2020-06-22 I Dream of Cookie
I Dream of Cookie
Location: Joshua Tree National Park
Date and Time: June 22, 2020 8:30 am
Summary: Dreams don't mean anything.
Mood Music: Cookie Monster - "C is for Cookie"
What I said about Jinny, let's keep that between us. That's what Luu said as she stood from her spot near the fire, Jinny hurriedly zippering the tent closed (as silently as one could with a giant zipper in a nylon tent) and wiggled back into position with her head facing the window at the back, a pillow stolen from somewhere tucked under her head to keep it off of the floor of the tent. Thankfully the campsite was chosen well, with more sand than stones and the provided rake allowed clearing beneath, so nothing pointy or rock-like would be stabbing into delicate flesh through the bottom of the tent if one rolled the wrong way. Pretend to be asleep, she kept telling herself as Luu worked the zipper, as Luu slipped into the tent with her, closing the flap behind her. As she laid down on her half of the tent and snuggled down. If only she had awakened just a few moments earlier, she might have heard what was said, and wondering is one of those things that she never was very good at. Shifting slightly to roll on her belly, she turned her face towards Luu, listening to the sound of her breathing and whatever murmured words came forth before she slipped off to sleep herself, more confused than a cheerleader faced with the first confusing feelings of seeing all of her teammates changing in the locker room.
The next morning the sun, as it always did, rose in the east, bathing the area around the campsite in shadow. The mountains to the east kept most of the sun off but, as the morning passed, more and more of the tent came into sunlight until, about eight thirty, give or take, you were up and the tent was getting warmer. Jinny was up with the sun, though, slipping out of the Tent and out of Luu's akimbo limbs (Who is that girl she was asking about with the cookies?) to greet the sun herself. Bare footed in her pajamas, Jinny stood silently as the sun slowly started lightening the eastern sky, a cup of tea held loosely in both hands clasped in front of her belly, a silent meditation on the world, the patterns that it inevitably follows, and the triangle that she finds herself included in, much to her consternation. The Chantry, the Hermetic, and the Dreamspeaker. The strangest triangle she's ever considered...
Having put a decent dent in a bottle of Jameson by herself, Luu half-stumbled back towards the tent. The zipper unheard, her attention and a momentary pause to listen as batwings sang a limnal hymn. Unzipping the tent, Luu half-steps on Jinny, just managing not to put her weight down. A careful look to ensure she remains asleep. Then, dropping down to the pillow, Luu fell right to sleep with her back to Jinny, the tent /mostly/ zippered closed. Luu's sleeping is energetic to say the least, though it doesn't appear to be from any night terrors or such. Just occasionally wild switches in position, limbs flailing with dead weight to invade Jinny's personal space. There's occasional mumblings, such as about Allison and cookies; a moment of a hand exploring the other Angeleno's stomach, the word "soft" whispered in her ear; and all sorts of other adorable violations. Through it all, Luu seems soundly asleep, quite unaware of anything going on.
"Five more minutes," she mumbles, her toes hooking Jinny's big toe as her arm tries to pull the other woman back as she unentwines, her arms falling loudly to the ground with a thwump as Jinny gets away. Sun hinting her face through the tent a little later causes a slight eye twitch, but it's not until the beams actually hit her eye the her eyes groggily open. It takes her a bit, but she manages to get up, throwing on a quick roll of deodorant before making her way out of the tent. In a zombie shuffle, Luu emerges from the tent wearing her oversized 'Wonder Dog' shirt accidentally partially tucked into her black yoga short. Eyes still not really opened, she makes her way towards where Jinny is sitting. "Sleep well?" she mumbles, her hands out making grasping gestures for the coffee mug; a penny stuck to her cheek falls off into the sand.
All the bashing and thwumping and twining of limbs and touching of belly did rouse Jinny a little, and when she woke it was with one arm flung over Luu's ribs and her nose buried in the crook of the other Angeleno's fuzzy underarm which, oddly enough, wasn't as much of a shock as she anticipated when she got up. Their companions were still asleep, which left the pair pretty much alone in the desert which, in many cases, would be a bad thing but in this case, is kind of good. "Yeah." Jinny murmurs, turning to pluck one of the ubiquitous blue metal coffee cups that always seem to show up at campsites, passing her cup of tea over to Luu without a word. "Tea or Coffee? I was going with tea myself, and if you want some, take a sip. I can get another cup going for you, but it'll take a couple of minutes to steep. Coffee I've got brewed up on the side of the fire pit. The ashes were pretty hot from last night. I didn't even need to add more wood to boil the water." She sounds pleased at that fact.
