1) I am watching a documentary on television about the production of an upcoming movie. As I watch more of it, I realize that it's a movie my boyfriend had mentioned having a small role in a few months back. An older woman opines on a love scene she filmed with him, and comments (rather inappropriately, really) on his sexual prowess. My friend arrives just as the trailer begins. I can't wait to see my boyfriend's character introduced, and we watch anxiously. Finally, the climax of the trailer strikes - he turns around, snaps his fingers, and begins dancing around skillfully while beating the shit out of several nearby high school bullies. Come to find out, he is playing the bad-boy heartthrob of a main character, and the movie is actually a musical. In a second clip, he descends on a giant dumbwaiter into a room lit with an orange glow, and sings angrily about ennui and angst while brooding about. The lyrics I remember: "If this is what life is, I want mine to be over".
After the trailer ends, my friend and I are in shock. I tell her I'm very glad she was there to see it with me because this way, I'll know I didn't just dream it. I begin to think about all that will come with his fame: travel, piles of fan mail from teenage girls, huge demands on his time.
2) I receive a call from a high school classmate that I was never friends with and haven't (in real or dream life) ever really talked to. He explains that he has been missing for several years and, since reappearing, has no idea where he's been or what happened to him. As we talk on my cell phone, I am walking down the main street of my hometown. We exchange pleasantries and make small talk, and I am feeling surprisingly comfortable and beginning to enjoy the conversation. I comment on how Republican protesters and canvassers seem to have overrun the streets and he laughs.
A ways down the road, I come across a dancing pony show being performed under a tent in treacherous, slick mud. I put the call on hold momentarily and sit to watch the show. I realize there is an animal treat sitting on my knee and call "Here, horsey, look what I have!", to no avail. After an awkward silence I realize the animal I'm addressing is actually a pig. I move on, pick my cell phone back up and ask whether my classmate is still there (he is). My service begins to fade, his voice is breaking up and I hear my own voice echoing back when I try to speak to him. I am wading through deeper and deeper trenches of mud that are filling up with water. My boyfriend walks by, wearing army fatigues, and slips into a deep trench and begins swimming away. My classmate, on the phone, finally confesses that he called to give me an important message -
-End Scene-
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