You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead

Author:Maggie Shipstead [Shipstead, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

That’s when you knew?

Well, that’s when we got engaged.

* * *

—

Lyla refused to take off the mask, and for two hours she and Bill did not speak. Bill held tightly to the wheel and concentrated on the road, trying to ignore the long-nosed white shape in the corner of his vision. By midafternoon the road had deteriorated, often shrinking to one narrow lane, and half a dozen times Bill came around a hairpin turn and was confronted by a rattletrap truck or startled cart horse and had to reverse back down the bend while the Romanian driver followed, gaping at Lyla in her mask. Potholes were a constant threat, and in places there was no pavement but only dusty, rocky gray clay. Rounding yet another corner, they saw a stone castle nestled between ridges, the sharp peaks of its red tile roof rising above the trees.

“I believe the Count is expecting us,” Lyla said.

Bill ignored her. She reached up and untied the mask’s ribbon, and her face, freed from its pale shell, was as stern and well-formed as always but also somehow novel, as unexpected as a pearl exposed by a shucking knife. The sight of her was such a relief that optimism crept through him. “There’s my girl,” he said. She was beautiful, after all, and he had loved her. He did love her, he thought. Maybe he just had cold feet. There was no reason you couldn’t have cold feet even after marrying.

They had come to several junctions during the time when they weren’t speaking, and Lyla had said “Right” or “Left,” and he had followed without question. But now, as the castle disappeared behind them, Bill realized he had no idea where they were. The plan had been to drive through Brasov and then find a village in which to spend the night, but they had never come to Brasov. “So,” he said, reaching over to twine his fingers in her hair, “where are we?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? You’re the one with the map.”

She pulled her head away from his touch. “I thought we would have an adventure.”

“Are you saying you got us lost on purpose? Tell me you’re not saying that.”

“It’s not such a big deal, Bill. We haven’t been swallowed by a black hole. We’re still on this earth. We’re not in a hurry. There are roads that will take us from here to anywhere. We’ll just find a village and spend the night, and then we’ll ask which way to Hungary, and then we’ll ask which way to Budapest, and so on.”

“What village? We haven’t seen one in an hour. We’re on the edge of a cliff.”

“We won’t be forever. Just keep driving.”

He stopped in the middle of the road.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m not driving until you look at that map and figure out where we are.”

“We are precisely two miles from East Nowhere, Transylvania.”

“Lyla, I am telling you to look at that map.”

Lyla stared at him. Without breaking eye contact, she balled up the map and opened her door.

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