Episode

TWO

Step left, step right, step left. Curse the snow for making this a trudge. Trudge right, trudge left, trudge right.

Step one: the car slows next to me, trudging along. He says something about being lost and asks for directions. I wish I could remember the exact words he used. I did not know the significance of them at the time, so made no effort to retain the conversation.

Step two: confusion. He was something of a swindler. I’d heard of the clerk who counts your change and throws numbers and questions and recounts at you until you leave with much less that you are owed. This man was a swindler, a practiced and brilliant one, gambling with my life. “How do I get there again? Left, then right, then right again? No wait, was it two lefts and a right? Three stop signs and a red light, then I make the turn? Was it a street or an avenue?” And the next thing I knew, I was in his car, a thing I would never do. Almost in a trance, I gave in to the request. What I really wanted was to get away from him, and somehow, agreeing to ride and show him the way was registered as the solution.

Step three: I got in his car.