‘Do you ever feel…’ I whispered, staring out the window. ‘Do you ever feel like you’re just going round and round in circles? Like you’re just writing the same thing over and over again? And that one day, you’re just going to–’
‘What was that Pete?’
‘Sorry,’ I chuckled, turning to look at my sister as she drove. ‘I was just wondering when was the last time you got your car looked at?’
‘Like, serviced?’ she frowned.
‘No, I mean, when was the last time another human being looked at your car. It’s filthy!’
Eyes still on the road, she leant over and flicked me on the ear. Deadly accurate, even after all these years. Laughing, I reached over to turn on the aircon.
Nothing happened.
I frowned and scanned the climate control buttons to see if there was something I’d missed. It all looked fine, like I was supposed to be being blasted with cold air right now.
‘What is it?’ my sister asked.
‘I think you might need to get it serviced after all. Your AC isn’t working.’
‘What?’ she frowned, looking down at the buttons I’d pressed.
‘Maybe your car needs an aircon regas or something,’ I suggested.
‘I’ll give you fifty dollars, cash, if you can tell me what an aircon regas is,’ my sister rolled her eyes. ‘Go!’
‘I read it on a pamphlet once,’ I frowned. ‘You’re the one who drives, you should know all this stuff!’
‘I do what I’m supposed to!’ she protested. ‘I look after this car pretty well, thank you very much.’
‘Then why am I boiling over here right now?’
She flicked me again.
‘I guess I need to find a decent mechanic close to Moorabbin,’ she murmured to herself, as I rubbed my smarting ear.
‘You don’t even have a mechanic yet?!’
‘We’ve only been here…’ she frowned and started mouthing numbers as she counted in her head.
‘Five,’ I interrupted. ‘The number you’re looking for, of the years that we’ve lived here, is five.’
She flicked me again.
‘Stop doing that!’