Mary came in a white Mercury with a yellow cap on the rooftop warning that the driver is a beginner. On the body of the car I read "Cavalier Driving School" clearly . Mary glared at me when we met first saying,"Want to drive from here, or do you want Me to take you somewhere else to start our lesson?" I asked her to take me out of our parking lot. Detached from driing for 12 years, I was terrified to sail into the road where all kinds of automobiles were streaming. I had completely forgotten how to start a car with the ignition key. The loss of habit was helpless. Perhaps you won't believe me if I say I could not judge which the brake pedal was and which the accelerator, right or left. Mary saw my condition at a glance.
When we arrived in a quiet residential area, Mary said to me, "All right, you sit behind the wheel and adjust the mirrors first." "To adjust mirrors! How? " was all I could utter. Thus I started to learn how to drive exactly like her 16 year old students. Mary was a teacher with no compromise. Her instruction was tough. She scolded me without mercy when I was not quick enough to react to the signals or repeated the same stupid mistakes. "Stop where you should stop! You'll never pass the test as long as you are careless with the road signs. Watch your speed. Didn't you see the speed limit here? There is no reason youshould drive 35 miles per hour when the sign says 55. Give more gas going up the slope. Accelerate! Accelerate, I said!!. Say if you don't understand me, OK?"
She led me to the busy intersections, curvy roads, country roads, highways, junctions with no signals, narrow lanes in the woods, parking lots in shopping centers and more. I found myself getting to be involved in the motion of the city of Charlottesville. It was like learning a new foreign language. There is the grammar of driving and syntax to observe. Moreover, I was polishing my hearing skills of English language in that mobile classroom. English there was not the kind I had ever learned at school. Mary talked of herself while teaching me the driving techniques. "Devastating" was one of the words I learned without checking a dictionary when she told me how her adopted son was killed by a motorbike accident. "I believe he died happily while he was doing what he loved most but it was devastating to us who were left behind. Oh, you must check your blind spot when you change the lane, as I always say!"
Mary loves gardening, animals, her family and singing. She is a volunteer singer for her church. I remember she had a guitar in the trunk of her Mercury. "Cavalier Driving School" has only two teachers, Mary and her husband. She said, "I thank him so much. He gave me a chance to drive in the most charming places of Virginia every day. I love my job. You forgot to check both sides again when you made a turn!"
I don't know if $25 per one-hour-lesson was expensive or not; however, it is true Mary King opened me the windows to the new perspectives for the wider view of Charlottesville.