What A Day!

This was written by Vulturette as an assignment for a class she is taking.

What a day! It’s a lovely spring day, it’s Friday and I don’t have to work. Ah, what a nice feeling. I have decided I am really going to take advantage of this beautiful day. I think about it and try to determine what I want to do. I go to the park and listen to the birds. I was at peace in the park. I enjoyed the sun on my skin and the breeze in my hair. I was in my own little piece of heaven. Then, I notice the time and decided I should leave. I want to let the children enjoy this day too; so I go pick them up after school. We return to the park so that they can enjoy the lovely day, too.

After awhile, they are played out and hungry. I guess I should have expected that with teenage boys. After all, they do eat all the time. So, I decide to let them have a special treat. We all load up into the truck and I take them to one of their favorite places. We make our way to the local fast food Mexican restaurant. They are so excited! We partake in the goodies offered by the restaurant and then make our way home.

When we return home, the boys ask me to join them in playing one of their multiplayer video games. It has been a nice day, so I give in and play the game with them. Of course, I’m not very good at the game and they really enjoy picking on me. Though I consistently lost, I did enjoy myself and had fun – even if it was at my expense. After a bit, I had played enough and made my way downstairs.

I’ve really enjoyed my day, but it has been a bit tiring, too. It will still be several hours before my husband returns home, so I take a nap. I drift off to sleep and I dream of the events of the day.

My dreams start out pleasant enough as I remember my visit to the park. Then, my dream begins to get a bit bizarre. The park is no longer like that which I had visited earlier in the day – it starts taking on the characteristics of the video game. The transformation is slow, but eventually the bright, glossy colors and characters take over the peaceful park I had known just hours before.

It is after all a dream, so there is not much I can do. I’m there for the “trip” and continue the dream during my napping state. Then, the dream took on a strange new twist. Not only was I seeing the park in a new, plastic-like way, but I was in the game! And, I was not alone. The boys were there, too! What a strange lot we were! It was so obvious, even in my dream that we did not belong in that place, but there we were. And then it got a bit more peculiar. We were no longer in the game version of the park, but in the game itself – and someone was playing the game!

What were we to do? In my waking state, I really did not know much about the game, but in my dream, I suddenly knew exactly what to do and how to play. So, alongside with the boys, we ran around the game with our own theme song in the background. We spent our time running and jumping and collecting coins and stars. It was like these prizes were everywhere and we were running in circles. So, we continue our excursion within this game world and collect all of the loot that is available. Then we found ourselves in the challenge round. As it turns out, it was wise for us to collect all of the goodies available because we had to pay our way into the final round. I was a few coins short, so the boys chipped in and gave me the coins I needed to enter into this place. In exchange, I gave each of them a star to show my appreciation.

We enter the final round and find it is a series of tests that we must past together. Our characters run around collecting more tokens and then suddenly we find that we get to race to the finish. We start out running individually, with me in the rear. Then, suddenly, they stop running and wait for me. At first, I’m not sure why, but then I understand. In order to get out of this game, we must join together. We hold hands and run and we win the game. Our prize is that the plastic façade with all the bright colors begins to fade a bit and become more realistic. As we run, the world begins to change a bit and we find ourselves transitioning back to the park just as it had been earlier that day. It was once again beautiful and pristine.

Then, I begin to stir. I’m remembering the strangeness of the dream and I start to come out of my slumber. As I awaken, these strange events pass through my mind and I cannot believe what we encountered in that dream. What a strange series of events. And from this, I believe I learned my lesson. I should never have Mexican food before I sleep!