The Ballad of Ballyboghil: Part II

Read Part I

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"Are you sure they don't have automatic?"

"Of course they do, Mom, but that's like twenty euros a day more. We'll be fine. It's the same thing, except the gear-shift is on the other side."

My mom looks at me in the driver's seat, nervous. "Okay," she says. "You got this," I reply as I unravel the twelve-foot scroll of a map that details every tiny township in the whole country. The car starts up. "You just gotta take a left out of the lot and go straight toward Swords. That's what the rental guy said." Mom shifts into first gear. We wait.

We are still waiting. I hear the thunderous whimper of the Yaris' hundred horses under the hood and look over at Mom. She is about three steps into the thousand mile journey of releasing the car's clutch. I look around. We are parked directly in front of the car rental office. Another family is waiting to enter the car next to ours. This is going to be fun.

Mom tries again. She creeps slowly out of the space and we roll toward the exit determinedly in first gear. Now the intersection. The Beast shudders a bit as Mom makes her first left hand turn, but she keeps it alive. Now we're on the road. It's true Dublin driving. At nearly 30km/ph I reminder her about second gear.

Two roundabouts later, we are still cruising along towards the village of Swords, just north of Dublin airport. I am convinced that roundabouts are THE peak of efficiency in road-traffic management. Far superior to our massive intersections. 

Mom stutters the car to a stop at our first red light. We've got the hot seat, first in line at the light. The pressure is on. The light flicks to green. She eases out the clutch and the car shakes in response.

We stall out. "No problem," I say, "It's okay. You got this." She starts it up, we jut forward, and stall again. "Shit." Mom doesn't usually swear. We stall twice more before she catches it just right. She accelerates quickly to evade the honking motorists. Again I inform her about the benefits of second gear. She shifts and we cruise along as before.

"See? You're just not used to it," I say encouragingly. "You got this."

I look out the window. We're almost at Swords. Everything is going to be okay.