Perchance to Dream
It is graduation day. The students, sprawled inside an enormous labyrinth of hidden hallways, bounce off of each other like ants in an attempt to surmise the suggested relational arrangement of their bodies. I’m not there yet. I’m always late for everything. I await graduation in Allan Hepburn’s dimly lit apartment, which is identical to my grandmother’s apartment in Sofia, Bulgaria. I later note to my roommate how peculiar it is that Allan Hepburn lives in the same apartment buildings and has the same floor plans as my grandmother in both Bulgaria and Montreal.
Allan Hepburn has taken over my grandmother’s apartment and now he sits there plotting his scheme. He intends to sabotage graduation and has chosen Wes Folkerth as his accomplice. Wes Folkerth plays a character from a Shakespearean comedy. At heart, Folkerth is forever young. Folkerth is the Trickster figure. He means no harm; he only wishes to remain animated. He crouches underneath Hepburn’s window sill, awaiting the mastermind’s instructions.
Back in convocation hall, I emerge in my prom dress, on top of which I plan to put on my black gown. My old high school friend, Emily Howard, surfaces from a wormhole and recognizes my prom dress. She too is graduating, but in a fiery red gown--the color of my dress. All at once a deluge of graduates in red gowns storm down the hallway. My gown is black. Allan Hepburn is a genius.
At my grandmother’s apartment I stand face to face with Hepburn, as he acknowledges that the dignity of undergraduates should be respected after all.
“I’ve always sided with the students,” he insists.
----
Genre: Surrealist
This story came to me in a dream in early June, a few days after my graduation from McGill. I posted it on my livejournal, The Velina Monologues, and then realized that Pulp Decameron would be an equally suitable place for it. Since this fiction written by my subconscious is about real people, I should say a word or two to distinguish what we call dreaming from what we call reality.
Allan Hepburn and Wes Folkerth are English professors at McGill. Wes Folkerth is a Shakespearean, and has written essays on the Puck figure that his character embodies. Allan Hepburn, considered by many to be a “mastermind” in “real life” as well, is in fact highly supportive of his students. I was not too close to him, but he did lend me a book that I desperately needed in order to finish my honours thesis this past April.
Allan Hepburn has taken over my grandmother’s apartment and now he sits there plotting his scheme. He intends to sabotage graduation and has chosen Wes Folkerth as his accomplice. Wes Folkerth plays a character from a Shakespearean comedy. At heart, Folkerth is forever young. Folkerth is the Trickster figure. He means no harm; he only wishes to remain animated. He crouches underneath Hepburn’s window sill, awaiting the mastermind’s instructions.
Back in convocation hall, I emerge in my prom dress, on top of which I plan to put on my black gown. My old high school friend, Emily Howard, surfaces from a wormhole and recognizes my prom dress. She too is graduating, but in a fiery red gown--the color of my dress. All at once a deluge of graduates in red gowns storm down the hallway. My gown is black. Allan Hepburn is a genius.
At my grandmother’s apartment I stand face to face with Hepburn, as he acknowledges that the dignity of undergraduates should be respected after all.
“I’ve always sided with the students,” he insists.
----
Genre: Surrealist
This story came to me in a dream in early June, a few days after my graduation from McGill. I posted it on my livejournal, The Velina Monologues, and then realized that Pulp Decameron would be an equally suitable place for it. Since this fiction written by my subconscious is about real people, I should say a word or two to distinguish what we call dreaming from what we call reality.
Allan Hepburn and Wes Folkerth are English professors at McGill. Wes Folkerth is a Shakespearean, and has written essays on the Puck figure that his character embodies. Allan Hepburn, considered by many to be a “mastermind” in “real life” as well, is in fact highly supportive of his students. I was not too close to him, but he did lend me a book that I desperately needed in order to finish my honours thesis this past April.