Dad's Driving

Date: October 21, 2021

My dad, my sister (Sarah), and I decide to go on a trip to visit a relative who had moved to Pennsylvania to go to baking school. We arrive at this small dinner-like restaurant. Inside we are sitting across from a young man, a girl, and our relative (I don't remember ever seeing who the "relative" was. They reminded me of my youngest brother (Joey), but also a college aged Caitlin, at least that was the sense in the dream. It was either a child who in the dream was now grown up, or Joey who represents the youngest sibling in my family). They had all made these specialty cookies and we were all tasting them. The place was full of the school students and their family members and friends. We each take a bite of this stacked cookie that is like a three layer, soft cookie with Oreo filling. They are telling us how they came up with the idea and how they made it. They were so proud of what they had made.

The waitress comes by and asks if we want anything else. We say no and dad pays the bill. As we are leaving he tells the guy at the front desk how people need to be careful because he once had his identy stolen using his credit card at a restaurant. We start to get into the car and it is my parent's old beige station wagon, but the understanding is that it was Sarah's car. The two friends and the mystery relative are getting in the back with me, Sarah is in the passenger seat and dad is the driver. Dad starts to pull away, but I tell him to wait as not everyone was in the car yet. He was starting to drive off while people were getting in the car. Once everyone was in he hits the gas pedal however he is in reverse and we start going backwards in this long parking lot and very fast. We all tell dad to stop and he says he is trying, but it seems like he is barely pressing on the brakes. We are all getting worried and I start calling out to Jesus to make the car stop before we crash. Finally, the car stops and I tell dad that I will drive.

I pull up to the end of the parking lot to get onto the street. My dad is there waiting to get picked up, and is now trying to get in the car but it is taking him a while. There is a guy in a silver Mercedes impatiently trying to turn into the lot but I am blocking it and can't go as dad is trying to get in the car. I motion to him to say I'm sorry but I can't move yet. Finally dad is in and I drive away. We get on this bridge and I think to myself that maybe it was the car with the issue and not dad. But as we hit traffic and I have to make an immediate stop and the brakes work fine and I realize that dad is really struggling with his motor skills and should not be driving any longer.

In the dream there were two other stops we made for food and I remember that dad paid for the first, Sarah paid for the second and I paid for the third. Something just stood out to me that we each paid for one of the meals.

The End!