"How about you?" Jinny starts making a cup of whatever Luu wants, letting her hang on to the other woman's cup (and maybe sipping if she wants) "You sleep okay?"
"mmmm, both," Luu responds to the offer of tea or coffee, stretching her arms way up as she raises up on the balls of her feet, her back bending backwards slightly in the process. Smacking her lips a bit, Luu seems a teensy bit more awake, as she stumble forwards a bit more, flopping into a seat and gently bumping Jinny by accident as the other woman. "Ended up staying up a bit with Johan while the two of you were asleep, drank some whiskey," Luu notes letting out a big yawn and rolling her shoulders in a way that untucks her shirt from her shorts. "I hope I didn't wake you when I came in?" Luu asks, though likely her sleeping than going asleep was more likely to knock Jinny awake. "I slept pretty soundly," she notes, and she did, just not still in any sense of the word.
Pausing to think for a second, Luu leans forwards a bit jerking back as she prevents herself from falling back asleep and crashing into the sand. "I always have weird dreams when I'm out in nature or what not," Luu notes to Jinny, "how about you, did you dream any?" A beat as Luu realizes, "I guess that's a pretty dumb question. I think you're kinda legally obligated to dream, right?"
Both. Okay. She can do this. A third cup is scrounged from the box near the fire and filled with near boiling water, a tea ball filled with white tea dunked in to steep. By the time the coffee is poured and brought to Luu, the tea should have steeped enough. Coffee is poured into the mug and brought near. "Careful. It's hot and black. Not very bitter, surprisingly. I think it's a light roast." It's not - Jinny knows nothing about coffee other than black is bitter and you can burn beans if you roast them too long - but she can make a mean cup of the stuff. She turns back to get the tea, settling down in the seat nearest to Luu, setting the cup down on a rock to wait for the last minute or so when a little bell pops up from the tea ball to indicate it's steeped for enough time.
"Nah, you didn't wake me." Technically the truth, since she was already awake, but she's not going to tell Luu that right now. "And dreams....just a dream of flying through the endless city, following a spiritual trail towards a glimmering something that I could never reach."
"Black is good," Luu responds trying to drink the tea, but mostly taking teensy sips while just avoiding burning her mouth. "That sounds pleasant," Luu notes as she thinks about this, "an infinite landscape to explore, something to be hopeful for as you maneuver through it." A beat as she adds, "maybe a bit lonely, though." Another teensy sip gets taken. "I was part an Ocean's Eleven, or maybe Ocean's Two might be more accurate, heist," Luu begins to explain of her dream, her eyes still not really opened. "We were trying to knock-off a giant cookie jar," Luu continues to explain, "and we probably would have been successful, but then we started swimming in the cookie jar Scrooge McDuck style, and we got caught eating cookies. We went through the whole court system and a trial and everything. They ended up deciding to give us the death penalty." Another beat as she adds, "I ordered cookies for my last meal. They were walking me along a diving board and I saw below me a giant glass of almond milk. As I looked down, the diving board seemed to rise and rise from the ground until I was in outer space looking down at the blue marble. I took that last step, and began to plunge through the atmosphere, and that's when I woke up."
"What do you think it means?"
With coffee provided and tea steeped (*ding* it's ready!) Jinny takes the tea ball out, lets it drain for a second or two, then sets it aside, giving Luu her choice of what to drink, retrieving her half-finished tea and taking a sip of her own, pretty much right where Luu took a sip from. Inadvertently, of course. "Infinite landscape with repeating landmarks. Like a lazy designer just cut and paste the city over and over and over again. I quit counting at five Mann's Chinese Theaters, just trying to see what was different every time I passed by the same landscape, and it was lonely." She takes a small sip of her tea. "It sounds like your dream was a lot more interesting. Carbs and grand larceny. Were the cookies we nabbed any good?"
The remainder of Luu's dream - the falling part - could mean anything, and Jinny says as much. "My knowledge of dreams is there, but it's not as good as it could be. Since you chose to jump, it could have been freeing yourself of negativity or setting yourself free."
