Julie was asleep in the seat next to me as I took the wheel for the night portion of this drive – we had a lot of ground to cover to make up for the previous day’s misadventure.
The rental car had a funky disinfectant smell that kept making my nose curl. I leant down to turn on the air conditioner, but the blast of frigid air only made the problem worse.
Julie stirred next to me, so I went to turn off the cooling. Nothing happened. I pressed the button again. If anything, that made it start blowing harder.
‘What are you doing?’ Julie mumbled, half-awake and very cold.
‘The stupid air conditioner,’ I grunted. ‘We might have to see an affordable auto electrician near Seaford.’
‘They don’t do that,’ she yawned, stretching out her arms.
‘What?’
‘They only do batteries and stuff.’
‘Then we’ll tell them it’s a battery issue, and when they get in, we’ll lock the car until they fix the AC.’
She laughed at that, turning to look out the dark window. ‘Where are we?’
‘Somewhere near Frankston, I think.’
‘Is it my turn to drive yet?’
‘Nah, you’ve got another hour left,’ I smiled at her. ‘You should go back to sleep.
She narrowed her eyes at me. ‘You’re grumpy.’
‘I’m what?’
‘You’re grumpy,’ she repeated. ‘Why are you grumpy?’
‘I don’t think I’m–’
She cut me off with a further eye-narrowing. I rolled my own.
‘It’s this car,’ I sighed.
‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘I don’t know; that’s the problem.’
‘Uhh…’
‘We didn’t see a roadworthy certificate!’ I relented. ‘How do we know it’s not gonna blow up on us like the last one did?’
‘So you want to… what? Stop and get a roadworthy certificate in Frankston?’
‘Could we?’ I asked, batting my eyes.
She massaged her temples and sighed. ‘Pull over.’
‘What?’
‘I’m driving.’
‘But you still have another–’
‘Trust me,’ she said, cutting off my protest. ‘You need more sleep than I do.’