I was watching a movie, a sort of horror movie, that started with a man entering a nice suburban house and killing the parent; I can’t remember if it was the mother or father; of a little girl. He shot them once at point-blank range in the head or the heart with a handgun that looked like it had a silencer on it. The kid saw it, started screaming and ran to another part of the house.

The man, who was on the phone with someone; the person apparently had no idea what he was up to; casually walked away from the dead body thru the house to where the cries of the kid were coming from. I’d wondered if he was going to leave or go after the kid and there was my answer. She was hiding on the floor of what seemed like a bathroom when he found her.

She lay there frozen, except for the fact the she was trembling, in fear as he put the gun to her head as casually as can be and squeezed the trigger. The tension released as the gun made a soft click noise. After the few seconds it took to realize she was still alive, she hopped up and ran out of the room. The man didn’t give chase. He simply began putting more bullets in the gun.

The girl ran out of the house. It had been night but switched to day as I imagined where I’d go if it were me. To my house next door, I thought, visualizing the one I grew-up in, which would mean the killing happened at my Grandma’s house. I could hide in the basement, but I changed my mind after considering how I’d be trapped if he followed me down there.

Suddenly the tone of the movie changed as the scene cut to what looked like an orangutan. That’s when I realized I’d seen this movie before. It was a sense of déjà vu that scared me as the ape, the fat face of which flashed in extreme close-ups; my only levity was thinking how it looked like a fat black woman I used to work with; began to make Chewbacca-like noises.

At first all I saw was the movie, but at this point I could see the TV I was watching it on and all. I was in a house; not the one I grew-up in but a different one, a newer one, I assume I now lived in alone, which would explain my shock as what looked like a fat white woman walked in from outside. As I feared, the movie was, just as it did the first time I watched it, coming to life.

It wasn’t until the person walked over to the couch and sat down that I got a close look and realized it was probably a man; he looked to be in his 50s; dressed as a woman. “I live in California,” it said, flickering like a hologram from Total Recall. “You live in California,” I repeated but in the form of a question as to confirm it said what I clearly heard it say. That’s when I awoke.

2021 ( February 17 )