June 11, Another Dream

I went in the supermarket and wanted to buy something nice for mum. I always do. But hardly anything lived up to my expectations. I made do with some little snacks and walked out, only to find myself traveling through a ridiculously long escalator down. The more it went the more it seemed to be a child's slide.

Luckily it did not extend forever, I stepped out and found my father waiting. It's 11:30 now in the evening but he still didn't want to go back. He draw some bills out of his pocket and told me to take a taxi home, but it turned out to be just a 5-yuan bill and a 1-jiao. It'll be OK I thought, just I didn't want to go home alone at so late an hour. So I accompanied him, passing small restaurants in a tattered street.

Then we came across two classmates of mine, one of whom invited us to their rented apartment. "It's that penthouse above that celebrity's apartment." They pointed to us a high-rise building with huge and vacuous windows. It seemed unoccupied. But how can it be affordable to my classmates otherwise, I thought. Father was invited too, but he insisted on washing his shoes first.

I was curious to see what the interior of the apartment was like, and yet I was afraid that back home mom would be already asleep in hunger - for the food was still in my hands.

....

Then my roommate's phone rang and a girl's voice went off from the other end like that of an alarm clock, disproportionately loud and anxious. I doubted there was anything so urgent in this school that worth so much anxiety any more. I searched my mind dimly and found nothing. Then I decided whatever it was she was just making a fuss and a fool of herself. My roommate answered with the drowsiness and hoarseness of voice I expected. I was soothed by her indifference.