From the kitchen downstairs the delicious aroma of frying bacon drifts into his nostrils as he yawns and stretches. Shrugging off the disturbing dreams of the night before, he stands up and reaches for his dressing gown.
•
Arthur sits at the dining table chewing over a mouthful of bacon dipped in the yolk of a lightly poached egg.
The breakfast surprised him almost as much as the unexpected kiss he received upon entering the kitchen. He tries to remember the last time Anna kissed him. Perhaps she is practising for tonight, Arthur thinks and unfolds his newspaper, scanning the headline that dominates the front page. The country has a new leader and the media talk of a real change coming to the world.
Anna comes over to him and reads from over his shoulder.
“Isn’t it exciting, darling?” she coos and kisses him again on the cheek. This only increases Arthur’s discomfort. He has begun chewing on a second mouthful of bacon and cannot properly reply. The mumbling he produces as a response, reminds him briefly of the shape of his mouth in the dream and a small, silent terror explodes like a tiny light bulb in his brain.
“I have to be off to the hairdressers,” explains Anna. “Jennifer has gone shopping with her friends, so you’ll have a bit of peace and quiet this morning.”
Arthur watches as Anna pulls on her jacket and grabs the spare set of keys from the table.
“Have a good day, birthday boy. Don’t be late home tonight!” she winks at him.
Arthur swallows the bacon and makes another sound in his throat.
“But, I’m not going anywhere,” he protests.
His wife pulls a face. “What nonsense! I think you’ll want to go for a drive, won’t you?” She nods at the car keys that lie by a vase of flowers.
Arthur squints at the unfamiliar shape of the keys as his wife clicks out into the hall and he hears the front door close behind her.
On the stereo, Nina Simone strikes up again.
“Everything must change. Nothing stays the same. Everything must change. No-one, no-one stays the same.”
Arthur frowns. The remnants of the poached egg glare up at him like a single yellow eye.
•
“Morning, Neighbour.”
Arthur does not answer Ned’s greeting as he stumbles outside, still cloaked in his dressing gown, a slice of buttered toast in one hand and the unfamiliar keys in the other.
The toast falls to the ground, butter side up, as Arthur’s eyes widen.
The car in the drive is not his own.
It is a Camaro, the kind he has admired for many years but which always seemed impractical for a family. He looks down at the keys and half understands.
How has she done this? How can they afford it?
For now, at least, he decides that these questions can wait.
He presses the automatic tracking button on the keys and hears a satisfying click and double beep as the Camaro responds.
He smiles broadly and turns back to the front door, intending to go inside and get dressed before taking the car out for a spin.
As he does so, he catches the eyes of Ned, who stands by the lawnmower, staring blankly back at him.
“Morning, Ned,” says Arthur.
Ned does not reply, instead he continues to stare silently at Arthur.
Ned switches on the lawnmower and Arthur steps inside and closes the door behind him, suddenly very much aware of the cold.
•
Arthur Kovic wipes the sweat from his forehead and tries to remain calm. He has been driving for several hours now and knows that he is completely and utterly lost. A deep fog has rolled in across the endlessly unravelling highway and he strains his eyes to pick out the roadside signs that flash by him. Confused and afraid he switches on the radio, seeking guidance about this abrupt and unusual turn in the weather.
Instead of a weather report, a famous rock and roll singer from the 1970’s is singing a song about changes and Arthur focuses on the familiarity of the voice, letting it soothe and reassure him, as cars flash by in streams of soft neon light.
He thinks about Anna, sitting at home, glaring at the clock, as she assures the party guests that the birthday boy will be home at any minute. How long, he wonders, will it be before she has to start making excuses for his absence and what ramifications will those excuses have on him when he eventually arrives home… if he arrives home?
A light begins to flash on the Camaro’s dashboard indicating that he is running out of gas and Arthur makes a tiny, muted sound in the back of his throat. He turns up the headlights to full beam to combat the fog and sighs with relief when he sees a sign flash by advertising a gas station, a little under a mile up ahead. He looks at the meter ticking towards empty and reassures himself that it should be enough. Forcing himself to take deep breaths, he switches off the radio, just as the song ends and an advertisement for a new form of dental hygiene takes its place.
•
“You’ve taken a wrong turning,” explains the gas station attendant as he pumps the diesel into the car.
One by one, the attendant outlines Arthur’s mistakes to him and carefully traces out the route he will have to take if he is to find his way back home.
Arthur watches the attendant replace the pump and hands the man his credit card. The attendant looks at him as if he has just handed him a particularly difficult quadratic equation.
“What’s this for?”
