Great Expectations Chapter XXXIX

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Chapter XXXIX  pgs. 256-258

He gunned the engine in neutral, engaged the motor, and the car lurched forwards. And he turned sharply towards the right.


“Please,” said Vivian.

“What?”

“Please.” He was heading in the wrong direction. Surely he knew it. He was doing it on purpose to scare her. Well, it was working. “Please take me back home.”

He raced the engine driving as fast as he dared in the direction of the inky darkness. Because he had a plan. After ten minutes, he slowed the car, looking for a road that was little more than a footpath. Finally, he saw it and turned sharply towards it. Vivian didn’t dare say anything. The path led to the infamous Ditch Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. Now Vivian’s breath came sharply as she realized where he was taking her. After all those years of marriage, he knew how to punish her. Alex chuckled recalling the newspaper headlines about Ted Kennedy’s car driving off of the road. And he swerved the car sharply causing it to skid sideways.

They were approaching the Ditch Bridge now. The night was still. The mud-brown supports − stubby post-people − cast shadows and reflections like specters in the inky waters below. They were alone on the bridge, the same bridge where a very drunk Ted Kennedy had driven off of the road, and where Mary Jo Kopechne had died on an evening much like this one.

For a moment, Alex chilled, sensing the stillness, as if ghosts inhabited the waters. He remembered an evening very long ago sitting on the bank of a creek. He had been a scared eleven-year-old back then on Halloween night, believing himself surrounded by ghosts and wicked spirits. He remembered clutching the book of spells to his body, and finding the mysterious word, Remordia, inside.

He looked over at Vivian, and he could see how pale her face was, even with the very limited amount of light. And her fear fed his courage.

“Did you say something?” he smirked and gave the wheel a quarter turn.

“Nothing. Just forget it.” She stared at the road ahead and breathed a relieved sigh as they passed the last upright, leaving the bridge and its ghost behind.

“Maybe you’d rather walk.” The road was a worn out path with a pond on one side and the ocean on the other. He swerved the car again.

“Maybe I would.”

Alex leaned across Vivian and pushed open her door. The car lurched drunkenly. He pushed at the button keeping her seatbelt fastened, but his hands shook, and he couldn’t undo the buckle.

“I’m sorry.” Vivian was reaching for the door, trying to close it. “It’s been a long night. Can we please just get home?”

“All night you made me look stupid…. Now you’re trying to tell me how to drive….”

“I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean any of it.”

“You’re damn right you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not as sorry as you’re going to be.” At last his fingers found the button. The seat belt flew loose, and he shoved Vivian out of the car. “See how well you like it walking solo.” He laughed and gunned the engine. He gunned it again, and, as Vivian grabbed on to the doorframe, he started forward, slowly at first, then faster until Vivian was almost running to keep up with the car.

“Please, Alex, I can’t see.” Her foot twisted, and the car jerked free of her grasp, leaving Vivian staggering, and then falling backwards.

Alex drove on for another couple of minutes, letting Vivian stew in the darkness. He stopped the car, turned off the engine and listened. One cricket chirped – a forlorn rattle far, far away. Had she learned her lesson yet? The gloom sent shivers down Alex’s back, and he restarted the engine and turned back to pick up his wife.

He drove back slowly with his lights in high beam. And he turned on the radio for company against the disturbing stillness. ‘You ready to behave yourself?’ That’s what he’d say. And he’d generously forgive her for behaving foolishly. He avoided calling Vivian’s name. No sense in letting her know that he was looking for her. Let her worry a few minutes more.

But there weren’t many remarkable landmarks on that dark stretch of road, and, anyway, Alex hadn’t been paying much attention to the scenery. He came to the bridge and turned around. Minutes stretched by, and still he hadn’t found Vivian. He had counted on spotting Vivian walking along the road but, in the gloomy blackness, she was nowhere in sight.