Speechless – R-O–ROAD T-R–TRIP

By: Taylor Gates

Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) drops the kids off at home where Maya (Minnie Driver) and Jimmy (John Ross Bowie) sing a song about how it’s time for the annual DiMeo road trip. Although Ray (Mason Cook) objects to missing school for it every year, January is the cheapest time to travel. Kenneth has agreed to housesit while they’re gone.

Ray is the only one who doesn’t like the fact they don’t make any plans before hitting the road. He wants a real organized vacation, but everyone else enjoys the spontaneous nature of their system. Jimmy packs everything they could ever need so they don’t have to buy any overpriced items on the trip.

Kenneth attends school to take notes for JJ (Micah Fowler) while the family is away. He accidentally lets it slip to Dr. Miller (Marin Hinkle) that they’re taking a trip—Maya gave the excuse that there was a death in the family.

After a quick stop at the Breakfast Barn (where Jimmy gets free, albeit disgusting, coffee refills for life), Maya excitedly stumbles upon a craft fair. Ray complains before Maya informs him there are vintage comic books there. Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) starts messing with a fortune telling machine. She pretends like she doesn’t believe in it, but it’s clear she’s a little spooked by its accuracy. While Jimmy and JJ are getting some food out of the cooler they packed, a man comes up and asks for two waters. They decide to charge him a marked-up tourist price and then get the idea to go one step further and start selling belongings out of their suitcases, too. They could actually end up turning a profit on the trip.

They hit the road again and a song on the radio by a British band called “Go West” determines the next direction they’ll head. They end up at a strawberry stand and decide to follow the alpaca wandering by. It leads them to an inn and when they check into their room, Maya sees in a brochure that they are next to an observatory. Maya gloats, telling Ray she was right about fate taking them on a great trip. Ray snaps saying he’s the one that made this all happen. He orchestrated every detail of this trip by anticipating and manipulating the circumstances—everywhere from planting the “Go West” tape to canceling someone’s hotel reservation.

Kenneth goes to have lunch with JJ’s friends like he usually does, but he feels weird talking to a bunch of high schoolers by himself. He tries the teacher’s lounge, but they refuse to let him stay there since he’s not a teacher. He joins the janitors and crossing guards in their room and even though he used to eat with him when he was the groundskeeper they aren’t very welcoming. He finally runs into Dr. Miller in the hallway and she invites him to eat with her in her office. They talk about how they don’t feel like they belong anywhere in the school and start a club called the Snowflake Society. They make plans to meet up at a coffee shop after school.

The next morning, Jimmy celebrates with JJ on turning a profit from selling old stuff, but Dylan is less than thrilled. They sold the flatiron she uses every day and now her hair is curly and unruly. Maya announces that they’re leaving. Even though Ray thinks it’s stupid, they have a tradition they’re going to maintain. When they get back in the car, Ray admits he’s not feeling well. They believe he’s faking it in order to go through with his plan at first, but they finally believe him when he cries out in pain. They detour to the hospital.

Maya quickly rattles off Ray’s information to the nurse, unwilling to let her prolong the visit. She pulls out a color-coded folder with all of his medical records and Ray is touched and surprised at her level of organization. Dylan is panicking, as her last fortune from the psychic machine said her family would suffer a shattering loss.

Everyone gives Ray a pep talk before his surgery. JJ tells him he’s got this; Jimmy says nothing is allowed to happen to him; Maya promises to perform the operation herself if she doesn’t get a good vibe from the surgeon; and Dylan apologizes for being a crappy sister and says she’s going to miss him. Maya calls Kenneth, asking him to bring her a few things to the hospital. Kenneth obliges, accidentally standing up Dr. Miller on their coffee date.

After Ray’s surgery, Maya gives him a rubber band ball. Although it’s not the biggest one in the state like he wanted to see, it’s probably one of the bigger ones in the hospital. Ray tells Maya he loved how organized she was earlier and she says she’s that way with the stuff that matters. Noticing the pain medication is kicking in, she picks up a yellow pillow with tassels and convinces him it’s a lion from the zoo he wanted to visit.

Jimmy is ecstatic that he gets to keep Ray’s appendix in a jar. Maya tells Dylan that since Ray lived, according to the fortune teller their family is still going to face a shattering loss. Dylan says she doesn’t care and doesn’t believe anymore, but JJ is superstitious. He rams his wheelchair into Jimmy so he drops and shatters the jar, fulfilling the fortune.