December 11 – Driving Cross Country

So for some reason I was going to be driving cross-country with my father, his wife and my sister. I think we were going to be driving a truck so there really wasn’t any room for more than 3 people in the front cab. It’s not clear whether my sister was already in a wheelchair or whether we decided that it made the most sense for her to be in a wheelchair to come cross-country. So we start driving and she has to keep up with us, which she seems to be doing, though her biggest complaint is how dirty the wheels of the wheelchair are. I tell her it will be a great workout for her and ask if she wants gloves to help with the dirt, but she says no.

Next thing I know, I am in the back of the truck, where there is some sort of theater troupe that we are taking cross-country for some performance. I look at my watch and notice that we have been driving for 3 hours, but figure we can’t be much further than Monticello because my sister in the wheelchair is making us go slower (Monticello is about 2 hours from NYC). I look on a computer that has a GPS and notice that we are just west of Allentown, PA, which is also about 2 hours from NYC, but that within the hour we will be west of Chicago. I am surprised that my father went this way and not through Monticello, but obviously he knew of this incredible shortcut.

Next thing I know I am cast in the performance of the play, which they are rehearsing in the back of the truck, and I am also helping them rewrite it as we go along. Somehow I discover that the back wall of the truck is more like a force field, and that you can stick your arm through it and feel what it is like outside, although there is a lot of resistance as you push your hand through. Others try it as well – it’s a hit, they love it.

Then, I decide I need to take a shower. Some woman from the troupe comes into the bathroom with me and pleads with me not to take a shower because they are not supposed to be taking showers and they don’t want to get caught. I tell her that we can wash the towels in the washer dryer, which is in the bathroom as well. We argue and struggle a bit, and somehow the towel falls into the toilet, which for some reason has not been flushed and has some excrement in it, which gets all over the towel. The woman starts freaking out, but I say we can just wash it in the washing machine. I wash the excess feces off the towel and put it into the machine, then look for detergent. There are bottles of detergent in the bathroom but they are all empty. I say I know where there are bottles of detergent – I leave the bathroom to go find it. But to get to where I think it is, I need to go through the force field/wall at the back of the truck, and while I can move my hand through it, I cannot pass through it in total. So I come back and decide to wash the towels with no detergent. This greatly upsets the woman.

Then the alarm goes off.