Esteban's imaginary visit

I just had a crazy dream and had to write about it. (I have crazy dreams all the time)

...........

The scene starts with me and John in our 'apartment.' Except it's not really our apartment, it's a different one. It looks slightly different, like the bizzaro world version. John's hanging out in the living room and I'm looking out the patio window.

To my amazement, I briefly see a hot pink car, a 2-door, flying around. It's going all over the place, turning upside down and doing flips. For some reason, I guess because I'm dreaming, I kind of just observe this but I don't really say anything about it.

At some point, I remember that I haven't called my mother all day and that she's either really worried about me or she's disappointed in me for not picking up the phone and giving her a ring. Anyway, I decide that I have to try to call her.

In this state of urgency, (notice how the flying car caused no reaction but this did) I call my mom and get her voice mail. Only, it's not her normal voice mail message. (I don't think she even has an outgoing message) Instead, I hear a really long, elaborate series of random sentences, like, "Hi, this is (fill in Erica's mom's name which I leave out because she hates it when I call her by her first name), sorry I am not here, but I am ........., and ........., because I'm......., and ......." At this point, I'm not really listening to exactly what she is saying, but I'm noticing that her outgoing message is peculiarly long and involved, so unlike her. Something must be wrong, I can feel it. (In reality, my mom would never do this. English is her second language, so if she did have an outgoing message, it would be really short.)

This voice mail is a red flag. What is up with her??? I think. So, I call again, desperately trying to get a hold of her. Just as I'm about to do that, John interrupts to say,

"Um, Erica, come over here and look at this!"

I walk out to the patio to join John and to my surprise I see...

....a huge Esteban.

Ok, yeah, what does that mean? Well, Esteban is this guy who was John's eternal roommate and guy friend all throughout college. By association, he had to put up with my antics as well. I would pretty much annoy him with my silliness. But this guy was a serious medical student at UF. Nah, he was pretty much a goofball too. But I did enjoy playing pranks on him. And he taught classes where I used to work in Gainesville. Anyway, the guy is doing his residency (I think? I don't really remember what stage of doctorhood he is in) in Baltimore with his girlfriend who is also studying Psychia...Psychol...I forget which but it's probably Psychiatry.

Anyway, Esteban's our friend. He's just Esteban. Think of a typically dreamy looking, yet slightly cheesy and dorky Latin Soap Star (He's a fellow Colombian) crossed with a medical student. Actually, he resembles Joey, from Friends, in that he looks like a doctor on a soap show, except he's smart. He's just so characteristically, Estebany.

So, back to the dream.

Esteban, our college friend who we haven't seen in years, is crouching in the yard behind our patio window, wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt, like he would, and he's crouching with his head bent down, so I can't even see his face. All I see is his Estebany hair. It's so Leonardo DiCaprio-y/Rider Strong-y.

All I need to see is the hair to know it's Esteban and that's precisely what I say to John.

"huh, it's Esteban."

"Yeah, but look what he's doing," John points to the sky.

Basically, what I now see is that Esteban is remotely controlling the car I saw before, the hot pink coupe that's just sporadically flying around all over the place doing flips and stuff. Oh, I think to myself, I saw that earlier. Oh and I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but Esteban himself, who is hunched over and controlling this car, is also, himself, gigantic in size. He's about two stories tall.

Esteban calls out, "Hey, guys, how's it going."

"Esteban...?"

"Hey, I'm here working on a project," he says in his laid back, yet matter of fact voice. " I have a special way of making myself this size..."

"Oh, I remember you talking about this before in college!" I interrupt.

"No, Erica, I never mentioned this before," he says to my dismay. "Here, let me show you what I do...." he starts.

"Wait, my mom is on the phone, I gotta talk to her!" I shout.

By now, my mom is waiting on the phone, saying, "Hello? Erica? Helloooo??"

I feel annoyed that Esteban forgets that he told me about this project before but doesn't believe me when I say so and I feel so overwhelmed that my mom is trying to talk to me at the same time, especially since I've been trying to get a hold of her the entire time. John just sits there in awe.

"Wait, I gotta talk to my mom..." I say.

Esteban doesn't wait and he stands up. He kinda stretches one of his long legs out and shakes it, kinda like the hokey pokey. This is part of his movements that he expresses in order to make himself a giant. Wow, he has a set of body movements that allow him to do this. I have no idea though, how he's making the hot pink car fly, or what the connection is there.

"Esteban, I can't, I NEED to talk to my mom!!" I blurt out, all stressed out and stuff.

So, I leave the patio and as I walk to the back of our 'apartment,' I lose the connection with my mom. I'm so frustrated.

As I'm dealing with this apparently dire situation, I walk into a guest room in the back of our apartment (we don't have one of those at all). It's a mostly empty space, save for the lone nightstand (which looks like the one I really have), with a lamp on it, and a large, square mirror leaning against the adjacent wall. Next to that, there are a bundle of wires sticking out of an outlet, and some jewelry hanging on the wall.

All I can think about is how empty the room is, what weird objects there are, how angry I am that Esteban didn't remember that he told me about his cool experiment, and how completely devastated I am that I got my mom on the line but couldn't talk to her because I was weirdly interrupted.

Meanwhile, John was probably having a normal reaction. You know, the one where you stand outside in the patio in amazement that, Esteban, his old college friend, is crouching, is giant in size, and is somehow remotely controlling a hot pink two door car that's flying around in the air.

.....

Then I woke up and told John.

"That was a good one!" I said.

"Yeah, Esteban as a giant? That IS a good one," said John.

Apparently, it was so good I had to write it down.