“Not to state the obvious,” he says now, “I’m not trying to be obnoxious, I don’t mean to insult your intelligence but…. but what about sat-nav?”
“What-nav?”
“erhm— Google it, perhaps??? ….Google maps?”
“Oh, GPS? You mean like Waves or Mapquest? Well, yeah, they sort of have something like that for RV’s —because, you know, you can’t go on a lot of the same roads as regular cars in some places, you know—like parkways, or even some tolls,things that have low clearances— you know— and also, the general weight of the vehicle, not just the height, you know, just like semis ….you know, Mack trucks?”
She realized she was talking much too fast. He was making her nervous. She had a tendency to keep babbling with a lot of excessive words when people made her self conscious. Was it because of how he was looking at her? Or was it because she was afraid of seeming like an idiot — or even worse than that, a crazy wacko
“Oh, lorries?” he asked staring at her in that enigmatic way of staring. At her.
“…..anyway,” she said quickly looking away from his eyes that were so distracting that she felt confused as soon at she found herself again pulled under their gaze, “—the gps ….cuts out quite a lot be-because -th-the connection….? —it— gets cut off —which ….is what happened when I —I—got stuck by the way! Ha! Uh yeah! Hah!…. I ended up about to —pull onto a bridge where ha! So, uh—I wasn’t suppose to—not really like allowed to go on—and guess what happened there?” she imitates a police siren and uses one hand over her head as though pretending it is a flashing red light on a police car going “whoo-whoo!!!! Whoo!!” she shakes her head and shudders from the memory, “and, sheesh! that image of the huge river under me ….! I still have nightmares about it—but it was just —actually— hah! just last week —! actually….actually …. yeah….so…. uhhh…..”
“Hence the map in the travel section….”
“Um—yeah—that…. hmm, y’know….? shhhit…. I should have remembered to buy it….”
“So what do you do about internet? You just go into bookstores or coffee places and use their WiFi?”
“Well, sometimes I do that too if—see—I have a jet pack which usually works great— unless—it’s like— it’s a kind of router or satellite but it gets flaky in some especially rural or mountainous regions so—I like to map out my directions by hand on a piece of paper or search for those rare things you can’t find anywhere, once known as ‘road maps’….” (and here she does those silly two fingers thing but as she does she seems embarrassed and stops herself thinking how stupid she keeps doing that….he was making her nervous how he was looking at her)
“Just—wondering—you—do you ….you live here—?—is that, full time?—I mean—what do you do for electricity or….?”
“Yeah—uh, you can say that, I guess—it’s a long story but—so—this RV has full utilities—so, you can still play your Super Mario Nintendo, so don’t worry—“ she stops deadpan and stares at him
“Sorry?” he then said not sure if he heard right and tried not to start to laugh or break into a smile
“You just seem like a super Mario brothers type….”
“Me? No—what gave you that idea?” but he smiled unable to stop himself
“Yeah, so—anyway, it’s like got like its own generator but I can connect to —y’know, like when say at camp grounds —some offer an RV hook up for electric—so—uh—I always take it because…. I mean….it saves on my propane supply,” she turned intentionally away from his gaze now and as they were facing the front of the vehicle now she kind of leapt towards the drivers seat area and then threw herself down onto the drivers seat, as she continued to talk, looking blankly out ahead at the parking lot by the Hertz rental shop, “….so things like water and dumping waste, it’s like you look for the places —they’re like, y’know, dumping stations like along on the way —so for filling up your water supply and for dumping….so ….when I got lost and wound up here, where’d you call this place?—Electra? Weird name, I didn’t see it on the map….”
“It was on the key by the legend,” he interjects
“Oh? —so anyway, this is what happened—this morning, like at dawn—I was just leaving the dump station after I refilled my water and when I went to put my foot on the gas pedal it just stopped going—in the middle of traffic! I was like—shit! What the fuck! I was like a beached whale stuck in the middle of this fucking highway and —at first there was not a car in sight until suddenly—boom! I created a fucking traffic jam!!! No idea where all these cars came from so I was freaking —and the motor cut out and….already, a hundred degrees out….” she stops suddenly there as if feeling she had said by far more than she ever wanted to say and wishing she had shut up after just answering his question. Why did she say all that?
“So you need a navigator —basically, is….what you’re trying to say,” but he was openly teasing her
“And you need something to pitch…..To your publisher.”
“….I do….”
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