“No Streaks” – a dream I had last night

I just woke up and I wanted to tell you about this dream I just had. It was pretty early when I started writing this but just like my grandmother always said, when you have an amazing dream, don’t let it go. Write it down. I don’t really know what inspired it overall but I know the influences. Maybe it’s because I was thinking about that school in Ghaziabad that you used to teach at last night, but I had this weird dream that was just like a Disney movie. Actually it reminded me a lot of The Wizard because of the girl in it. You know I always had a crush on her as a kid in the early 90’s after the movie came out. It wasn’t the exact same girl but it reminded me of her and gave me a good picture to go with the story. So, the dream went like this.

I was running some sort of factory facility at the start and I had to go to this nearby town for information about .. I don’t know. Something to do with car parts or something. I had to track someone down as well initially, and when I got to this town I met a bunch of kids who were loitering and causing trouble and they would only give me information in return for food, so I had to take them out for burgers.

I got to know these kids pretty well over my visits to this town and we got up to a bit of trouble, which reminded me a lot of the Kim-Tran kids I used to teach. The usual stuff, making too much noise in a restaurant, making a mess and all that sort of thing. These kids terrorised the town a bit and I sort of encouraged it. We blew rhasberries on store windows and draw rude words on the back of dirty cars in the dust and stuff. I went back regularly to get information and I got into hanging out with them because they were the only ones who would talk to me and because well, kids always know what’s going on in a town and who’se doing what. By the end I was occaisionally tricking them into doing helpful things without realising it. There was one point I was convincing them to helping me replace people’s garden ornaments that had been scattered around and to fix these weird sort of hoses that people had on their front lawns but I can’t remember what they were for, but the rest of the events were really clear.

One day there was this “old biddy” who confronted us. The typical sort of nasty movie villain townswoman. She reminded me of one of the gossipy nasty women from the Elvira movie. Big permed hair, coloured nails, and a really huffy attitude. She was putting up posters for this promotion for … get this … Windex. So, the deal was Windex had this promotion about “no streaks” and this woman was stomping around the town putting up these posters and carrying a bottle of Windex under her arm and when she saw us, she came marching up to us holding the bottle with her finger on the trigger like a gun, yelling that we were all “trouble” and that the “streak” she’d like to eliminate was us, but particularly me being in her town. She said the usual expected things about why I was hanging out with a bunch of kids instead of doing some sort of “productive adult thing” and she said something that triggered me, and I turned in a huff and said that fine, I was leaving and I didn’t want to come back to her silly little town anyway as I had better things to do.

But there was this freckle-faced girl who reminded me of the girl from The Wizard. She always tagged along not far behind me but she never spoke. One of the kids had told me that she had no parents and there was some sad story behind how her father had gone to prison and her mother had just run away and stopped caring for her, and most importantly she had dropped out of school because she couldn’t read and that’s why a lot of the other kids hung out and followed her around, even though she was never the leader. They were all sort of just looking out for her.

Well, when I said I was leaving, much to everyone’s surprise, she got really angry and she shouted at me.

“Everyone’s always leaving ! You have one little problem and you just give up and leave !” she yelled. She went on to say a couple more things before she unexpectedly threw herself into my arms sobbing into my chest. I remember glaring at all the kids and motioning behind her back to give her some space and not crowd around and embarrass her. The youngest kids all shut up and got serious and pretended to be very interested in something else while I comforted this girl and said I didn’t really have to go RIGHT NOW, and maybe I could hang around and we could do something to “show that mean lady”.

So, I came up with this idea on the spot and I asked them all to follow me to the supermarket. First we bought a couple of those chamois cloths that go on your hand like a glove but they had all these long bits hanging off them like cury hair. Then we got a long pole with a window wiper on it for one of the short kids, and most importantly, I bought a bunch of bottles of Windex and a HEAP of super soaker water pistols and then outside we filled half with clean water and half with Windex, and then we marched around town like a little army, stopping to ask store owners if we could clean their windows, which they agreed to with some dubiousness.

I’d call out “Team one !” and all the youngest kids would get down on one knee and cover the window in water with their water guns, and the two of us would furiously scrub all the dirt off, and then the short kid would wipe it away with the wiper pole, and then she’d call out “Team two !” and the older kids would bend a knee and do the same, but with their Windex filled guns and then we’d polish it off and we’d all salute the store owner and keep walking to the next store.

