I’m in a family-style restaraunt, sitting in an open-air booth that is situated in the middle of the establishment; thus, its accessibllity from both sides. There are three of these particular seats and, aside from mine, are unoccupied. In fact, the restaurant is sparse with patrons who, for the purposes of this dream, are merely unidenifable figures on the blurry fringes of my perception. I seem to be a regular here, as the place feels familiar.
I am with my wife and three daughters (4, 11, 1nd 15). Wife (was) situated on one side and me and the girls are on the other; all of whom are on my right side in ascending age order. My wife leaves so early in the dream, that my mind doesn’t register this fact until much later when she returns.
In the meantime, two people come over to my booth and sit. This isn’t entirely strange, as I apparently recognize one of them: they’re a server at the restaurant, who I believe is either just getting off shift, or about to go on in a bit. Either way, they decided to come over and chat. I initially think nothing of it. The server (who I’ll refer to as “Ally,” for reasons explained in a bit) was intersectionality incarnate, someone you would see at all the left demonstrations. A pretty biracial (black/white) woman, with hair like the actress Cree Summer, along with that whole bohemian vibe about her. Though, she also has the propensity of leading with her POC, bisexual card. This element dominates her personality almost to the point of annoyance, otherwise, she’s cool.
The other person (who I didn’t know), on first glance, appeared to be either an underdeveloped white girl in her late teens or a really underdeveloped woman in her early 20s, but, in fact, was trans; presumably very early in their transition, so they are just going through the socialization component (growing out hair, makeup, up-pitched voice, hormones (maybe) etc.). Despite all of this, they come off as unassuming and not at all obnoxious or ostentatious about their transness. In fact, considering (you know, they’re a dude), they are also well put together (modestly done makeup, which was okay); and, if you squinted, they were nice looking (considering, you know, they’re a dude). Additionally, they weren’t rocking crazy colored hair (shoulder length, middle parted, blonde (from brunette, which I could tell by the roots)), or extra feminized attire for that matter (just a band tee – knotted in the front, a faded black denim jacket tied at the waist, and jeans. In fact, there was only a thin piping around their shoes (Converse-type) in the trans colors that gave way to their allegiance. (I only notice this later, as explained.)). Physically, they were slight in stature, and actually average height for a woman. Again, they were the type that you’d take a second glance to clock, and even then, the transphobiest of transphobes would just shrug and move on. I guess they represented the “average” transwoman.
Ally and I exchange pleasantries, but for the most part she engages in a conversation with the trans woman. A conversaion, mind you, that I am not uninvited from joining, but I just find myself with not much to say on the matter. Thus, I resign myself to observing the two. One thing I could immediately identify was their friendship dynamic: They were obviously longtime friends (well before the transwoman began transitioning); however, Ally posited herself as super supportive to the point of blind devotion, but the transwoman merely saw her as social currency.
Ally’s essentially rattling off SJW talking points almost like an NPC, and without talking a breath. The trans woman is all of humoring her, but soon enough they begin rebutting her points with reasonable responses, coming off almost like a Blaire White (and you could see that it began to take the wind out of Ally’s sails). Their responses, though at Ally, seemed to be indirectly geared toward me. Admittedly, this threw me off, because all impulses wanted to reject this person out of hand, but they were appealing to my rationale, so it was difficult. Thus, I became “stuck” for lack of a better way of putting it.
Undeterred, Ally would go off into another (nearly self-indulgent) tangent; during which, the trans woman would make a point to make (physical or eye) contact with each of my daughters on the sly. I cannot remember what they did with the younger two, but I can clearly recall them playing footsie with my eldest (hence how I noticed the shoes adored in trans colors). Mind you, this person doesn’t acknowledge me at all. And I – now in a frozen state of reluctance to say anything about what was going on, lest I be “cancelled” – didn’t reciprocate. Thus Ally seemed to serve as proxy; she would occasionally ask me questions that I would essentially respond to with closed-ended answers, but for the most part she would engage with the trans woman.
Also during this, the trans woman was looking over the menu, deciding on what to eat (prompted by Ally offering to pay and use her employee discount); modulating between wanting an entree, an appetizer, dessert, or everything. (This is also where moments of their self-centeredness slipped out through side comments. Cannot remember what they were specifically, but the trans woman would realize this and correct themselves.) Ally, on the other hand, only had a Sprite or Sierra Mist. I didn’t order. (Maybe because I was waiting on my wife. Maybe because I was transfixed.)
In any case, I could feel the power dynamic slowly going to the trans woman, who to their credit, didn’t do much heavy lifting to attain it. They came to the table – uninvited, unprompted – but was not only the center of attention but also the arbiter of influence. It was also as if they assumed this status – that was arguably more esteemed and protected than their “ally” – while also coming off as “not like the others” (much like Blaire White) that had this disarming, and disorienting affect on me. Everyone just accepted what was happening but for their own reasons. Ally because… they’re an ally; my daughters because they’re impressionable children who know no better; and me because I was essentially stuck. I wanted to do what was natural and protect my girls (and to an extent, Ally) from what is going on, but I understood that the persons I was trying to protect would turn on me.
I can’t stress this enough; the fact that they didn’t acknowledge my presence, as if I didn’t pose a threat whatsoever considering the paradox I was in. This was something that that hung in the air.
After a while, the two excused themselves, and went off to another of the open booths, seated in such a way that they were still facing us, but not looking at us – especially the trans woman. I believe they had completed their mission and was silently gloating. Ally – who the trans woman was now also actively ignoring, as they were on their phone – continued on with their diatribe. I believe she was merely a prop and sheild for the trans woman, and she’d served her purpose.
My wife returned. This time, she slid into the seat across from us, breaking the view that I had of the two. I think she may have asked me if I was okay or something, but it was all but unintelligible, for this is where the dream was coming to an end. I have a tendency of acknowledging when I’m in a dream, and this was one of those times. So, I just embraced that this scene was closing, as everything faded to a color not black.