ANOTHER DREAM

Strange, again! Ellie and I are staying overnight at a hotel, I think in Italy. We are up early, due to drive back to Switzerland to connect with an extension to our journey--perhaps a return home. We have a contentious breakfast, for reasons I do not recall, with Ellie eventually wandering off for a conversation with other guests with whom we have had no previous contact...

Leaving the breakfast room to pick up the already-packed duffel bags from our second floor room, we notice the open door to an elevator and decide to take it. Inside, we are astonished to find ourselves in a huge space, more like the exhibition gallery in a science or natural history museum than the usual cramped quarters of an elevator. One wall is entirely filled with a display of antique telephones, each with its own individual stand; and one corner is taken up by a full-size pool table, complete with cues and colored balls.

This "elevator" soon rises slowly, like any other elevator, reaching the second floor; but instead of stopping there to let us out, it turns into a kind of train, or bus, moving on majestically through the narrow streets of this picturesque small mountain town, and arriving back finally at the hotel.

Once there, I am anxious to collect the bags from our room and get moving. Admittedly we have had an early start, but we have a long drive ahead of us to Switzerland--I estimate it to be about nine hours--and it's important that we make our connection. I am wondering if we have left sufficient time...