(vii.)

The stream of red lights twinkled in the dim twilight.

She gloured, angrily, at the heavy traffic that lie before her. "What the fuck? Shouldn't they all be home, eating dinner by now?" she screamed, to the passenger seat.

Lorelei nodded half-hertedly.

"Are you even listening to me?" she demanded.

Slowly, gingerly, Lorelei pressed a button on her CD player, and pulled the earphones from her ears.

"I'm sorry. What?"
"You just answered my question."
"What was it?"
"Fuck it. It didn't matter."

A still silence settled between them.

"Uh, Midge... out of sheer curiosity, where are we going?"

Midge didn't answer; she kept her eyes affixed to the snake of red lights in front of her.

"Midge, where are we--"
"It doesn't fucking matter."
"I'm just curious, okay?"

Midge sighed heavily. "Curiosity killed the cat."

"Do I look like a cat to you?" she declared, as she put the earphones back into her ears. She pressed a button on the black plastic face.

She pressed it twice more, before mumbling "paskan marjat" under her breath.

"You can't even curse me out in English? You have to--"
"You're not the one I'm cursing at. It's the CD player."
"Why don't you just buy another one?"
"I don't want to. This one is fine."
"It isn't fine if it breaks every two seconds."
"It doesn't break," she declared as she pulled the battey door open. "It probably just needs new batteries."

At that, she pulled one of the batteries out, and placed it against her tongue.

"Eww! What the fuck are you doing?!"
"No, I was wrong," she said, calmly, putting the battery back in. "The batteries are fine."
"Okay, Lor, that was just... wrong."
"It's not wrong. You can taste it when a battery is dead."

Midge shook her head. "There is something wrong with you."

Lorelei lifted her CD player up into the air, held it aloft for a moment, and then, brought it down on the dashboard with a tremendous thunk.

"There is something very wrong with you."
"What? I can't hear you. I'm listening to my music," Lorelei yelled back, defiantly.

[Chapter viii]