I'm on a video call with my high school friends. They want to meet in Baltimore, Maryland because as one friend puts it: "so much to do!" Unfortunately, I live across country and will have to fly in.
The dream skips to me going up an escalator. I'm greeted by an incredibly bright sun. I have one carry-on and two checked bags with me.
I have arrived in Baltimore.
I start by inputting the address of my friend's place into some GPS application on my smartphone. It directs me and I follow. I walk down this street, steeply descending. All I can hear are my two luggage bags rolling loud on the cracked pavement. Things seem fine, but I'm on edge.
I get this feeling that everyone's out for me. as I reach the bottom of the street, I come under some shade as there's a highway built on top. I sit on a bench and there's a newspaper from the "blue corp tide" beside me. I'm not sure what the front page story is, but it looked like a town gossip paper. I take it and open it.
Before I can read any word, a young woman in her early twenties approaches me. She sports rounded sunglasses, a floral over-shirt with a white under-shirt, tight light blue jeans, and sneakers. She has a retractable leash for the dog she's walking, which appears to be a dark brown miniature terrier.
She asks how I'm doing and what's up. Her tone is like we've met before. I respond that I'm doing well and that I'm just reading the paper. She says "cool, cool," and asks if there's anything interesting. I reply that there's nothing of note and she smiles. She stands there in silence and then I point out that her dog is wrapping the leash around some people. She makes a whipping motion and the leash is undone and the dog comes closer to her. She says, "ciao," and leaves. I merely wave.
After a while, the sun somehow encroaches under the overhead highway. A street janitor comes by and I drop off the paper in his bin. He does not look happy to be doing his job.
I cross the street, forgetting to check the directions on my phone, and arrive close to this old, incredibly large recreational building. I surmised that there must've been multiple basketball courts inside from all the noise. I notice there's some sketchy people outside the entrance, it's almost as if they're checking who comes in. I walk past them.
The sidewalk leads me to a small communal garden. The flowers are mostly pink and purple. There are some shrubs and the ground is covered in wood chips. I see that in the distance is a large apartment building. It looks to be about five stories high. Nearly all the windows have satellite dishes attached and air conditioning inside them. Most of the windows are covered by curtains.
Near me are multiple playgrounds. I see three kids in one playground, two much older than the last listening to music on wired headphones. In another playground, many are just playing with the slides and staircases.
There's a big fence blocking me from just crossing over the playgrounds to the apartment, so I turn back.
I walk past the sketchy people again, this time closer. I can over hear what they're talking about. One man, looks to be in his late twenties with a comb-over of only a few strands of hair and a bulbous red nose. He complains that, "they can't keeping doing this to us anymore."
My vision is then changed to be an animated illustration about what he's talking about. Apparently he's lived in Baltimore all his life and he hates the gentrification. He trying to keep parts of Baltimore the same with his gang. Then he changes topic. He really want this one actress to be his girlfriend and he keeps sending letters that she doesn't respond to.
As he gets angrier and angrier, the animation's style gets cruder and cruder. Lines aren't connecting and the texture becomes more coarse. It's as if the animator is pressing down unreasonably hard with oil pastels and crayons. It becomes too difficult to discern anything from it, and I wake up.