Chapter 35

“Are you sure this is necessary?” Mila asked doubtfully, eyeing the line snaking around the metal columns four times before ending at the counter. It was easily forty people deep.

“Yes,” Mei said emphatically. “The packet your teacher sent was quite clear: you must have a learner’s permit.”

Mila sighed. “Fine.”

“You have your birth certificate?”

“Yes,” she said, patting her pocket.

“And your money?”

Mila patted her other pocket dutifully.

“Good,” the housekeeper said, giving a little nod of approval. They joined the slow-moving queue and watched as it inched forward.

“We’re going to be here all day!” Mila whispered furiously.

“Of course we are,” the guy in front of them muttered. “It’s the friggin’ DMV.”

Mila didn’t have a response to that, so instead she kept her mouth shut. They all took another creep forward as the person at the front was called forward.

An hour and a half later, Mila emerged from the Department of Motor Vehicles proudly clutching her learner’s permit. Their driver was not impressed. They all got into the vehicle again and began their journey back across town.

Once they were home again, Mila was eager to have Mei give her a lesson. The chauffeur disappeared, and the two of them went into the semi-detached garage to look at her mother’s old car.

“Does it still run?” Bo Mei wanted to know.

Mila shrugged. “The keys are on the peg in the kitchen.”

She ran to fetch them and returned a moment later breathlessly. She climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition. She turned it, but nothing happened. No spark, no catch, nothing but the key in the tumbler.

“Give it some gas,” Mei suggested.

“What?”

“The long, skinny pedal.”

“Oh.” Mila stepped on it, pressing her foot all the way to the floor.

“No!” the housekeeper shouted. “That’s too much.”

Mila hurriedly pulled her foot away, her heart thudding. “Did I break it?”

“No, I don’t think so. But here… try starting it again.” Mila turned the key, and this time, after a brief struggle, started.

“It worked!” Mila declared happily.

“Okay. Turn it off.”

“What? No way!” Mila objected.

“Okay, then let me drive.”

“Do you have a license?”

“No, but I know how to do it.”

“Ha! Then I have to drive because I have a learner’s permit and I…outrank you.”

The housekeeper rolled her eyes. “The lady at the place said you had to have a licensed driver in the front seat at all times.”

“So I guess we can’t go anywhere.”

“Oh, who’s going to know?” the older woman shrugged. “Move.”

Her protégé obeyed. The housekeeper slid into the driver’s seat, put the sedan in gear, and backed slowly down the driveway.

“Hey, that’s pretty good!” Mila said excitedly as Mei put it in park.

“Okay, now you. Go forward.”

They switched seats and Mila did as Mei instructed, pulling the gear shift slowly to the D for Drive, then put her foot on the gas. The car shot forward toward the garage.

“Brake! Brake! The other pedal!” Mei screamed.

Mila’s foot connected with the proper pedal a bit too late; they crashed headfirst into the garage, blasting two shelves off their brackets and denting the wall severely. Mei switched off the ignition.

“No more lessons for today,” she panted.

Mila looked at her wide-eyed, her heart hammering wildly in her chest. “We could have died.”

“No, it was just a little accident. It can be fixed,” Bo Mei reassured her shakily.

They both got out of the car and looked around.

“We could have died!” Mila repeated. She knew she should feel scared…

But instead, she simply felt alive.