Bathroom Road Trip

Date: 10/23/2022

In the parking lot of a restaurant called "Hoops" - going for brunch with the kids and Sue. Looks like a wedding party and a woman, a stranger, has to go to the bathroom real bad. Her husband and kids are playing inside but she can't wait any longer. I agree to take her to find a bathroom. We live just down the road but I am sleepy, passing in and out of consciousness. Sue is driving. It's been a long drive. I wake up and we're going over a steep bridge. "It's just after this bridge," I tell the stranger. But on the other side is high-rise buildings and plazas. Are we in Toronto? "Just pull into Tim's," I tell Sue. The woman runs into the restaurant. The kids go for a treat. I am waiting outside. D and B come back with treats and I want something. Probably have time. I go to the counter and an old woman with a big smile welcomes me. I ask if she has spice donuts, pumpkin spice. She says "No." I ask for a hot chocolate with whipped cream. Outside, I take a drink but it tastes and looks like plain hot water. I want to go back and complain but the stranger is back and her hockey game is probably done. D is driving. Sue is still inside. I say we should run the stranger to the arena and come back for Sue. We are still waiting. She isn't in the Tim's. I want to phone her but she has left her half-phone in the door. D wants to look at a Butterfly sanctuary by the beach, Sue's favourite place. Are we in Nova Scotia? I don't know why she would be there. D is talking gibberish. I tell her to stop the baby talk. This is a serious adult conversation! We are outside a basement window where a man and woman are fighting. I get back in the car quickly Let's go! At the Sanctuary, I am walking through the grounds, through mounds of snow, panicking, thinking this is some sign that I stopped to help a stranger and now I've lost one of my kids that I am responsible for. Ahead, there is a small restaurant named Hoops. We are back where we started! I open the door of the restaurant and there are six steps up. There is a handsome man and I tell him to go first. He wants to be a gentleman and signals for me to go first. But I am holding the door so it's silly. He should go. So awkward. Finally he goes first. I look through the rooms. It is late and the parties are over. I find Sue in the last room sitting with Gramma V and her dog. How are you here? How are you with Gramma V? So relieved to find you.