Part 2 (2/2)
”Upstate New York,” ht on yet that here in Arizona, hailing from back east was more likely to elicit derision than aded first naers?” When she told hi boxes, then pointed his greasy spatula atwe dropped the trailer off at the nearest U-Haul facility where a HELP WANTED sign was taped to the cash register ”Not for here,” the man behind the counter said, as if he feared ns on his job ”At the headquarters”
These were again located all the way across town, so we drove directly there,up for job interviews, and when she disappeared inside I again found a shady spot where I could plan, with the aid of a ood at sequencing the ites in the order of their iraphical proxiressions into account I'd only just begun when she reappeared ”Where's that list?” she said When I handed it to her, she crossed out JOB ”No kidding?” I said No kidding She'd been hired on the spot as a bookkeeper The pay was shi+tty, but Arizona was a virulently antiunion, right-to-work state where the idea of a living wage had yet to be introduced There were lots and lots of crappy, low-paying jobs, however, and the possibility of rapid advanceh, was that it was located straight down Indian School Road, so that even with her lousy sense of direction she wouldn't get lost Turn right to go to work, turn left and return home Easy as pie
That was the other complication, naturally My car wasn't mine anymore ”I wish there was so after her coffee-shopThe people we'd been staying with had explained whenthe car down to Tucson that people in Phoenix didn't carpool Or ride the bus, or take a train If you needed to go anywhere, you climbed in your own car and you took off If your wife needed to go soot into her own car and she took off You'd no o two to a car than two to a horse ”But isn't that kind of, wellstupid?” I re ”Welcome to Arizona,” I was told
So, since I didn't really need a car at the university anye located the nearest branch of the Departot my mother a learner's per exams for a week later What we'd do if she failed either one we tried our best not to think about With nothing but Cao over, Phoenix wasn't a bad place to learn to drive It was laid out on a grid, and its streets ide and flat To us, every intersection looked like every other intersection, but you could see for long distances, so it was possible to use the few landmarks that stood out to orient yourself There was the heat, of course Since the Death had neither air-conditioning nor power steering, aited until late in the day for her driving lessons For the first few evenings we practiced on quiet, residential streets and abandoned strip-ifted student, but in her defense it must've been hard to learn such a basic skill so late in life and to be taught by so Nor was I the most patient instructor The fact that she'd never driven was one thing, but her ignorance of fundamental principles was so profound it seens until I pointed them out to her Worse, she was prone to panic Once, ere working on parallel parking, she forgot she was in reverse and accelerated when she felt the car as was called for-despite , ”Brake! Brake!”-and remained fully coh souaro cactus The next day I couldn't coax her back behind the wheel withouta pass for a day or two and that, no matter what she did, I wouldn't yell at her
Gradually, we hborhoods out onto busy Indian School Road As tienuine purposes, to the superstore She always parked in the most remote reaches of the lot, where she was unlikely to encounter other cars or need to use reverse gear We made a couple practice runs to her new place of e off-hours, then under ood-that would never happen-but hardly thea trailer down the interstate At once terrified and ga a sudden impact at any moment, and I caainst catastrophe To seehold like that was to understand that her mind, unlike that of 99 percent of drivers ere far more skilled and experienced, would never wander, even for an instant, fro of her road test she took an extra half pill with her coffee so her hands wouldn't shake, and by the time we arrived at the Depart a slance that she was pharone I istrar and say I'd be a week or two late and beg theiveto explain as happening No, I couldn't predict exactly when I'd be joining my classmates, as it kind of depended on when my mother passed her driver's test What if I were asked to assess her chances? Or if the registrar wanted to knoas that a woe had never driven a car until teeks ago? Would he have ht-Russo The one fro on inary conversation when I heard hter froirlishly as she approached, with her exaood fifteen years her junior, as fir on a leash ”And this isyou about”
”Your mom did fine,” the le cactus”
Then he wished her luck on her new job, and they shook hands, and he and I shook hands again, one big happy, complicit family ”What a nice h for him to hear
To celebrate, ent to a restaurant for lunch, and my mother ordered a bloody Mary
”You actually told hiht that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard They're apparently quite expensive”
I'd suspected as htailed it out of there and I'd chosen an entirely new neighborhood to practice in e resu
She showed iven ”Hey, you knohat this means?” I said ”You're free” Because every fifteen-year-old knows that a driver's license is really about freedoed for true independence, would register the syely After all, she wasn't fifteen; she was forty-five, and failing to learn would've sent her straight back to Helwig Street
She wasn't blind to the h, and when her drink came she reached across the booth and patted my hand ”Ricko-Mio,” she said, her smile less serene now, more loopy, ”we did it”
Which was true There were a few s important or difficult ”You did it,” I said Aware of how much all this had cost her, I was suddenly and unexpectedly proud of her, so proud it didn't seem to matter that e'd done was in fact borderline moronic And part of me understood, too, what this unforeseen pride randfather, I hadn't believed she was capable of , really I was proud she'd proved us both wrong, but also surprised ”In fact,” I said, ”seeing where ere a couple weeks ago, I'ed to pull it off”
”Well,” she said, looking so deeply inward now that I knehat she'd say next before she said it ”I just gave -to”
ALL THESE YEARS later it seeet settled at the university she drove back to Phoenix on her own Not that it was terribly difficult We could see the I-10 freeway raether She'd get on the interstate and not get off until she came to the Indian School Road exit, and she'd stay on that until she reached her apartht out when she left It would be dark by the tiot to Phoenix, but the traffic wouldn't be bad Of course if the Gray Death broke down in the desert she'd be all alone, and even if she could find a pay phone, what possible good would it do to call me? I don't think I worried about any of that I'd badly underestimated her, as well as our escape vehicle in recent weeks, and they'd both taught me not to They'dbusy Speedway Boulevard, I had a profound sense that ood I'd be with her for Thanksgiving, and again over the Christmas holidays between se Gloversville, and he'd offered to pay my union dues while I ay at school That way, if I wanted to coet a well-paid construction job, and I'd already decided to do just that Eighteen was legal drinking age in New York, and he'd begun to show randparents would have rented the upstairs flat on Helwig Street, but they had a spare bedroom and would be happy to see me I could paint the house on weekends to save them some money I already missed both of theuilt of having abandoned theht
My mother didn't factor into any of these plans Hey, she had the new life she'd wanted for so long She had people her own age and a nice apart over her shoulder, second-guessing her every decision and criticizing her for having a little fun If the Death didn't die and she got a couple raises, her new ends s work out for her? After all, Phoenix see frole men around And with me finally out of her way, there'd be opportunities for the kind of roh I doubted she had o dancing or out to dinner soer any reason she shouldn't have her wish Back in Gloversville, heras we had each other, but that pact-unsustainable between a row old and a son who'd eventually marry and have children of his own-could now be honorably dissolved by both parties That's what our long journey across America, all those scary on- and off-ramps, had been about As she herself had put it, ”Ricko-Mio, we did it”
And if we'd done it, it stood to reason that it nosis