“Better,” and we both giggled.
I hoisted myself into the driver’s seat, and Ella Mae, lowered herself into the passenger seat. Behind the wheel, my confidence shifted. “You sure about this?” I asked Ella Mae.
“I’m sure I need to try to give you your people. I myself don’t like’em, but I cain’t let my problems with’em be your problems with’em. People need family like craw fish need mud.” She blew a half giggle of air to calm her own nerves.
“Not that! Are you sure about me driving? What if I crash us into a tree?”
Ella Mae, looked me in the eyes the way she does when she means, “Hush.”
“You’ve practiced in the yard before, don’t let your mind play tricks on you.”
I rolled slowly down the driveway with my left foot pressed the clutch pedal so hard that the floor of the truck threatened to give way. “Good, just coast ‘til you get up here.”
“Break,” she said when I reached the end of the driveway, where gravel and dirt met the asphalt road to town. “To get up on here, just pull out regular, not slow or it’ll cut off.”
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