I was back in Chicago attending a large family reunion that included some of my deceased relatives.
I decided to take my children on a walk through my old neighborhood and as we were walking near Clinton school on Granville and California, we witnessed two men in a red pickup truck dumping a live rhinoceros into a canal that ran adjacent to California Avenue.
The driver of the pickup—obviously convinced his act went unnoticed—caught sight of me and began following us.
The man took out a small automatic gun and started firing at us as we ran northbound on the east side of California, swaying and swerving trying to avoid the barrage of bullets.
We turned left, crossing California and began running west down Granville and finally ditched the man.
Later that day, I showed up at a secret nature reserve and discovered that the conservationists who worked there were behind the scheme I had witnessed earlier that day.
I took one of them—a young man—hostage and held a fountain pen to his throat as I called the police.
Meanwhile, some of the man's colleagues appeared and tried unsuccessfully to subdue me.
I eventually took another hostage, a young woman, who tried to pull a gun on me.
That evening, as I was walking back to our motel on Lincoln Avenue with my five children, we were crossing the street and I saw my friend from back home in the Netherlands, Antonio and his son Lucas, walking across the street in our direction.
Antonio and Lucas were accompanied by Ron Mark, my college playwriting teacher from DePaul University.
Not wanting to see Ron Mark, who I knew would engage me in endless conversation, I put on my sunglasses to avoid being recognized.
Later that evening, we finally arrived at the family reunion at a forest preserve.
The first person I saw was my grandfather was was looking very young, extremely handsome and wearing a powder blue dress shirt.
It turned out that my grandfather had apparently forgot to tell anyone he was coming, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him.
I felt bad I couldn't hug him due to social distancing as the COVID-19 pamdemic was in full swing.
My grandfather told me he had transferred 900 dollars to my bank account earlier that morning and if I checked my banking app I would see the money had already been deposited.
Then I woke up.
*Originally manifest on July 25, 2020.
Comments