The dream starts on a busy road that looks distinctly Asian - perhaps Vietnamese? In real life I remember being on a road like this in Ho Chi Minh city - lots of lanes, lots of traffic densely packed in the formation of an endless stream. In order to cross the road, one must take the plunge and just dive in, trusting that the millions of motorcycles and rickshaws will simply go around you and leave you unscathed.
In the dream I'm with S and G in his pram. We suddenly see a giant Chinese supermarket on the other side of the road. It's huge, taking up most of a block, 3 storeys high, big glass windows and lots of enticing ads in the windows.
What's that supermarket? I say to S excitedly. We have to go there and pick up snacks!
But there's no way to cross the road. I try to convince S that we can just dive into the traffic and it'll be fine, but he refuses to cross the road citing concerns for the safety of G in the pram. It's true that it's different with a pram, and I start to doubt my conviction as well. We look around and there is no traffic light or crossing in sight.
Maybe we passed by one just now. S says.
We walk backwards, the way we came and after a long time we finally see a traffic light where we cross the road uneventfully. We walk quickly back towards the supermarket, but just as we approach it, all the lights suddenly go off and the whole building, previously brightly illuminated, fades to dark.
Oh no, we just missed it. I said to S, crestfallen that I don't get to have my snacks. We stand on the sidewalk feeling miserable.
Then S points out a restaurant just after the supermarket. He says it must be good cos people must go shopping at the supermarket and then have something there.
The restaurant is called "The house of Guo Xin 郭欣” and inside it is cramped with simple wooden tables and small square stools. The counters are sticky and the walls are devoid of decorations. This must be good, I said to S, it looks like we are in China.
We order wontons and they are brought out quickly by a brusque lady who dumps the big bowls in front of us unceremoniously. At that moment a guy comes into the
Ça va, S? T'es prêt pour la mission?? He says to us (How's it going? Are you ready for the mission?)
Oui oui, mais il faut d'abord manger notre wontons (Yes, but we have to eat our wontons first)
The guy takes a seat at our table and tries to tell the waitress in French that he also wants a bowl of wontons, but she doesn't seem to speak any French. Maybe it's also the way he is pronouncing wontons like how in French the last syllable is always accentuated like won-TON. Finally I tell the lady in Chinese and she brings out another bowl of wontons.
The wontons are excellent, just like how we eat them in Shanghai. Afterwards S leaves with the guy for "the mission" and he says he'll catch up with us later.
G & I stay in the restaurant for a while but the lady tells us to leave because our table is needed, and we walk along the super busy main street. Soon I see a small lane on the left and it looks so nice and quiet that I decide to go along it for a bit of rest from the craziness of the main street.
The lane is deserted and soon leads us to a big open space. When I look up it's the Eiffel Tower and it looks like we are on Champ de Mars, but the grass is all dead and has been replaced by rubble.
Suddenly I see S in the distance with 3 or 4 other guys. Between them they have a number of suitcases and one guy has a trolley like those used for transporting fridges, full of boxes.
The guy from the wonton restaurant sees me and he's super happy, yelling and waving at us. He says that the mission has gone exceptionally well because S was able to distract the guy at customs.
Customs?? I think to myself.
He opens a box and it's full of what appear to be children's books. He takes out a book to show me. When he opens the book, the story inside pops out like a hologramme, but much more real, like it's a real life enactment of the story. Like a 3D real life Youtube video.
He gives us a large blue giftbox which he says is for G. I give the box to G and it's almost as big as him. He holds it curiously in the pram, trying to open the top of it.
We still have to get some more of the stuff. S says to me.
No worries, I can just walk home from here. I say to him, since Champ de Mars is not too far from our apartment.
The guys leave and I start walking away from the Eiffel Tower in the direction of home. But all of a sudden I look up and I realise that the Champ de Mars is not straight anymore. The Eiffel Tower is somehow around the corner, whereas in real life Champ de Mars is a rectangle of park directly in front of it, so there's no way that the Eiffel Tower could be only in partial view.
But where am I? I think to myself. This is the wrong Champ de Mars.
And that's how I wake up.
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