Dream entry #2

I dreamed this morning that Matthew and I decided to walk the dog in a different direction from our house than we usually take. Somehow we walked into a neighborhood we’d never seen before, a neighborhood inhabited by people from fairytales. We saw Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel and lots of other apple-cheeked characters in lederhosen--even Santa’s reindeer were out walking around. Everything looked like a Chicago street but dreamier. The houses were standard walk-up three stories tall, but the sky was bluer, the trees were bigger, and the view from the sidewalk more romantic.

It was a very scary neighborhood though. The Latino fairytales were fighting with the Euro fairytales. Constant gun battles rifled bullet holes into houses that had fantastical trees growing through them as part of their walls. I was terrified; Matthew and I held hands and tried to figure out how to get out of this daydream neighborhood turned urban nightmare. The Latino fairytales were upset that they worked hard but got no recognition from the American reading public. They wanted better housing conditions and awareness of their fairytale traditions. The Euro fairytales wanted to protect their status as the only fairytales read to children at bedtime. The Latino fairytales and the Euro fairytales shouted racial slurs at each other. They fired automatic machine guns into the air in the direction of their foes’ houses. I cried, and I wanted to go back home.

Matthew and I discovered a line of Euro fairytale characters all walking in the same direction, so we figured that since we were of European ancestry that this was the way we should walk to find our way out of the scary neighborhood. I woke up after Rapunzel gave us directions, glad to be back in the safety of Logan Square. I’ll never feel the same about Rumpelstiltskin again.