Uncontrollable Car
(dreams 3/23/21)
Janet Kuypers
3/23/21
My guy and I were checking out of a grocery store,
it was busy, conjested, and he said to me I should
go get the car. And like a good little soldier I did,
I left the store, it was sunny outside, and as
I walked into the large multi-level parking garage...
I think a poet friend was leaving the store before me,
but I didn’t get a chance to say ‘hi’. Now, as I got
to my electric car I saw a family of four packing their
mini-van next to my car, but their kids left all sorts
of disposable non-recyclable plastic pieces on top
of my car; in the back of my mind, I thought that this
was probably just like what all little kids would do.
So I stood there and waited, I don’t know if my arms
were crossed, and as a parent eventually saw me, I said
“I was just waiting for all that stuff to be removed
from the top of my car.” So they feverishly continued
grabbing everything and dumping it all into their mini-van,
until I stepped inside my car and turned it on to go.
And as I started it up and pulled away, for some reason
that family was suddenly all in my hybrid with me,
like we all knew each other, liked we all shared something.
So I started moving forward and turning corners
to get out of this garage and meet my guy with my
precious groceries, but although I pressed the breaks,
the car just wouldn’t stop. It’s not like my car
was going insanely fast, but it just wouldn’t respond
to what I wanted it to do. So the father-guy said,
“What are you doing?”, and my eyes were like saucers
as I pointed to the center console in my car and said,
“Look, my gear shift no longer says letters like
P, R, and D, but numbers ONE through NINE,” trying
to explain how this was all somehow beyond my control.
And as I turned and couldn’t stop, the line of cars
to leave was parked, with a motorcyclist at the end as I
approached... just like the day when I sat in my Saturn
at the end of a long line of cars, and someone behind me,
speeding and texting, hit my car and I almost died — but
not before I turned the wheels of my car so I wouldn’t
kill the motorcyclist in front of me. But now I’m stuck
in that damned garage, and it was déjà vu all over again
as that motorcyclist was stopped right in front of me.
I tried to stop, but I seemed to just skid into that
motorcycle wheel instead. But unlike the real world,
it was like this motorcycle was just a bumper car,
because I just bounced off his back tire,
which caused my car to start spinning in the opposite
direction. Me and this family of four just spun as my
uncontrollable car finally slowed down, and stopped,
at a forty-five degree angle, just short of the corner walls
of the garage.
I wondered if my guy wondered where I was.
I looked around and said, “Well, that was unexpected.”
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