IV. Scarlet

Ben gets lost after work and finds himself in a series of one-way streets leading away from home. Vee snores to the title screen of High Fidelity.

Tara sits in the passenger seat. She is calm. ‘This city was designed by a madman,’ she says, gazing out the window. ‘It’s true. Charles Erwin III was the city planner. In 1888 he proposed using one-way streets in this part of downtown, for the purpose of reducing traffic and promoting walkability. That’s why all these storefronts are here, but they never lasted, because people got lost walking around them. It’s kind of a labyrinth, which contributes to the high crime rate. It’s twice as high as the rest of the city’s neighborhoods combined.’

Ben stares straight, clenching his jaw to keep from scratching her eyes out of her freckled face.

‘The city accepted it, obviously, and began building right away. He designed one more park, the Arboreum, and then committed himself to a mental hospital. He was never released.’

She’s still. She doesn’t have the nervous energy a lot of people have when sitting with a stranger. Her small hands lay carelessly in her lap.

Ben is calm on the outside but raging inside.

‘Isn’t that interesting?’ she says.

‘Where do you live?’ he asks curtly.

‘Keep going. I’ll tell you when to turn. What’s odd is, he, Erwin, never had a crazy moment until the day he committed himself, and then he was never lucid again. His madness was complete. Some people say he was one of the earliest recipients of ECT, though there aren’t any records of that being used in the U.S. until almost fifty years later.’

‘Mm.’

‘We’re going to turn left at the next intersection. Thanks again for driving me. I think I’ll take the apartment.’

Ben’s fiddling with his tie, feeling the rage boil within him, like lava about to erupt; it’s the kind of anger he finds a morbid pleasure in keeping hidden.

‘Fuck you,’ he says under his breath.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Fuck you. You had no fucking right. You’re a manipulative, selfish slut.’

‘I’m sorry you feel that way. I didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do.’

‘Give me the pills.’

‘No.’

‘Or you won’t get out of this car.’

Still calm but with a quiver she hands him the baggie.

‘Thank you. We’re here.’

‘Get out.’