Dreaming Reality

Greg and his family are at an ice-cream place. Mary, Greg's daughter, and his eldest child, is the first one to order, "I'll have a chicken-flavored potato chip and roasted pig combo please."

"Alright," the waitress replies, "what about you?", she asks Nick, Greg's son.

"I'll have a...", he thinks about it, "a..."

"He'll have a pickle and pineapple duo. It's his favorite." says Nita, Greg's wife.

"And what about you, mam?"

"Are you out of worm-flavor?" Nita asks.

"No." the waitress replies

"Okay, I'll have that," she says, "Oh, and one more thing...put it in a human skin cone."

"NITA!" her husband yells, "...You know what the doctor said about your cannibalistic diet, it isn't healthy."

"He's right," she admits, "I've been trying to opt out of all human-made nourishments recently. Just make it a regular cone, or you know what, I'll have it in an elephant trunk if you have those."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry mam, but we're all out of elephant trunks." the waitress replies.

"That's dreadful. The ice-cream place down the road is full of elephant trunks," she says, "just scoop it into my hands will you."

"As you wish. How about you sir, do you want anything?"

"Vanilla and strawberry will do."

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Afterwards, Greg decides to drive his five-wheeler car around the town for a bit. 

"Honey," Greg says, "have you been feeling a bit strange lately?"

"No. Why do you ask?" Nita replies.

"Well, I don't know. I have..."

"You don't say," she replies, "you ordered a vanilla and strawberry ice-cream today." She chuckles.

"Yeah, dad. That was pretty gross." Mary steps in. Nick nods in support of his sister's opinion.

Greg looks at the road. He’s pondering over his recent dreams, and the meaning of them. He had been seeing strange visions, memorable night-encounters that felt almost real. They sent him somewhere else, and when he got back the world seemed different, more odd...

Greg’s dream journal, last entry: “I woke up(in the dream) and started getting ready for work. Instead of brushing my teeth with mayonnaise as I do every morning I used toothpaste, and put mayonnaise on my lunch(the exact opposite of what I do in my waking life). At first, it felt very weird, but then...it all sort of made sense. I’ve been trying to visualise these experiences and so far I’ve drawn a few sketches of this world but I’m afraid Nita might see them and think I’m insane.”

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“Greg, listen to me, you have a very serious problem.” Says Dr. Smith, the psychiatrist, as he bathes in almond milk while Greg is sitting on the patient’s seat.

“See, doc! This!” Greg has another of many moments of absurd realisation. “Why is this happening?! Why are you in there!” He shouts.

“What do you mean, this is the normal way of approaching my patients.”

“It shouldn’t be!”

“Why not? Oh yes, I know. Your dreams have been telling you.”

“Listen, doc. In these dreams, I see the normal world, how it should be, this thing we’re living in, I...I don’t know what it is, but I know it isn’t right, it’s quite odd, and contrary, why should we put toothpaste on food and not brush our teeth with it. The very name tells us it's function. It’s absurd! Everything is. We eat disgusting, appalling stuff, and why? Do you... do you know how amazing stuff tastes with sauces instead of shampoo in them?

“Disgusting!” The doctor says.

“Do you know what it’s like to read but not upside down?”

“Upside down? What are you talking about?” The doctor asks.

“Do you know how much more enjoyable sports are when the team winning the match is awarded the trophy?”

“Crazy.” Says the doctor.

“You know doc? In the real world, they have a word for here, it’s called surrealism. Ever heard of it?”

“I don’t dream Greg, I live in reality.”

“Surrealism is...”

Clock rings. 

“Time’s down. I need to be gone now, Greg. Our next session is Thursday, 2 am.”

Greg lies helpless in one of the halls in the ward. He misses his little kids, Mary and Nick. He fears for them in this uncertain world. He wants to take them to the real world, but until now only he has been able to access it through his dreams. A sickness hits him, inexplicable nausea, out of nowhere and very strong. He sees it! He’s in the real world. Around the ward, the doctors and nurses all act normal. One of the nurses comes toward him.

“Hello, Greg, are you ready for your session with Dr. Smith?”

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Dr. Smith’s notes: The patient by the name of Greg Donald, first brought in by his wife, Nita Donald, exhibited symptoms of schizophrenia. The reason for his bringing here was his wife, who had noticed very weird behavioural patterns in Greg. It started with him ordering unconventional stuff at restaurants and ice-cream places. She then saw the most absurd and horrifyingly surreal sketches in her husband's coat, and read his dream journal which was full of descriptions of this imagined world. These writings showed us that Greg believed he was living somewhere else, far from reality. He thought that his waking life was full of people who behaved and interacted with him in unimaginably absurd ways, but in his dreams they displayed normal characteristics. It is clear that Greg wasn’t able to separate his waking reality to that of his dream world. In fact, he mixed up the two. His surreal world, was what was taking place in his mind when he was sound asleep, and his “dreams” were actual reality. He simply reversed the two, that is until now, when he realised and accepted the situation, after 6 months of treatment in the D00 Mental Institution.”

Greg, walking outside the ward for the first time in months, lights up a cigarette. His dogs are waiting for him outside. Their names are written on the collars, Mary and Nick. “Where are my two wonderful kids?” Greg talks to them.

“Hi, daddy!” The dogs respond.

The misty cigarette smoke metamorphoses into his wife Nita. “You need to wake up, Greg”