Chiq Boutique

Dreams And Money

What should be the first thing to do  when you get a disturbing dream that features a killer and two dead bodies?

The morning after, before you even attempt to make a psychological analysis, you go to the lotto station or your local jueteng bookie and make a bet.  It is important that the dream is fresh when you do it.  Dreams that you feel are significant to you could be very lucky in the numbers game.

“Aunt Sally’s Policy Players’ Dream Book” (above) is an indispensable reference tool in this undertaking.  It contains a list of objects and situations that you might find in your dreams.  Each item has a corresponding number.  So if you see a killer and two dead bodies in your sleep, check out their numbers in the book and use them when you buy your lotto.

Back in Dumangas, when I was younger, a kubrador (bookie, bet collector) would stop by my grandmother’s bakery every afternoon.  She’d check to see if anybody wanted to play the Deely Dubul (Daily Double/local jueteng).  The employees would then start talking about the dreams they had the night before.  It could be anything from shit, teeth falling off, weddings, bagat (evil in the form of an animal), etc.  The kubrador always had a number for it.  Next they would talk about the recent winners who won by betting on their dream numbers.  I wonder why I never had the slightest interest in it before.

Last year was the first time I started playing the lotto (matindi ang pangangailangan). I did it everyday but never won a cent.  That was also when I began wishing that I had bought the dream book I had seen being sold on the sidewalk of De Leon St.  in downtown Iloilo. Just before I got married (OMG! ten years ago), I was on my way to Shanghai Store when I spotted a withered hag squatting beside a large kalalaw (woven square tray) full of strange and colorful wares. I stoped to look at them.  There were white, yellow, and black crystals; lapad (wide) bottles filled with tiny roots, oil, and colorful crosses; bronze amulets; tiny prayer booklets; and pamphlets on different topics.  Among those pamphlets was a dream book.  I thought to myself that this must be the kubrador’s bible. 

I should have bought that book ten years ago.  If I had, maybe I’d be a millionaire by now.  Lately I’ve been contemplating whether I should purchase  ”Aunt Sally’s Policy Players’ Dream Book”   over the internet.  I really really want to. However, there was something in the seller’s website  that held me back. The site was called “Hoodoo in Theory and Practice” . 

Hoodoo. Voodoo. Black Magic. Occult. That can be scary.   I don’t want to be in league with the forces of darkness. I will have to be content with my lot in life.  Me-not rich, not poor, just okey.