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The other night, I dreamed that an annoying (fictional) cousin was visiting me. In this alternate reality, I was still living in Virginia and my mother was still married to her ex-husband. I dealt with the cousin's eccentricities for a week without complaining. I waited for her to change clothes for everything we did (she even had to put on a different outfit to walk to the mailbox and mail a postcard). She had a suitcase stuffed full of idiotic pastel embroidered sweatshirts and sweatpants.

Finally it was time for her to go back home. I asked my stepfather if he could drive the cousin to the airport and he said no. Then he seemed to come to himself and he sat at the kitchen table looking at me and my mom. "You two are so nice to me," he said, shaking his head. "Why am I always so mean to you?" He made no move to get up so I pushed back from the table and got ready to drive the cousin to the airport.