We walked all over town, at one point stopping for a photo, with all the kids holding their water guns to their chest and saluting, and we eventually moved on to cleaning cars as well, ending a long afternoon outside the town library.

“Do you like comic books ?”. I asked casually even though I already knew the answer. She was a big fan, but she only “read” the same ones she already knew the stories of because she struggled to read new things.

“Yeah”, she replied hesitantly. “But I only like Asterix and Obelix. And Batman. Do you like Batman ?”. I chuckled because I knew she was very enamoured with the cape I wore, because she thought it made me look like Batman.

“Sure,” I said. “Do you know Batman’s dog’s name ?”

“Well,” she sad, straightening her back, ready to explain. “He’s called Ace the Bat-hound but his name is actually Pero”.

“Do you know what it means ?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Well, in Spanish, Pero or Perro just means dog. But Batman’s dog’s name comes from Hindi word “पेरो”. It means “Loyal” or “Faithful”, I explained.

“Wow ! That’s a great name for a dog !” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Do you want to go in and read some comics ? We’d ALL have to be very quiet and well behaved though”, I added, glaring at all the younger kids in particular. She nodded, as a chorus of younger faces nodded solemly in the background.

We went in and found some beanbags and we read comics, with some of the younger kids leaning over our shoulders and helping her sound out some of the words. Eventually she said that she misses school because she had friends there, but she was scared of reading and I told her there was no reason to be scared. We just had to practice some more and we could do it using comic books if she’d like. She said she would like that and we fist bumped on it as we left the library.

“Can you stay here tonight ?” she asked, looking up at me with big round eyes that I could tell were about to be brimming with tears.

“I’m sorry, kiddo. I have to go stay at my home. But I’ll be back tomorrow”.

“That’s what everyone says !” she yelled angrily, stomping her foot, her eyes now brimming with tears. “That’s what my mom said ! How do I know you’re not going to leave and never come back too ?! Promises are easy to make and easier to break !” she stared accusingly, her bottom lip trembling as she tried to hold her composure in front of the other kids who suddenly stared intently in the other direction at a poster on the front of the library.

“Hey, I won’t leave you with just a promise. Don’t worry. To make sure you know I’m coming back, I’m going to give you something much more important than that”. Putting one hand on her shoulder, I reached behind my shoulder and unclipped my cape and with a quick swish, attached it around her shoulders.

“See ? Now you’re Batman” I said with a smile, gently wiping away one tear that had escaped from her eye and was running down her freckled cheek.

“BatGIRL” she corrected me with a huff. “Pronouns matter”.

“Well, actually ‘girl’ is just a regular noun, but Batgirl is a proper no-. Ahhh you know what ? Nevermind. You’re right, they do” I said, hastily turning off teacher mode in response to the fierce look in her eyes. “So. You’ll be ok looking after the town until I get back tomorrow ? I’ll meet you right here. Is that ok ?” I proposed.

“Well, I suppose if someone has to do it, it should be me”, she said, looking down and scuffing her shoes on the concrete.

I returned the next day to find all the kids outside the library, vigorously cleaning all the windows as they waited for it to open. The head librarian, a fastidious and sort of gruff young man named Nand pulled up in his car just as I arrived. As he got out, his mouth opened as if he wanted to reprimand them for something, and then he closed it again as he looked at the glistening windows, shook his head in disbelief and simply got his bag out of his car and locked the doors and walked in without a word.

We continued this every day, meeting at the library, which always had perfectly clean windows, and we’d wander around town just cleaning up the place. The little kids would all turn up after school and acted like a little troupe of angels, always bowing in unison and saying “You’re welcome” when people thanked them for their efforts. The older teenage kids would just tag along behind chuckling and whispering, no doubt commenting on this sudden responsible change in their friend’s demeanour. Every afternoon we’d go to the library and read, and every evening I would take off my cape and clip it around her shoulders and we’d fist bump and make no verbal promises, both trusting that we’d be there again the next morning.

One day I arrived a little late and the library was already open and none of the kids were waiting outside. Thinking they might already be inside, I silently pulled open the door and poked my head around the corner to raise one eyebrow quizzically at Nand. He sighed at me and pointed silently to the outdoor courtyard through the windows where I could see all the kids gathering around something. One of the youngest ones came up behind me and just said “Teacher” and tugged at my sleeve and pulled me along with him. I followed him into this beautiful central courtyard in the middle of the library complex.

Spotting me above the small crowd, my now-eager student called out to me, waving me closer before proudly turning around the newspaper she held in her hands. Holding it to her chest, she put her finger under each of the words and read the front page headline.