Luu frowns slightly, seemingly a bit sad for the other woman. After last night's conversation, she too feels a bit alone, and wishes there was something she could say, but she just doesn't know how. "I remember them being pretty delicious," Luu notes, and while it might not have been the scent of fresh baked goods, the mixture of conditioner and campfire smoke in the other woman's hair almost certainly played into things. "I mean, when we started eating them, we abandoned the plan," she notes to Jinny, "and of course there were consequences, but really it didn't seem so bad. I mean, they locked-us away in a prison, but that doesn't mean it was treated like a prison. We made it into what we wanted it to be, and it was kinda, I dunno, domestic? Plus, more cookies at the end, which is just more of the absurd irony and the lack of sense in the rules. In trouble for one thing, and then rewarded with that exact thing. And yeah, when I ended up taking that plunge, it did feel kinda good, freeing as I sailed through the air. I mean, I was about to be dunked to death, but who knows what would have actually been there by the time I ended up there. Things can change in dreams, right?" There's a small sip of her tea taken, Luu seemingly not really noticing that the mugs got changed, still asleep enough that she can recall her dreams, even if she can't really make sense of them; though awake enough to think better of mentioning Allison by name.
"Dreams are what we make of them." Jinny says softly, switching her mug from one hand to the other to lightly squeeze Luu's knee, replacing the cup after a second. And the pair sit silently and sip their respective drinks, watching the world come to life beneath the touch of the rising sun. And through this all, Jinny thinks on what Luu said of her dream. Prison, but domestic. The world was what they made it. That they were together in the dream she had. And how lonely Jinny felt flying over the city without someone with her, even to simply point out the absurdity of the ever repeating city, of how there must be some pent up demand to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind, since it was showing at every theater she passed over. And one showing of the Princess Bride which she very nearly flew in to watch, assuming she could. "When you jumped, you made a choice, rather then letting the choice be made for you. Independent Luu, no matter the circumstances." She chuckles faintly. "Knowing me, I'd be at the bottom, ready to catch you on a pillow made of dreams."
"I might have to make some cookies when I get home," Luu notes with a sleep chuckle, "what kind of cookies do you like? Dream or otherwise?" A nod is given to this, noting, "That's us Hermetics, strong-Willed even if it means jumping off a diving board in orbit above the Earth, hurtling down to be dunked in milk like a common cookie, and figuring that by the time you get there it will end up becoming something better, like a pillow made of dreams." Glancing to Jinny, Luu notes, "Sometimes the actions of our friends are an extension of our Will. We are the one that made those friends after all, and there's reasons why the remain in our life." Luu smiles in a sleepy fashion, knowing that even if it's not what she wants it to be, Jinny is still important to her, and she's happy to have her in her life; they share a dream even if they don't share their lives. "You didn't ask what kind of cookies they were," Luu notes, taking a larger sip of the tea now that it's begun to cool down somewhat.
"You're no common cookie, Luu, no matter what your dreams may suggest to you. You'd be diving into the finest milk from specially bred cows that made chocolate milk that's specific for dunking erstwhile criminals with a lust for life and a taste for the finer things. And my favorite cookie?" Jinny thinks for a second. "I guess it depends on which abuelita you hit me with when you ask. My go-to is Snickerdoodles with Hershey's Kisses in them. Or white chocolate macadamia. Or vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. Ones big enough to share."
She takes a sip of her tea. "What kind of cookies were we stealing, Luu?"
"I'm a chocolate chip off the old block," Luu says with a small laugh before clarifying, "I just thought it was cute to say, I dunno that it's true, though." This clarification of course raises more questions, but those go unanswered. "So your answer is basically whatever cookie is in front of me?" Luu asks as she looks to Jinny, with a small grin, "yeah, I guess I kinda feel the same way about cookies." Turning back to look at the fire embers, her eyes actually kinda open now, Luu continues to sip at her tea. "The prison uniforms were pretty haute couture," Luu notes to Jinny, "and yeah, I guess I wasn't too worried about the milk, because worse comes to worse, drowning is not a bad way to go." Most people would disagree with Luu on that point. "Sharing a cookie is pretty key," Luu agrees with a nod, "I mean, I'm not really likely to just get desserts on my own, so better to have someone to share them with." This whole trip of course initially suggested as Luu and Norea shared frozen custard, and yet that was a time that Luu had thought to eat dessert alone; straight from the carton, with a few tears.
"Oh, hmm," Luu responds, realizing that Jinny thought it was them pulling the cookie heist, best not to tell her, she'd rather it as Jinny than Allison anyway; but sometimes it doesn't work that way, and the dream ends up being what the dream is.
"M&M Chocolate Chip."
