Lily balanced a large piece of blueberry pie on her fork and aimed for her mouth.  Her tongue slid through the gooey filling.  She closed her eyes and savored the sweet blueberries; she wished everything could be as simple and as enjoyable as a slice of blueberry pie.  Her eyes still closed, she listened to the clinking and rattling coming from the kitchen as Kit washed the lunch dishes.

     The pie was truly wonderful, but her enjoyment couldn’t quite make her stop worrying about this thing that she and Kit had going--it wasn’t working the way she wanted it to.   Maybe it would be easier if Lily knew exactly what sort of thing they had going.  whatever it was.  She felt tired of the games she had been playing with Kit for the last several months. Worse yet, she was beginning to feel slightly ashamed of herself for taking advantage of him. Lily didn’t like to feel such things about herself.  It was really Kit’s fault, of course.  She wouldn’t get him to do everything she asked if he didn’t let her.  Why couldn’t he just stand up for himself? She tried to pinpoint exactly when Kit had lost his spine--he had been doing so well, then bam!  Instant jellyfish.

     Lily scooped up another forkful and stuffed it in her mouth.  Amazing that a jellyfish could bake such a good pie, she thought.  She usually liked their lunches together; they would often go somewhere on a free morning and return to Kit’s house for lunch.  Lunch today had been quite good, but their conversation had sputtered along and had finally halted when Lily had made an off-hand comment about driving the new car.  Kit had decided he didn’t want any dessert, so he had left her with the pie and had gone back to the kitchen.

     She scraped a final bite of pie off the plate, licked the last bits of blueberry filling off the fork and shoved the plate to the side.  She put her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands and stared out the window.

     Kit had formerly gone along with most of her ideas, but put up just enough resistance to keep the game interesting.  And he had hinted that he liked their little games. Lately, though, the fight had gone out of him.  No matter how outrageous her suggestion, he would follow it, with nary a hint of either resistance or interest.  Even her decorative ideas for the yard, which she’d thought would send him over the edge for sure: they were a bit extreme even for her.  He’d just given in.  Where was the fun in that?

     Take this morning, for example;  without even trying, she’d managed to convince him to drive her all over town so she could do errands, buy some truly strange polka- dotted pants, and prepare her lunch; then do the dishes while she ate her pie, still wearing the polka-dotted pants. Not so much as a peep of protest the whole time, unless rolling one’s eyes in the face of polka-dotted pants counted as protest.  It quite spoiled the fun and made her feel like a bad person.

     Back when she’d let him haul her away from Ted’s house, she had flippantly said she wanted to take him on and teach him a little fashion sense.  Then after Ted’s wedding, she’d gotten hooked on the idea of teaching him a little fashion sense and took up the challenge.  She’d also discovered she liked him--he was very sweet under his strong, silent guy shell.  But now that he didn’t seem to be playing by her rules any more, the game palled and what had seemed an interesting and entertaining challenge at first had become, well frankly, a bore.  Lily wanted something better.

     She could see Kit’s new car sitting in his driveway.  Lily was getting tired of relying on Kit to drive her around, but she had become dependent on him: his readiness to drop whatever he was doing on her least whim and take her wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, had spoiled her.  Lately she had given up taking the bus entirely.  She didn’t think she could ever go back to it, now.  What would she do if Kit decided he didn’t want to take her places anymore?  If only she could drive herself places!  She could, of course: she did have a driver’s license, even if she’d hardly used it since she had first learned how to drive.  All she needed was a car--Kit’s car. It wasn’t as if he used it much any more, after all, except for taking her places.  He ought to let her borrow it, from time to time.  But that was where Kit put his foot down; about the only place he still did, in fact.  And just because she’d wrecked the old car, too, a thing that could happen to anyone!  She’d wheedled; she’d even begged, but Kit was unmoved.  It fretted her like an itch she couldn’t scratch.

     “Why not?” she would ask.

     “Because you don’t know the first thing about driving,” he’d tell her.

     “I did all right before!” she’d say.

     That was when he’d usually point to the wreck of the old car.  She hadn’t quite figured out the response to that one, yet.

     Other times Kit would simply point out that the new car had a manual transmission, which she admittedly had problems with.

