Dominik Nemcsok
Tourists and residents both love Central Park. They say it is magical in fall, all the colorful trees, the beautiful scenery and of course the zoo. The zoo, where an adorable big brown bear lives, whose name is Sasha. She has a lot of visitors at this time of year. You may wonder why she would be so fascinating, why everyone is visiting now? Well, it is because she has a mythical power: she can predict the future of people, but she is about to take a break from the publicity as winter is getting closer and closer. Sasha is preparing to settle down for her big winter denning. Although this behavior is quite uncommon for zoo animals, many think that this is a side effect of her extraordinary magic.
The day has come; she says goodbye to everybody and returns to her den. She falls asleep, but this time something strange happens. She is dreaming: she sees a horse that lives in the countryside, who is getting old and is standing alone in the yard, feeling betrayed. It sees its owners drive away, and it thinks to itself: back in the day, ages ago, we used to go together everywhere, I was always by their side as a valued companion, I was an essential part of life, now look at what I have become, just a neglected hobby, replaced by a heartless metal machine. I stand here, waiting for the long-gone breeze to blow again.
All of a sudden, on to the next dream, in which Sasha finds herself witnessing a fish that has also seen some more glorious days. She observes how this little creature of the chilly water has to withstand its life as a survivor, all the garbage, sewage, and who knows what, demolishing the beauty of her home. Each day hoping that it manages to escape the fisherman’s immense net, which has already taken too much. Almost like a poem the fish begins: Oh, if I could, time moves back, out of its burden, oh so fresh… life around here wasn’t so bad, only the last years it turned so sad.
After a quick change of sets, sort of like in a theatre, Sasha finds herself in the life of a cat of the snowy urban landscape. It is a Christmas evening, it is getting dark outside, and everybody is celebrating inside with their family, except for a cute little cat over there, next to a big skyscraper. You know, this cat is there for a reason, every day at around seven, a lady from the 31st floor always comes down with some treats for this little fur ball. But today she is not there, little did the cat know that the nice woman is with her family too, in a city far away. It kept on waiting and waiting however, nothing happened, no one came that day. Every moment I stay in here, it proves something to me, that no one’s here, every bowl was so delicious, but taken for granted, it’s all out of here, I trusted someone, that’s all I had, as it turns out, there’s no safety net.
Unpredictably Sasha’s dreams are now flying in the skies. With wings spread wide, high above the ground, she sees from the perspective of a bird, who is travelling through continents to return to its warming home. However, this is not just some kind of warming spring wind; it is red and orange, hot and frightening: a once picturesque forest flaming. The bird’s home is annexed by the unstoppable flames. Unsure what to do now that everything has collapsed, the bird keeps flying instead of waiting for the unavoidable.
The bird flies by the horse and notices its solitude, it passes over the fish and sees its fight for life, it looks down at the cat to notice its betrayed trust, it looks inside and sees his displaced self. As Sasha woke up she asked herself if her recent dreams were more than just dreams, whether they held a message for the future, and were these even dreams or already reality?