it only lasted till my mom brought out the anointing oil — I don’t know what is.
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