Lost Angels and the Long Road West
“Okay, then what do you suggest? What should we do? Give me an alternative.”
Kelly replied, “We are sitting in the alternative.”
Ali was shocked to hear the suggestion and was silent for nearly half a minute. After thinking about the alternatives and realizing that there was no other, he said, “All right. So, how many hours is it to this place known as Lost Angels?”
It took Kelly a moment to realize that Ali was referring to Los Angeles as Lost Angels. She looked at him with a surprised expression. “Hours? Try days! Moreover, it is Los Angeles. It is over on the West Coast, and we are on the East Coast, about three thousand miles away,” informed Kelly.
Neither one of them had any idea what to say next. It seemed they both knew the score: there was no alternative except to drive from one end of the country to the other, a distance that would not be easy to cover quickly, even if they drove all night.
Ali broke the silence. “Days, eh? No, we need to get there faster. We do not have that much time. Can we drive all night?”
“Well…I guess so,” answered Kelly. “We can trade off.”
Ali asked her whether she knew where this LAX was, to which Kelly replied that she had an idea but was not sure. She also mentioned that they needed to move onto the interstate as soon as possible.
Ali kept driving and after a few miles, a sign for the interstate came into view and Kelly gestured for him to take the car up the entrance ramp. Ali looked at Kelly, confused. “It’s our national highway system,” she explained. “It connects all of the states.”
Ali’s face lit up on hearing this. He would not have to completely rely on the directional sense of a woman; he would surely find road signs on the highway. “Ah! Will there be signs for Lost Angeles all throughout?”
Kelly could not help but smile and corrected him. “It is not Lost Angeles; it is Los Angeles. There would be signs, but not so soon. Look for signs for Pennsylvania, and I’ll see if Mohammed’s got a map around here.”
Ali started to concentrate on the road signs and Kelly started to root around the car looking for a map. She came across a GPS and turned it on. She looked at Ali and said, “We have something better than a map! We’ve struck gold! Mohammed has a GPS in his car.”
Ali was happy to hear this. “Excellent! Turn it on and punch in the place we want to get to.”