Student Party

1. A Young Girl Driving

It is dark. Night. I'm in the city. This must be Leuven, I recognize the surroundings. I walk down a street which is on a hill. I leave a place, maybe my brother's, N, or other family. The streets are deserted, naturally, because it is late.

This is the area of the Pittel, Noormannenstraat, etc. Now I am in a more crowded place, though nobody is around, but you can feel by the atmosphere that people live here. This is a part of the Brusselsestraat. It is the paved part, the pedestrian area, but different than in reality. This is on a slope too, and I am still descending.

I pass by a house where something happened. Somewhat further the street is much broader and connects to other streets to that it seems to be a small square. It has an intimate feel to it. The scene reminds me of The Hague, where my grandmother used to live. 

The door of the house is open. The threshold is quite high. I see light coming from the house, white, strong light green, like that of TL lamps. It is obvious that the medical supports have arrived. Maybe I see their car too. So, ambulance people and maybe even firemen are in the house, I can hear them. They are very busy, but it is too late, I see all this from a distance in the dark. The mom and dad are dead. The daughter walks outside and takes off, she feels safer leaving the place and leaving the people behind too.

Their car is parked just across the street or square and I watch her get inside. It is a cabriolet. She is still young, not even eight. I notice she holds a cigarette between her fingers, very nonchalantly so that I think she has done it before. She sits herself behind the wheel and I am thinking: she can't be serious, is a young girl like that going to drive? I see another man a bit further off, he must be a neighbour, and I hope he will do something, but he doesn't. So, I hesitate and consider helping myself. The girl reminds me a bit of the one hundred year old girl, who has an age accelerating disease.

So, after a minute I decide to take control. I go to the car, which she has already turned in the meanwhile. And I take over the steering wheel.

Then we drive up one of the streets that slope up.

2.Why don't you Say Hello

It is night, dark, I'm a little out of town but I am still in a familiar neighbourhood. There is a particular place I have to go. It is up. The street is sloping up. Straight on there are houses on both sides, but where I am now there is much of nothing. On my left there are lots to build on, they lie waiting.

Even in the middle of the road is a pile of sand and dirt. The workmen must have done this. Possibly, they are working on the road itself. I will have to go over it.

I quicken my pace.

On my left I see someone I know. This is Chlo. I have no intention of saying hello. But she notices me and sees me go past. So she says: you don't have to say hello to someone you know? So I say hello. It is the mother of my ex. I can see her clearly, as if her face is lighted. Especially her hair I remember, which is exactly the same as in real life. 

I go on. I find it stupid that she wants to talk to me.

After a while I am about where I have to be. This neighbourhood is full of students. There are two or three groups partying, you can see them. They party inside, but are on the balcony or hang out on the streets. I pass one of the left. I go on until I have to turn the corner. I have to climb more here and I get into the backyard, actually a terrace and very small. And a stairway is there that leads up to the apartment where the party is. This is the second group, and they are Russian. Two girls and a guy talk to each other but I can't understand the language. There is a bit more light here.

I go up and inside and I get in the room where everybody else is partying. There's more light here. I don't know anybody, yet this is the right place.

I am welcome though, and no one thinks I am out of place. On a table I am served a glass of lemonade. It was there already, but I can have it. After that I drink another kind of lemonade, maybe Sprite or Fanta. Further on in the room is a door to the balcony.

There is a girl in the room with which I make acquaintance. I can't remember the rest.

3. Needle in the Desert

Maybe the same dream.

My brother N is there. He needs a particular book which I ought to give him. It is called Needle in the Desert, and it is written by het Geluidshuis, which means that it is for children and has a cd you can listen to. The cover is definitely yellow, although I don't think I see the book.