The Driver

Imagine a house gone dark. Someone is ordering Chinese
takeout at 3 a.m. The car arrives, the headlights bleach the
wooden clapboards, the kissing gate stays shut. The driver
waits, waits. And oh, he’s irritated, of course he is. The bag
leaks grease through a corner like something wounded. He
could call. He doesn’t. No, let’s pretend he’s brave, pretend
he’s climbing the gate like it’s a barbed wire fence and he’s
got a letter in his hand or between his teeth or on his head,
whoever cares, pretend he’s a hero or a thief or a man with
a burlap sack—no, wait, that’s just the takeout. The door of
the house swings open. Someone is apologizing. The driver
is irritated again. He returns to his car, and this time the gate
is open. Or no—it isn’t. The person who ordered the food is
back in the house, lights dark, everything silent. She’s forgot
to press the button. Six minutes later the driver is driving on
the strip of highway between the lake and the place no one
builds houses. A deer is caught in the headlights, unfolds its
body sideways, vanishes. The car jerks. The radio hiccups.
In the back of the car a bag of food spills its innards onto the
seat. The little plastic tub of duck sauce rolls out and drops
into the door pocket. Two minutes later the driver is exiting
the highway. On the ramp, off the ramp, up up up and to the
right. He thinks he’s been here before, in another life perhaps,
maybe as a ghost, maybe as a guy who makes it home. The
road bends left. The windshield is a smear of guide markers

and nothing past them. The sky a hole, the moon markedly
absent. He stops for gas and decides to buy dinner. Nobody
is at the register. The coins hit the laminate counter like high

heels on linoleum. The driver briefly reconsiders the thief-

man-burlap-sack idea. Hastily, he leaves. At 3:37 a.m. the

driver reaches a dead end. Continue 400 feet, the GPS says,

take the first exit at the roundabout. There is no roundabout.

There is no 400 feet. Just gravel and the last bag of takeout

tipping itself sideways in the back. The driver gets out and

slams the car door with a bang. Somewhere in the distance

someone is setting off firecrackers and waiting for food.