With the smell gone, Leigh discovered that her appetite had come back. She wolfed half of her hamburger, drank some Coke, and stifled a burp with the back of her hand. The corner of Center and JFK, marked with a war memorial, came up on the left, and Arnie pulled over, pumping the brakes lightly so Christine wouldn’t slide.
“Have a nice weekend,” Arnie said. He sounded more like his usual self now. Maybe all he needed was some food, Leigh thought, amused.
“Same goes to both of you,” the hitchhiker said. “And have a merry Christmas.”
“You too,” Leigh said. She took another bite of her hamburger, chewed, swallowed… and felt it lodge halfway down her throat. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.
The hitchhiker was getting out. The noise of the door opening was very loud. The sound of the latch clicking sounded like the thud of tumblers falling in a bank-vault. The sound of the wind was like a factory whistle.
(this is stupid I know but I can’t Arnie I can’t breathe)
I’m choking! she tried to say, and what came out was a faint, fuzzy sound that she was sure the whine of the wind must have covered. She clawed at her throat and it felt swollen and throbbing in her hand. She tried to scream. No breath to scream, no breath
(Arnie I can’t) at all, and she could feel it in there… a warm lump of burger and bun. She tried to cough it up and it wouldn’t come. The dashboard lights, bright green, circular,
(cat like the eyes of a cat dear God I can’t BREATHE) watching her—
(God I can’t BREATHE can’t BREATHE can’t)
Her chest began to pound for air. Again she tried to cough up the lump of half-chewed burger and bun in her throat, but it wouldn’t come. Now the sound of the wind was bigger than the world, bigger than any sound she had ever heard before, and Arnie was finally turning away from the hitchhiker to look at her; he was turning in slow motion, his eyes widening almost comically, and even his voice seemed too loud, like thunder, the voice of Zeus speaking to some poor mortal from behind a massy skystack of thunderclouds:
“LEIGH… ARE YOU… WHAT THE HELL?… SHE’s CHOKING! OH MY GOD SHE’s—”
He reached for her in slow motion, and then he drew his hands back, immobilized by panic
(Oh help me help me for God’s sake do something I’m dying oh my dear God I’m choking to death on a McDonald’s hamburger Arnie why don’t you HELP ME?) and of course she knew why, he drew back because Christine didn’t want her to have any help, this was Christine’s way of getting rid of her, Christine’s way of getting rid of the other woman, the competition, and now the dashboard instruments really were eyes, great round unemotional eyes watching her choke to death, eyes she could only see through a glowing jitter of black dots, dots that burst and spread as
(mamma oh my dear this I’m dying and SHE SEES ME SHE IS ALIVE ALIVE ALIVE OH MAMMA MY GOD CHRISTINE IS ALIVE) Arnie reached for her again. Now she had begun to thrash on her seat, her chest heaving spasmodically as she clawed at her throat. Her eyes were bulging. Her lips had begun to turn blue. Arnie was pounding her ineffectually on the back and yelling something. He grabbed her shoulder, apparently meaning to pull her out of the car, and then he suddenly winced and straightened, his hands going involuntarily to the small of his back.
Leigh twitched and thrashed. The blockage in her throat felt huge and hot and throbbing. She tried again to cough it up, more weakly this time. The lump didn’t budge. Now the whistle of the wind was beginning to fade, everything was beginning to fade, but her need for air didn’t seem so awful. Maybe she was dying, but suddenly it didn’t seem so bad. Nothing was so bad, except for those green eyes staring at her from the instrument panel. They weren’t unemotional anymore. Now they were blazing with hate and triumph.
(o my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee
I am
for offending
this is my act
my act of
of)
Arnie had reached across from the driver’s side. Now Leigh’s door was suddenly jerked open and she spilled sideways into a brutal, cutting cold. The air partially revived her, made her struggle for breath seem important again, but the obstruction wouldn’t move… it just wouldn’t move.
From far away, Arnie’s voice thundering sternly, the voice of Zeus: “WHATARE YOU DOING? GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!”
Arms around her. Strong arms. The wind on her face. Snow swirling in her eyes
(o my God hear me a sinner this is my act of contrition I am heartily sorry for having offended
OH!
OWW!
what are you DOING my ribs
hurts
what
what are you) and suddenly there were arms around her, crushing, and a pair of hard hands were clasped together in a knot just below her breasts, in the hollow of her solar plexus. And suddenly one thumb popped up, the thumb of a hitchhiker signalling for a ride, only the thumb drove painfully into her breastbone. At the same time the grip of the arms tightened brutally. She felt caught
(Ohhhhhhh you’re breaking my RIBS) in a gigantic bearhug. Her whole diaphragm seemed to heave, and something flew out of her mouth with the force of a projectile. It landed in the snow: a wet chunk of bun and meat.
“Let her go!” Arnie was shouting as he slipped and slid around Christine’s rear deck to where the hitchhiker held Leigh’s limp body like a life-sized marionette. “Let her go, you’re killing her!”
Leigh began to breathe in great, tearing gasps. Her throat and lungs seemed to burn in rivers of fire with each gulp of the cold, wonderful air. She was dimly aware that she was sobbing.
The brutal bearhug relaxed and the hands let her go. “Are you okay, girl? Are you all—”
Then Arnie was reaching past her, grabbing for the hitchhiker. He turned toward Arnie, his long black hair flying in the wind, and Arnie hit him in the mouth. The hitchhiker flailed backward, boots slipping in the snow, and landed on his back. Fresh snow as fine and dry as confectioners’ sugar puffed up around him.
Arnie advanced, fists held up, eyes slitted.
She took another convulsive breath—oh, it hurt, it was like being stabbed with knives—and screamed: “What are you doing, Arnie? Stop it!”
He turned toward her, dazed. “Huh? Leigh?”
“He saved my life, what are you hitting him for?”
The effort was too much and the black dots began to spiral up before her eyes again. She could have leaned against the car, but she didn’t want to go near it, didn’t want to touch it. The dashboard instruments. Something had happened to the dashboard instruments. Something
(eyes they turned into eyes) she didn’t want to think about.
She staggered to a lamppost instead and hung onto it like a drunk, head down, panting. A soft, tentative arm went around her waist. “Leigh… honey, are you all right?” She turned her head slightly and saw his miserable, scared face. She burst into tears.
The hitchhiker approached them carefully, wiping his bloody mouth on the sleeve of his jacket.
“Thank you,” Leigh said between harsh, swift breaths.
The pain was ebbing a trifle now, and the hard, cold wind was soothing on her hot face. “I was choking. I think… think I would have died if you hadn’t…”
Too much. The black dots again, all sounds fading into an eerie wind-tunnel again. She put her head down and waited for it to pass.
“It’s the Heimlich Manoeuvre,” the hitchhiker said. “They make you learn it when you go to work in the cafeteria. At school. Make you practise on a rubber dummy. Daisy Mae, they call her. And you do it, but you don’t have any idea if it’ll—you know—work on a real person or not.” His voice was shaky, jumping in pitch from low to high and back to low again like the voice of a kid entering puberty. His voice seemed to want to laugh or cry—something—and even in the uncertain light and heavily falling snow, Leigh could see how pallid his face was. “I never thought I’d actually have to use it. Works pretty good. Did you see that fucking piece of meat fly?” The hitchhiker wiped his mouth and looking blankly at the thin froth of blood on the palm of his hand.