VI
Maeve recognized being “dropped off” as an emotional trigger in herself. She had been just “dropped off” at a private, Catholic high school in Western Pennsylvania; she had been just “dropped off” at St. Mary’s. It triggered feelings of powerlessness in her, of a lack of freedom, of resentment at both. But David knew nothing of this trigger when he asked if I needed help or was just to be “dropped off” while she packed her personal essentials. She knew that. But he was taking me and was just dropping me off and now I am starting on the very long second leg of the odyssey to Barnesboro with a man who I knew next to nothing about. But hadn’t he gotten me to South Bend without incident? Well, the wanting to pull over and “look into my eyes” thing. Which I maybe overreacted to. At least it turned out that way. But had I been too alarmed in the moment? On the first leg of a trip in a medical emergency? Maeve thought not. Was this though not an "imposition", her exact word at the aborted breakfast meeting, on David? He said it was not. Was it not a constraint on his freedom? He said it was not. Even if it was imposition and constraint can one not voluntarily give up one's freedom? Absolutely, you can. But had she not "taken" David in some meaningful sense? I at least took him up on his offer to drive me? What's in it for him? He paid for the 4-wheel drive. Oh God, he has his hook in me. Had Maeve taken advantage of him? Absolutely not. I now owe him money. You fool! He comes from a family of Swiss bankers, he says. Is that true? If it is true, and if the family “has more money than God”, which is what he also said, then bankers make money by lending money. That's what's in it for him. And sex. He may want me to pay him "in kind." "Ass, grass, or cash, nobody rides free! This witch thing, "highest level of beauty? Bullshit. As she gathered her things Maeve resolved to reassert her power and also to confirm David’s bio.
As he sat impotently like a chauffeur in the car waiting on Maeve, David began to have doubts. Maybe his vision had failed him. Maybe this mad Irishwoman was not cut from the cloth to be a communicant with him in his version of the family mission. He resolved to try explaining fully once, as he promised, and if it didn’t take he would just drop her off safely in Barnesboro as he had also promised.
"I'm driving", Maeve said as she re-entered the car. It was not a passive-aggressive offer ("Say No!, please."), it was a demand. David noticed the difference.
"I want to know what's going on."
"You're taking me to Barnesboro."
"Cut the debonair, Monsieur Ranc, let me see some id."
"What?"
"I want to see some id, right now." He pulled out his school id and looked at her with questioning eyes.
Damn, University of Chicago.
"Okay, that's fine," she handed it back to him sheepishly.
"Do you see where it says," David pointed earnestly, "right under my picture, 'School of Arts and Sciences, Major Kidnapping?'"
She fell for it and had been studying the school id with him. That got her Irish up and she pulled off, tires screeching and sat silently with pursed lips.
Is there anything more oppressive than silence in a car? Both.
David's body started shaking with laughter. He couldn't hold it in.
"I'm sorry," and Maeve reached out and touched the ulnar side of David's left wrist with the fingers of her right hand. They both glanced at each other and then quickly away as if they had committed a murder and Maeve withdrew her hand like she had just touched a hotplate.
"Pay attention to the road!," David yelled. "Damn mad dogs and Irishwomen."
Maeve was laughing so hard tears came to her eyes, seeing was like looking through a swimming pool, and she lowered her head over the steering wheel.
"MAEVE, you're going to get us both killed! Pull over, I'll drive this thing."
She pulled over.
"If we do something physical for a few minutes it'll release the silly tension we have and we'll be fine.” Maeve the scientist, the doctor-to-be, said.
Then the police officer pulled up to do a welfare check on the young man doing pushups and the young woman doing tuck jumps by the side of a major interstate freeway.
