Tigers, My Parents and Me

(My dream journal of 25 December 2004)

There are two tigers at large, and I am escaping from them.

I run back home, closing the door behind me. As if one door is not secure enough, I enter the next room, and the next, and the next… I try to lock all the doors. However, I still feel unsafe. The locks are those old fashioned ones and you push the latch into the other part. The two parts are not installed properly and are not exactly in the same line which makes it very difficult to push one part of the latch into the other part completely.

I wish we’d had better locks - locks that could save my life. I wait nervously to see if the tigers have broken in…Indeed they did, and I can hear them coming, closer and closer.

The last room in the house is my parents bedroom. I am so desperate now and I know that the only way I can escape is through my parents bedroom and get out from the door at the other end.

I get out of the house successfully. However, I am worried sick about my parents‘ safety. In a few minutes or seconds, they will wake up in huge shock. I have no idea what they are going to do with the tigers. I am worried that they are not going to be prepared or equipped upon the invasion of the wild cats.

In the meanwhile, I am not totally out of the scene of tigers. Somehow there are another two tigers - a cub and its mother. This time I am not panicking as I find myself very fond of the cub and start stroking on its back - the most natural things to do, to make it feel comfortable. I don’t feel threatened by anything, and the mother tiger is not aggressive at all. I feel the bond between me, the cub and its mother.

I see my parents coming out of the house. What a nice surprise! Apparently they have found a way to keep those two tigers under control. They are both injured and there are scratches all over their bodies from the tigers. However, the injuries don’t appear very serious.

I am very curious as to what happened to them. They explain to me that when they awoke by the tigers they panicked at first and fumbled to fight them. But they soon gained their composure and came up with a strategy. They realised that they must befriend the tigers and look after them, instead of treating them as enemies. They stopped their defensive mode, and started to relax. It was when they made eye contact with the tigers did the whole scenario changed miraculously. The tigers somehow saw kindness in their eyes and stopped being aggressive immediately. They somehow became allies.

“Shall I take you to the hospital, mum?” I ask.

“Yes please. By the way, your father is injured too. Are you taking us both to the hospital?”

“Sure… sorry Dad!”. I make a face to my father.