“LOCAL KIDS LEAVE TOWN SQUEAKY CLEAN” she read out. Under the headline was the photo of us all saluting from that first day we started washing windows, with the two of us right in the center.

“Wow. You’re a town hero !” I said with amazement.

“Well, of course. Everyone knew that. But more importantly, now you’re a town hero too !” she said, blushing with pride.

We went back inside and all the rest of the kids gathered around in a semi-circle on the floor to listen while she read the article, pausing to sound out each word, looking up for confirmation on the difficult ones. The article went on to say that a rag-tag group of kids led by a “mysterious man in a cape” had begun cleaning up the town during the Windex promotion and that the company had agreed to make a substatial donation to the town for the great publicity and that the kids could suggest what they thought it should be spent on. I asked what she thought needed improving.

“The library of course !” she replied. “It’s pretty great, but it could use some more comic books. But it’s a great place to hang out. It just needs some more bean bags so we can ALL sit and read together”. Somewhere behind us I think I heard Nand drop a book in shock.

Sensing the importance of the moment, she looked up at me with those same big brown eyes and asked a question I had been anticipating for a while.

“Hey,” she said shyly. “Do you think maybe you could come with me to the school on Monday so I could re-enroll ? It’s not like I want to learn or anything. I already know everything I need to know in life. I just want to hang out with my friends again.”

“Sure, of course. I’d be happy to.” I said, tousling her hair as she grinned.

On Monday, that’s exactly what we did, marching up to the school, and approaching one of her teachers.

“Hi. Miss Merryweather ? I know I’ve missed a lot of classes this year. I have an English tutor now and I think I can do better and .. of course I know I’d have to do a lot of catching but, but I was wondering .. could I come back and still be in the same class ?”

“Well, after missing half the year I’m really not sur-” her teacher began, before she caught the stern glare I was giving her. “Ahh.. I mean. Yes. I’m not sure how long it’s been actually but we’d be happy to have you back. Is this your tutor ? Your new guardian ?”

“Oh him ? He’s Batman”.

“Uhhh.. Yes. Of course he is. And you’ll be attending every day now ? No more of these long absences like before ? No more truancy ?” her teacher asked, a little pedantically.

“Every day. I promise. You could say I decided to …. end that streak”.

She turned and looked like she wanted to give me a fistbump and but instead throw her arms around my neck in a big hug. “See you at the library after school ?” she asked.

“You betchya, Batgirl” I replied, giving her a fistbump as I turned and walked away with my cape billowing behind me.

—

And that was the end of the dream. Like.. it finished perfectly and at that moment I woke up. I was just laying there in bed and tears came rushing out of my eyes and I had to get up and go outside to avoid waking anyone up with my sniffling. I mean, I know where all the themes came from. There was so many references to my life. Miss Merryweather was the name of my third grade teacher. The Batman thing I think came from Annie. Remember at near the end of the movie when Jamie Foxx is watching Annie learn to read, and he’s talking about how the city needs him and his assistant says “Like Batman?” and he says “Yeah. Like Batman” ?

Oh and the librarian, Nand ? He was my real life school librarian in 11th grade. His name was Nand Dyal, sort of like the city in Andhra Pradesh. The kids were … I think inspired by an old family movie called the Sandlot Kids in the way they acted but the idea of getting them all to help do good things for the community definitely came from the Kim-Tran kids that I used to teach in my Kids Club charity group in Vietnam where the kids and I delivered food to the needy. They had that same determined “Yes I can!” attitude.

But somehow .. the biggest influence on the story, was you. It was the clearest, most lucid dream I think I remember ever having. I woke up so totally wide awake and it was so clear that I felt like I’d just watched the credits roll on a movie and all I could think was that I had to come tell you the story. Oh and yes, the weirdest thing and the reason I know it was definitely influenced by you, was that I don’t think I remembered for the last thirty years that Batman’s dog had a Hindi name. I don’t why I remember that. I don’t even read Batman. I don’t like superhero comics. And I don’t remember him even having a dog, but for some reason I knew that he did and that his dog had a Hindi name. I guess it’s one of those weird facts that stick with you. For some reason I have this mental list in my head of cartoon dogs with foreign names and that was one of them that I’d completely forgotten about until this dream. Weird huh ?

Amazing dream and a great story I thought. As you would describe it, it was “wholesome in wholesale”. 😉