We can see Paris through the driver’s window, not more than a few kilometers away.
“This is nice,” Joy lies down on some of the chairs next to Suzy and me. “What kind of a car did you say this is?”
“It’s a limousine,” Justin says impatiently as the driver begins to decelerate approaching the highway.
“Why’d you say ‘limo’ before?”
“Oh, no!” Justin says, looking forward through the window. “God damn traffic jam!”
Now I see it, too. We just merged with a highway where everything is now down to a standstill.
“Dad, how do you celebrate your birthday in the waking world? Is there cake? Can we have cake?”
“God damn it!” Justin looks obsessively at the traffic. “Driver, open the roof!”
I can see the driver’s finger push a button, and the roof above us slides open.
“Oh, cool!” Joy jumps up excitedly and stands up so that her top third is outside the car, feeling the wind.
Justin is standing up, too. “Move!” he shouts. “Move your stupid cars! What’s holding you up?! Just moooove!”
Suzy gives me a look. “Justin, I’ve never seen you like this. This is not how we behave.”
“Just goddamn mooooove!” Justin shouts.
“It’s just traffic,” Suzy tells him. “There’s nothing you can do.”
I take Suzy’s hand and whisper to her, “It’s not just traffic. He’s the one causing the traffic. It’s his dream.”
“Oh, right.”
“Pirate,” we suddenly hear Master Mind’s voice from above. I raise my eyes and see Bonny’s Revenge flying dangerously close to the limo. “You are obsessed! You have three seconds to cease your obsession or I will take the Little Pirate to the tunnels for fear you may harm her!”
Justin looks up angrily at Bonny’s Revenge.
“One…” Master Mind counts. “Two…”
“God damn traffic!” Justin growls.
“Three!”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt