A leveled-off skyline struck by a nuclear bomb.
I am mandated to wear a multi-colored unitard to a nightclub in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Berlin. My platform shoes are cement blocks painted neon pink that have to be set up in the nightclub prior to the DJs spinning their tunes.
"This is the perfect foundation to restrain your licentious and unconventional ways," a man's voice blares from a speaker on the wall. "Und tanzen ist verboten!" He shouts at me in German, so I leave [1].
Outside, I confront a polka-dotted sky, perfect circles of debris swirling above the destroyed city----a leveled-off skyline struck by a nuclear bomb [2].
The sky bursts open with acid rain, forcing me to run towards a dilapidated building that manifests in the distance. The massive structure is riddled with bullet holes. Inside, broken panes of glass cover the concrete floor. Sea green paint peels off its interior plaster walls that has been broken off in large chunks by the fluctuating remnants of war, the lath bones are shamefully exposed and disfigured. And me, left wondering what has happened to Berlin.
I cling to the vacant space, surrounded by an ashen field of loneliness. I want to cry but am too numb to feel much of anything.
Notes
[1] I was intensively practicing my German at that time so it makes sense that I would start dreaming in tiny snippets of German.
[2] I was having a lot of anxiety at the time that Germany would experience nuclear annihilation brought on by the Russians.
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