SOUTH CAPE MAY
said Lara. “What about you, Wyn?” “I’ll be truthful, I love ‘If I’d a known you were coming, I’d a baked a cake’,” said Wyn, “I bet you could play it on your violin if you really tried.” Lara smiled and shook her head.
“Are we ready to get on the road?” said Lara. “I’ll walk in front of you,” said Wyn, “please hold the banister, the steps are steep.” Noting the carvings, Lara said, “This staircase is beautiful, but scary.” The walk to the car took only a few minutes. The car was a 1948 DeSoto two door coupe, mint green with grey upholstery. It seemed to be in great condition. Wyn said, “My uncle loves this car. It’s the dog he never had.” Wyn put Lara’s suitcase on the back seat next to his and said, “They’ll be asleep in five minutes.” Lara laughed at Wyn’s remark. It reminded her of the pleasantly humorous comments her father was always making to her mother. Lara felt that she liked Wyn very much but she didn’t know how far it was to love. Maybe this weekend would show her. Once they were settled in the car and Wyn was pulling out onto the almost deserted streets, Lara broached the idea of her driving part of the way to Cape May. Wyn looked at Lara searchingly for a moment but he did not reply at once. When he did reply, Wyn used a tone Lara had not heard from him before. Although he stared straight ahead, Lara could tell his full attention was not on the road. Wyn’s tone was distant and almost cold. “Lara, you know this car isn’t mine,” he said. “It belongs to my Uncle Charlie. Besides, I’ve never seen you drive. I have full confidence in your mental abilities but driving is more an art.” He continued, “But I trust that you would not get me into trouble with my uncle, so yes, you can drive. Our route gets less complicated once we get on Route #9 in New Jersey.” Although Lara was a little miffed that Wyn had reservations, his courteous consideration of her request and his agreement satisfied her. “Thanks, Wyn,” Lara said, “I’ll be very careful.”
As they drove across the Delaware River Bridge Wyn drew Lara’s attention to the beauty of the sun sparkling upon the water and the stateliness of a large ship moving down river. The forest of bridge girders made it hard for Lara to see it the way that Wyn saw it but he always Saw more poetry than steel or concrete. As they descended the New Jersey side of the bridge, Wyn said something about poetry of ships and the sea that Lara did not understand. At first she thought she didn’t understand him because she had missed some of his words. But Wyn kept talking, about ships and the sea and Lara was sure she was hearing and understanding the words he was actually saying even though he was speaking much faster than he normally spoke. At their numerous breakfasts and lunches, Wyn routinely spoke about diverse topics at a quick pace. Lara took pride in being able to follow his conversations, given their quick tempo and wide range of topics. Wyn frequently thanked her for her attention, though in a self-deprecating way. But Wyn’s present speech seemed substantially different. It was much faster, perhaps twice as fast as normal. More importantly, Lara couldn’t follow it at all. It didn’t seem to make any sense. The words and intonation seemed to be normal, though very, very fast, but the content was chaotic and nonsensical. Also, it ...
“Are we ready to get on the road?” said Lara. “I’ll walk in front of you,” said Wyn, “please hold the banister, the steps are steep.” Noting the carvings, Lara said, “This staircase is beautiful, but scary.” The walk to the car took only a few minutes. The car was a 1948 DeSoto two door coupe, mint green with grey upholstery. It seemed to be in great condition. Wyn said, “My uncle loves this car. It’s the dog he never had.” Wyn put Lara’s suitcase on the back seat next to his and said, “They’ll be asleep in five minutes.” Lara laughed at Wyn’s remark. It reminded her of the pleasantly humorous comments her father was always making to her mother. Lara felt that she liked Wyn very much but she didn’t know how far it was to love. Maybe this weekend would show her. Once they were settled in the car and Wyn was pulling out onto the almost deserted streets, Lara broached the idea of her driving part of the way to Cape May. Wyn looked at Lara searchingly for a moment but he did not reply at once. When he did reply, Wyn used a tone Lara had not heard from him before. Although he stared straight ahead, Lara could tell his full attention was not on the road. Wyn’s tone was distant and almost cold. “Lara, you know this car isn’t mine,” he said. “It belongs to my Uncle Charlie. Besides, I’ve never seen you drive. I have full confidence in your mental abilities but driving is more an art.” He continued, “But I trust that you would not get me into trouble with my uncle, so yes, you can drive. Our route gets less complicated once we get on Route #9 in New Jersey.” Although Lara was a little miffed that Wyn had reservations, his courteous consideration of her request and his agreement satisfied her. “Thanks, Wyn,” Lara said, “I’ll be very careful.”
As they drove across the Delaware River Bridge Wyn drew Lara’s attention to the beauty of the sun sparkling upon the water and the stateliness of a large ship moving down river. The forest of bridge girders made it hard for Lara to see it the way that Wyn saw it but he always Saw more poetry than steel or concrete. As they descended the New Jersey side of the bridge, Wyn said something about poetry of ships and the sea that Lara did not understand. At first she thought she didn’t understand him because she had missed some of his words. But Wyn kept talking, about ships and the sea and Lara was sure she was hearing and understanding the words he was actually saying even though he was speaking much faster than he normally spoke. At their numerous breakfasts and lunches, Wyn routinely spoke about diverse topics at a quick pace. Lara took pride in being able to follow his conversations, given their quick tempo and wide range of topics. Wyn frequently thanked her for her attention, though in a self-deprecating way. But Wyn’s present speech seemed substantially different. It was much faster, perhaps twice as fast as normal. More importantly, Lara couldn’t follow it at all. It didn’t seem to make any sense. The words and intonation seemed to be normal, though very, very fast, but the content was chaotic and nonsensical. Also, it ...