Breathing Lessons (1989 Pulitzer Prize) - Anne Tyler [59]
"Listen," Ira said. "I'll just come right out with this-" "Or don't carry me! Don't," Mr. Otis cried. "I already inconvenienced you-all enough, I know that." "The fact is, we feel responsible," Ira told him. "What we said about your wheel wasn't so much a mistake as a plain and simple, um, exaggeration." • "Yes, we made it up," Maggie said.
"Aw, no,"'Mr. Otis said, shaking his head, "you just trying to stop me from worrying." "A while back you kind of, like, more or less, slowed down too suddenly in front of us," Maggie said, "and caused us to run off the road. Not intending to, I realize, but-" "I did that?" "Not intending to," Maggie assured him.
"And besides," Ira said, "you probably slowed because we accidentally honked. So it's not as if-" "Oh, I declare. Florence, that's my niece, she is all the time after me to turn in my driver's license, but I surely never expected-" "Anyhow, I did a very inconsiderate thing," Maggie told him. "I said your wheel was falling off when really it was fine." "Why, I call that a very Christian thing," Mr. Otis said. "When I had caused you to run off the road! You folks been awful nice about this." "No, see, really the wheel was-" "Many would've let me ride on to my death," Mr. Otis said.
"The wheel was fine!" Maggie told him. "It wasn't wobbling in the slightest." Mr. Otis tipped his head back and studied her. His lowered eyelids gave him such a haughty, hooded expression that it seemed he might finally have grasped her meaning. But then he said, "Naw, that can't be right. Can it? Naw. I tell you: Now that I recollect, that car was driving funny all this morning. I knew it and yet didn't know it, you know? And I reckon it must've hit you-all the same way-kindly like you half glimpsed it out of the comer of your vision so you were moved to say what you did, not understanding just why." That settled it; Ira took action. "Well, then," he said, "nothing to do but test it. Keys inside?" And he strode briskly to the Chevy and opened the door and slid in.
"Aw, now!" Mr. Otis cried. "Don't you go risking your neck for me, mister!" "He'll be all right," Maggie told him.
Ira gave Mr. Otis a reassuring wave.
Even though the window was open, the Chevy was pulsing with heat. The clear plastic seat cover seemed to have partially melted, and there was a strong smell of overripe banana. No wonder: The remains of a bag lunch sat on the passenger seat-a crumpled sack, a banana peel, and a screw of cellophane.
Ira turned the key in the ignition. When the engine roared up he leaned out toward Maggie and Mr. Otis and said, "Watch carefully." They said nothing. For two people who looked so little alike, they wore oddly similar expressions: wary and guarded, as if braced for the worst.
Ira put the car in gear and started rolling along the shoulder. He felt he was driving something that stood out too far on all sides-a double bed, for instance. Also, there was a rattle in the exhaust system.
After a few yards, he braked and cocked his head out the window. The others had not moved from where they stood; they'd merely turned their faces in his direction.
"Well?" he called.
There was a pause. Then Mr. Otis said, "Yessir, seem like I did see a bit of jiggling motion to it." "You did?" Ira asked.
He quirked an eyebrow at Maggie.
"But you didn't," he said.
"Well, I'm not certain," Maggie told him.
"Excuse me?" "Maybe I just imagined it," she said, "but I thought there was a little, sort of, I don't know ..." Ira shifted gears and backed up with a jolt. When he was alongside them once more he said, "Now I want you both to watch very, very closely." He drove farther this time, a dozen yards or so. They were forced to follow him. He glanced in the side-view mirror and saw Maggie scurrying along with her arms folded beneath her bosom. He stopped