How I Learned to Drive

It’s 1969, and Li’l Bit has been at college for just a few days. She receives a note from Uncle Peck telling her it seems she’s been gone a long time and that he’s sending her a cassette tape of some music. After, Li’l Bit receives frequent packages from him, all containing notes in which he counts down the days until she returns. She receives a bouquet of roses with the note, “Miss you like crazy” (48). He also sends her perfume and tries to call her but is unable to get through. Some of the notes suggest she has not responded and that he’s trying other avenues to reach her. He expresses sadness that she does not return for Thanksgiving. Shortly after, she sends a note to him at work, telling him not to visit on her birthday. 

On December 10, 1969, in a hotel room, Li’l Bit tells Peck she is “so pissed off” (49) at him for sending her the packages, that they “scared the holy crap” out of her (49). She compares him to a serial killer for counting down the days. When he says he only wanted to celebrate her birthday, she says it was her eighteenth birthday and that “statutory rape is not in effect when a young woman turns eighteen” (49).