     Well, maybe it was time to learn how to use a manual transmission, then. She was sure she could do it. Hadn’t her Dad given her first driving lessons in his beat- up old manual pick-up?  So what if she’d stripped the gears and he’d given up on her?  All she needed was more practice. She knew it would come back to her.  After all, she had picked up using the in-line skates quickly enough, and it had been seventeen years before that that she had last strapped a pair of roller skates to her feet.  If she could do that, she thought, mastering the stick shift should be a snap.  Kit made it look easy enough.

     She looked again at Kit’s new car.  New old car, really: he’d bought it used.  It seemed to be calling to her.

     “You want me to drive you, don’t you, old car?” she whispered.

     Yes, yes, it seemed to answer.  Kit’s so dull! Come to me, Lily!  Take me away from all this!

     It tempted her like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Edom, or wherever it was.  What would happen if she just took it?  She knew what had happened to Adam and Eve, of course, but she didn’t think Kit would kick her out of his house -- it was hardly Paradise, in spite of her efforts to jazz it up, and Kit was hardly God, in spite of her efforts to improve him.  And if he did...  Well, he was probably a lost cause anyway, and the car outweighed Kit in the balance.

     With that thought in mind, Lily finished her last bite of pie and carried her dirty plate into the kitchen. She dropped it on the counter amid piles of dishes from the last two days and said to Kit, “I’m going out.  See you after a while.”

     “Better wipe the blueberry off your face,” Kit said, looking up from the dishes.

     “War paint, my dear rutabaga, war paint,” Lily said as she walked out of the kitchen.  She wiped it off, though, because she felt a blueberry drip approaching her chin.  She licked her fingers and looked around for Kit’s keys.  She thought she had seen them in the living room. Ah, there they were. Kit had thoughtfully left them on the corner of the old sofa. She picked them up.  Lily looked over her shoulder to see if Kit could see her, but he was still engrossed in his dishes, so she took a deep breath and walked out the front door.

     She crept along the garden walk to the driveway and opened the car door. She winced when it creaked loudly, but jumped in anyhow.  Kit’s seat was too far forward and it took her a minute to find the adjustment lever.  She closed the door as quietly as she could, then plunged the key into the ignition switch.  She pumped the gas pedal as Kit always did.  She wasn’t sure why it was necessary, but Kit would often say something like, “You really need to pump this thing.  It’s very shy about starting.”

     Another deep breath and Lily turned the key. The car jerked forward violently and immediately died.  A startled yelp came from behind the car. Baby Dee must have been sleeping on the driveway.  She knew she had forgotten about the clutch.  Kit complained about that often enough too.  She should have remembered.

     Lily glanced over at the house.  Still no Kit, just the dog looking at her resentfully.  She turned the key again, this time with her foot on the clutch.  The car roared to life.  She took her foot off the clutch and was thrown forward when the car jerked as violently as before and died again.  Now that she thought about it, Kit almost always let his foot up gradually, except for the times that she distracted him unexpectedly or Baby Dee startled him with a big wet doggy kiss on the back of his neck.  The car behaved just like this.

     Kit must be playing music or something, Lily thought as she tried for the third time.  This time she managed to let the clutch up slowly enough that the car didn’t die so quickly.  She pressed on the gas pedal and car threw her forward against the steering wheel as it shot backward out of the driveway. She panicked and suddenly couldn’t remember what she should do to go the other direction.  It was all she could do to turn the wheel enough to miss the tree on the opposite side of the street.  She did scrape the bushes to the side of the tree with a horrible screech against the side of the car, but she didn’t come to a sudden stop.

     Lily glanced around at the street.  Fortunately, it was empty except for the Jimenez kids, who were hiding behind the hedge next door to Kit’s and pointing at her. She would have waved at them, but she was still moving and not sure what to do next.  She tried to move the gear-shift while attempting to stay in the middle of the street, but couldn’t get it to budge. She swerved to avoid a car parked on the side.  Maybe she should concentrate on getting around the block as the first lesson.  Looking back at Kit’s house once more, she spotted Kit’s white face pressed up against the dining room window.

     Four difficult corners and several narrow misses with other cars later, Lily cruised back toward Kit’s house. She didn’t feel any more confident with the gear-shift than before because she still couldn’t get the car out of reverse. She was getting much better at driving in reverse, though.  By the time she approached Kit’s house, she was able to keep the car in the middle of the street quite consistently.

     She saw Kit waiting for her beside his driveway, waving his arms wildly. Lily was afraid she might run into him, but by pressing down hard on the brake she managed to slow down enough to swerve around him.  As she did so, he launched himself at the passenger door and got it open.  He dropped into the passenger seat. “Stop the car, for God’s sake!”

