Flax’s Dream

Today we’re going to travel south, from the breezy blue skies of Toronto to the sticky humid air of Tecumseh, Missouri where the seventy members of the voluntary community Eastwind are just waking up.

Flax Seed (formerly known as Kevin) comes into the dining hall and flops down on two wooden chairs. He’s between Gladiola (formerly known as Rich) and Beatrice (formerly known as Jenny). They are his two closest friends.

Flax, flopping back in his chair, eyes closed Man, you guys, I had the most amazing dream last night.

Gladiola, rolling his eyes in Beatrice’s direction Oh? DO tell us every single little detail that you can remember, no matter how fuzzy.

Beatrice Shut up, Glad. C’mon, tell us your dream. We’ll interpret it for you.

Flax I knew it was a dream right away, because I was nice and cool.

[A moment’s silence as all three remember what it felt like to be nice and cool.]

Flax I was walking down a sidewalk, and everyone who was passing in their cars was waving a flag and honking their horns.

Beatrice An American flag?

Flax Nooo, it was multi-colored. Red and green, I think. With a sort of coat of arms on it.

Beatrice Red and green…coat of arms…that means that you’re yearning for Christmas, and to learn more about your family tree.

Aaliyah calls from another table It means Portugal beat out Spain on Sunday. That was the Portugese flag.

Gladiola In football?

Aaliyah SOCCER. [mutters] Cretin.

Flax Hello, can we get back to my dream here?

Beatrice under her breath It can still symbolise Christmas and family, even if it’s the Portugese flag.

Flax So then the sidewalk ended, and I was in a park. It was huge - I couldn’t even see the other side of it from where I was standing.

Gladiola Oh my god, Flax. This is fucking riveting. I think I’m going to pee my pants.

Beatrice Shut UP, Glad!

Flax I walked towards the playground. I passed a farmer’s market, and then there were all these teenagers playing volleyball. They were right next to an giant baking oven, like you see in a wood fired pizza place.

Beatrice Out in the middle of the park?

Flax Yeah, right there on the grass. This guy was making pizza dough and handing out a dough ball to the little kids who were lined up so they could make their own pizza in the oven. I kept on walking and there was this big old Mongolian yurt, and a bunch of longhaired dudes sitting in front of it processing their issues.

Gladiola Okay, even I know where that came from. You didn’t help with the yurt raising yesterday and Rattle is totally pissed about it. She’s looking for you so she can process her issues all over your ass.

Flax looks nervously over his shoulder at the doorway Shit.

Aaliyah calls You come cut a couple of pounds of onions for lunch today and I’ll get Rattle off your back.

Flax Thanks, but I’d rather face Rattle than the onions. Anyway. So I passed the yurt and there was this girl -

Beatrice Woman.

Flax Woman, who was dressed in a leotard and mini-skirt, with cat ears -

Beatrice, hands over her ears Skip this part! Skip this part!

Flax No, no, it’s not like that. She was with a man in a tuxedo and they were dancing on the stairs singing “When I’m 64″.

Gladiola Guy, you need therapy.

Flax I kept on walking past the playground and there was this huge mound of sand, with kids playing all over it. They had a hose running and a whole network of streams that all connected to each other. It was beautiful, man. Totally spiritual, you know? All the kids playing together and cooperating and being, like, the new generation. Then I looked up at the sky and just as the dream was ending it began to -

Everyone in the dining hall RAIN PINK LOLLIPOPS.

Flax, pouting It’s not my fault that all my dreams end that way.

Beatrice Your dream is easy to interpret, honey. You want some kind of utopian world that doesn’t really exist. That park could never be a reality.