Sweet Dreams, Dear Child

People have two kinds of dreams -- those that they wish to become or to have and those that they see behind their heads when they are busy closing their eyes.

I would say I want to become a teacher as well as a famed writer someday, aside from being able to tour around the world, especially the Middle Eastern part of the globe. Those are my dreams, when I mean the first definition. The second one would be different. I have lots of dreams stored somewhere in my hippocampus and though I forgot some of it already, I still have a neat number of dreams which I never have forgotten until the present. 

One of the dreams I retrieved from my memory was when I dreamed about my birthday. I was more or less 5 years old that time. Here is the complete detail of that fancy dream of mine.

It was already "Araw ng Kagitingan," my big day. I rubbed my eyes as I went out of my room. My mother and father was already in the kitchen, holding a circular cake with a candle at its center. I made a very wide grin on my face and quickly blew the candle. Just then, out of nowhere, came a lot of people. They were singing the birthday song while walking towards me. I did not erase my smile since my mother told me to do so. I whispered to my mother how hungry I was already and she brought me to the kitchen table, where platters of dainty foods were served. I was surprised of the sight for I know we cannot afford such delicious foods. Father summoned all the visitors to keep quiet, and then he made a thanksgiving prayer in front of the food. As we said amen, everyone was already in a single file, each holding a plate in his hands. Mother requested me to count all the queuing visitors so that we will be able to estimate how many could be accommodated. Excited, I obeyed her. I started to get out of the house with a boy friend which had a forgotten identity and began the counting. (Our house is about 200 meters away from the sea and overlooking the island is an islet, the Apo Island.) We reached the seashore and I thought it would end there. But still, there are many who were making a line. They were all murmuring already because the sevice is too slow and that they are already hungry. For the sake of giving my mother an accurate result of the number of people who queued, we boarded a banca and included those who are already in their respective vessels, following the long line. I was amazed on the number of visitors that I had. I did not even know all of them and they did not also know me. We finally arrived in Apo Island where the long file stopped.

Just like the rest my dreams, this one has no clear ending because I always catch myself staring on the roof, thinking of an appropriate dream-ender.