     “I can’t,” said Lily, “I don’t know how!”

     “Put in the clutch and the brake at the same time, “ Kit cried.

     Lily put in the clutch, but hit the gas instead of the brake.  The car kept rolling  and the engine roared.

     “The brake!  The brake!” Kit yelled over the engine.

     Lily got her foot firmly on the brake pedal and pushed it in as hard as she could.  The car slammed to a stop and her left foot slipped off the clutch.  She and Kit were thrown forward as the car jerked and died, just as it had in the driveway.

     Kit reached over and yanked the keys out of the ignition.  “What in the world were you doing?!”

     “I was trying to run away and join the circus,” Lily said.  It was the first thing that popped into her head.

     “And do what?” Kit asked.

     “I wanted to find a giraffe to ride,” she explained.

     “So you needed my car?”

     “Sure,” said Lily.  “There aren’t any circuses nearby, so I was going to go look for one.”

     “But you don’t know how to drive my car,” Kit cried.

     “You are so perceptive, my sweet potato.” Lily smiled at Kit as charmingly as she could.  “That’s why I came back to your house first.” Both of them jumped slightly when a car horn blasted behind them.  Kit stuck his arm out the window and waved for the car to go around them.  The car had come to a stop at an angle with the street, though, and the other car couldn’t squeeze past. Kit, looking exasperated, jumped out and slammed the door shut. He ran around the car to Lily’s side.  He pulled the door open. “Move over,” he snarled.

     Lily slid to the other side of the front seat. She hoped Kit wasn’t too angry at her.  He put the keys back in the ignition and started the engine. He was much smoother about it than her, Lily had to admit.  He shoved the gear- shift forward.  The car moved forward as he let up the clutch.  Lily clapped. Kit glanced at her with a grim expression on his face as he steered back to his driveway. The other driver gunned his engine and roared past as soon as there was enough room to pass.

     After parking the car, Kit got out without saying anything to Lily. She got out, too,  and went around the other side of the car to join him.  He was busy looking at new scratches on the fenders.

     “Maybe you could give me some lessons, Kit,” Lily suggested, trying to be cheerful.

     “Maybe you could fix these scratches first,” Kit said without looking up.

     Lily was shocked to hear him be so blunt. “Oh, Kit, Baby Dee probably scratched your car.  He was out here earlier.”

     “The dog had nothing to do with it.”  Kit sounded grim.  He was running his fingers along the worst scratch in the front fender.

     “Kit, look at me,” Lily said as firmly as she could.

     Kit looked up from the fender.

     “I want you to teach me how to drive your car. That way you won’t have to drive me around any more. I’ll make sure Baby Dee is out of the way next time.” She tried to give him a look he wouldn’t resist.

     “I’m not sure I want you driving my car at all.”

     The look wasn’t working.  It was time for a different approach, Lily thought.  She ran over to him and put her arms around him.  “Sweet Kit, I’m sorry Baby Dee was so mean to your car,” she cried, “but I really want to learn how to drive it.  Oh, sweet rutabaga, sweet potato Kit, please take me for a driving lesson.”

     Kit straightened up and stepped back as he looked at her. He had stopped pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes.  She liked the look of resignation he now wore much better.  “Oh, all right,” he said, “How about tomorrow at nine in the morning?”

     That was more like it.  “I’ll come make you breakfast!” she said.

     Kit pursed his lips again and frowned.  “No, I’ll make breakfast.  Be here at eight.

     “Thank you, Kit.  You’re so considerate,” Lily said. “You’re the best friend I could have.”

     Kit frowned again, but said, “Thank you.”

     Lily didn’t like to see him frowning so much, so she hugged him again. “I think I should be going now.”

     “I think that would be a good idea.”

     Lily could tell Kit wasn’t quite over the scratches yet.  She hoped he would be in good spirits by tomorrow morning.  She thought that she could fix his mood if necessary, though he was being stubborn just now.  She released Kit and walked back toward the front door to retrieve her shoulder bag.  Kit followed behind her.  She picked up the bag from inside the doorway and hugged Kit again. Kit ought to be overwhelmed from all the affection, she thought. That ought to help him.

     Lily slipped away from Kit with a light kiss on the cheek.  She hoped it was the right kind of kiss. She sprinted toward the street.  “See you in the morning!” she called over her shoulder as she reached the sidewalk.  She would usually persuade Kit to give her a ride, but the bus sounded very appealing to her today.