...Christy sat back and pressed her feet down on the clutch and the brake, started the engine, then shifted into gear, and with a lurch we pulled out of the school parking lot, in first the whole way to the first stop sign.
�Aren�t you gonna shift?� I said.
Christy laughed. �Oh, God... not you too, Bri,� she said as we pulled out into the intersection. �O.K.... first...� --The car lurched-- �...second... O.K.? You can tell Margo I did it right. God...� she said, shaking her head.
Christy�s gear shifting habits were a hot topic a few weekends before when Margo rode with Christy up to Carlisle to see a matinee at the old Carlisle theater.
�Brian,� Margo said when they got back, �I swear, your girlfriend drives me effin� nuts the way she drives. First of all, like an old lady, all bent forward and both hands gripping the wheel, right? And then on top of it she doesn�t shift right.�
I laughed. ��Doesn�t shift right?�� I said.
�Yeah.�
�Well, what... was she, like, stalling out?�
�No, no,� Margo said. �It�s like... listen. We were, like, driving through Carlisle, right? and she�s got her foot pressed all the way down on the accelerator, you know, goin� the whole way through town with the engine racing, and at first I�m thinking there�s, like, something wrong with the car, right? But then I see what gear she�s in, so I�m, like, �Christy, shouldn�t you be in third?� And she goes, �If you go too slow in a high gear, it�s hard on the engine.� And I was, like, �Honey, no. no... you�ve got that backwards. If you race the engine in too low a gear, that�s what wears the engine out.�
�Brian, I swear... we argued about that the whole way from Carlisle past Mount Holly, you know... we went back and forth all the way from the MJ Mall to the Deer Lodge.� Six miles. �Finally, I yelled, �Goddammit, I�m not fucking driving with you anymore until you either get an automatic or learn how to shift right!� And she yelled, �Well, Goddammit, don�t!� And then we both just started laughin� at how stupid the whole thing was.
�Then of course as soon as we got back into Gettysburg her Dad was there and we asked him, and he goes, �Well, you�re both kind of right... but Margo, you�re more right.� And I thought that was that. But the next time out, she�s all the way through town, racing the effin� engine. �I�m kind of right, too.� God! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!