woffordwv

I had a REALLY strange dream last night where I was riding between my mom and sister in granddad's old Reliant. This was the first time I have had any dream about this in over 5 months. What made this dream so strange was that is was set in the present time, but there were parts of the dream that incorporated memories of when I was 15.

When the dream started, I was driving my Jaguar F Pace which is what I drive now. My girlfriend was in the front passenger seat and my mom and sister where riding in the back seat. We were definitely in the present day, because my face covering was handing from the rearview mirror and my girlfriend had hers on top of the glove box. I was driving all of us back to mom's house.

When we were getting close to home, mom asked me to run her by the Gulf Station because she needed to pick-up the Reliant. I changed course and a few minutes later, I was pulling into the parking lot of the old Gulf Service Station where my parents used to have their cars serviced. As I turned in, I saw the Tan Reliant was backed into a parking space in the gravel lot in back facing out towards to gas pumps. Both the Reliant and the Gulf Station both looked exactly like I remembered them looking when I was a teen. When I looked in front of the station, I saw a line of people wearing face covering standing on X's 6 feet apart waiting to go in and pay. The station still had to old pumps I remember that did not give you the option of paying at the pump.

As I pulled in, my girlfriend reminded me that she needed to run by the mall to pick-up some thing she had ordered and suggested I let her drive my SUV there and I ride home with my mom and sister. Since I really didn't want to deal with the mall, I agreed and got out and handed her my key fob. As she drove away, I walked towards the Reliant where my mom and sister were and discovered that I had left my face covering in my SUV.

As I walked towards the Reliant, mom was pulling keys from her purse an unlocking the front passenger side door. She suggested my sister and I go ahead and get in the car while she went in to pay since the station was trying to encourage social distancing. She then opened the front passenger side door and then passed me walking toward the gas station to wait in line to pay while my sister stood beside the open door. I told her she could sit up from that I would be fine riding in the back seat.

When I got to my sister, she rolled her eyes and pointed to the back seat telling me it was full of junk and we would all 3 have to squeeze in the front seat. I hesitated near the door waiting for my sister to get in and move over to the middle. While I was standing there waiting, my sister pointed to the tan vinyl bench seat and said "you're riding in the middle". I really did not want to have to ride in the middle, but didn't really feel like arguing with my sister and know we were only going a few miles and I would be riding between them for less than 10 minutes.

I reluctantly leaned into the car and threw a box of tissues and umbrella that were in the middle of the front seat to the back seat and than sat down on the seat, scooted over to the middle, and buckled the tan lap belt around my waist. My sister then sat down beside me in the passenger seat, closed her door, and buckled her seatbelt.

Not long after my sister closed her door, the car started to reek really bad. I looked through the windshield and saw that mom was still standing on and X out in the parking lot and knew there were still several people in front of her waiting to pay and that we would be waiting a while for mom.

While we were in the car waiting, my sister kept talking non-stop. First she was talking about our dad who had passed way about a year ago and was trying to get me to share my feelings which made me really uncomfortable. As she kept on talking, I noticed her breath really reeked like it did in the earlier dreams and it was all I could to to avoid it. As my sister kept pressing me to share my feelings about dad's passing, I was finally able to change the subject by getting my sister to talk about some concerns I had about mom's wellbeing and staying safe during COVID. Because the line to pay was so long, my sister and I talked through several things while we waited for mom to get in the car. Since the conversation we were having was an important one, I was having an easier time dealing with her breath than I did when she was trying to get me to share my feelings about my dad.

When I was talking to my sister about some of my concerns with mom, she poked my ribs with her elbow and told me mom was coming. I looked through the passenger side window and saw mom walking through the parking lot towards the Reliant. She got sidetracked for a little while when she saw a friend pulling up to a gas pump, but soon she was fumbling through her purse for the keys and then unlocking the driver side door, opening it up, and the sitting down in the empty driver seat on my left.

Once she was seated, she put the black key in the ignition and the car made a buzzing sound until she closed her door. She then spent what seemed like forever getting all of the mirrors adjusted. As she was doing this right in front of me, I noticed that she was really starting to show some age. As she griped to me and my sister about how long the line was and how slow it moved, I got a whiff of her breath and noticed it smelled worse than my sisters did. I tried to speed things along telling my mom and sister we needed to get back to the house before my girlfriend got back from the mall since she didn't have a house key, but mom didn't get the hint and kept taking about the slow line.

When mom was finally done adjusting the mirrors and talking about the wait to pay, she turned the black key in the ignition to start the car. The engine turned over several times but then was replaced by the annoying buzzing sound and a dash full of red lights. Mom turned the key a few more times, but each time the reliant didn't start up and I heard the buzzing sound and saw the red lights. I tried to suggest that we get someone at the Gulf Station to take a look at the car, but mom snapped at me that she could get it stated and didn't want to waste their time. She then started trying to pump on the accelerator before each crank, but the car still failed to start-up and I would hear the buzzing sound and see the red lights on the dash before mom again would try to pump on the accelerator and then turn the key. I started worrying that my girlfriend would get back to mom's house before mom could get the car started and snapped out of the dream while I was focusing more on what would happen if my girlfriend got to the house before us and less on mom trying to start the dream.

This dream was really unusual because it was a combination of the present and the past. The dream took place in the current time with us living in the COVID world. However, the Reliant was just like it was when I was 15 and the Gulf Station looked just like I remember it looking as a teen. In real life, my parents got rid of the Reliant after I graduated high school and go a new car and the Gulf Station was torn down several years ago and replaced with a BP convenient store. I though it was really odd how this dream blended the present and the past together.