The worst driving in the world
If I could do it all over again, I’d tell Nick sorry, forget it, I’m staying here forever. I don’t care if I give birth on the air mattress on Inez’s mom’s floor. Anything is better than risking the traffic of Mexico City. It wasn’t bad an hour before dawn, when I said goodbye to Inez and her mom. The streets of their neighborhood were deceptively quiet then. But the further I drove in Nick’s truck, the more taillights appeared in front of me, the more headlights filled my rearview mirror. Now the sun is up and the streets of Mexico City are half parking lot, half race track, and all war zone. If Nick loved me even a little bit, he’d fly back down here and drive me out of this mess, the same way he drove me into it.
My cellphone shrieks to life, a plain ringtone at max volume. Otherwise I can’t hear it over all the honking and engine noise and traffic cop whistles.
“Hi.” The only greeting I can manage. I’m focused on everything all at once — the huge golden -RONA- of a Corona delivery truck boxing me in, street vendors pushing carts through the idling traffic, all the street signs and their stupid contradictory arrows.
Nick’s voice is deliberately calm. “Heya babe. Where you at now?”
“Not much farther than the last time you called.”
“How much farther?” he asks, still calm. Soothing. “Got a cross-street for me?”
“There’s a gigantic traffic circle up ahead. Avenida Insurgentes, I think. It’s got a 10-story winged statue thing in the middle.” My heart sinks. Vehicles revolve around the statue’s base in brutal honking combat. Omigod, I hate traffic circles. Hate hate hate them! “Who invented traffic circles, anyway? Who could’ve possibly thought traffic circles are — ”
Suddenly all the vehicles around me lurch forward. I’m only a heartbeat late on the gas pedal — but that’s all the delay it takes. A green-and-white Volkswagen Bug taxi angles in front of me. Then another one, darting after the first. My hood and its passenger door are on a collision course. I brake and yell at the driver in Farsi until I feel better.
...
