REM // Van McCann

10. Driving Lessons

Even though I was home, the work never stopped. Yesterday, I spent all night working on the disclaimer and tonight, I was thinking about my plan. The first thing I had to do was meet with them to go over the purpose of the study and to go over the disclaimer. If they consent, we'll give them a tour of the lab and discuss the procedure and frequency of going under. The first few dreams will slowly ease them in, and depending on how fast they catch on, we can try manipulating dreams.

I finished writing down my plan and closed my notebook. It was past midnight and I should be going to bed. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and tucked my notebook in my bag. Then I got up to change into a T shirt and joggers, and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Even though I was in bed and it was dark, my mind was still working. It was times like this where I wish I could shut my brain off. But despite thinking about work, I still managed to fall asleep.

-

Fed up of taking the bus, she finally asked me to teach her how to drive a manual transmission. Even though I offered to teach her, I had no idea how to go about doing it so I spent last night watching videos online even though I knew how to drive a manual myself. She asked if it was okay to use my car since her parents needed the car for errands. She didn't say the real reason why but I think it's because she doesn't want her parents to know about me. To them, their daughter was just taking the bus to the city.

Before I left the house, I texted her that I was only five minutes away and she asked that I not park in her driveway. That's when I knew she was intentionally hiding me from her parents. It wasn't like I was dating her or anything. I'm not even sure we're friends. Why does she feel the need to hide me? I wasn't sure why that bothered me so much but I pushed it to the back of my mind.

I parked the car two houses down and texted her that I was here. She said she was coming and minutes later, I saw her walk down the driveway in search of my car. Once she found me, she walked towards me and I unlocked the car so she could get in. She opened the door and got in, putting her seatbelt on.

"Thank you so much for teaching me," she said, looking straight ahead. "It's annoying having to take several buses to get to where I need." It made me happy that she was going to places and not staying home all the time. I put the car in first gear and pulled onto the road.

"We're gonna practice driving in the car park," I told her.

There was a business that went bankrupt so they closed shop. Their car park has sat empty for months so I figured it was a good place to practice. I pulled into the car park and drove to the center, parking the car and turning off the engine.

"Why don't we start at the beginning? I dunno if you can see but I've got three pedals here," I said, moving to the side so she could see. She leant over the console to take a look. "The left pedal is the clutch, the middle one is the brake, and the right pedal is the accelerator. A good way to remember it from left to right is C-B-A. Clutch, brake, accelerator." She was studying the pedals intently.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but an automatic only has two pedals and you only use one foot to drive. Well to drive a manual, you need to use both feet in concert," I continued. She looked up in shock and I grinned.

"I'll go over the purpose of the clutch. It's this guy right here if you forgot." My left foot lightly tapped the clutch. "The clutch disconnects the engine from the wheels. It needs to be depressed when switching gears. And always make sure you can press it all the way to the floor. It feels different from the brake and accelerator so I'd play around with it. Are you following so far?" She was looking at the pedals rather than me. "Clara, I need you to look me in the eye and tell me if you follow."

Her eyes went up to mine and she nodded. That was when I noticed her hazel eyes which caused me to temporarily forget what I was going to say. She continued staring, wondering what my problem was, and I quickly looked down at the gear stick, flustered.