They had been travelling for some time when she spoke up.
“Are you sure you know how to get there?”
He said. “Sure.”
“I don’t recognise any of this, shouldn’t we have stayed on the main road?”
“No, we’re fine.”
“I think we’re lost.”
“We’re not lost, just relax, will you?”
“OK. I suppose I can be relaxed and lost at the same time.”
He blew out a breath. “We left late, if you remember,” he said, looking at her accusingly.
“So?”
“Well, you know, it makes you more rushed, more open to mistakes.”
“So you’re admitting to making some kind of mistake are you?”
“Not at all, I’m just saying…”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we’re not lost.”
After a while she spoke up again. “I don’t care what you say. I’m sure we’re lost.” She looked out at all the unfamiliar sights going past.
“No, we’re not lost. We’ve just gone a little astray that’s all.”
“Astray?”
“Yes. It’ll be fine. I’m looking for a turning.” He glanced at her. “I need to concentrate.”
Moments later, she said, “I did say we should get a car with one of those navigator things in it.”
“Too expensive.”
“We could use one now,” she said.
He scoffed. “Not likely. I don’t fancy having some weird voice telling me what to do all the time.”
“You can turn the sound off.”
“You can?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know that?”
“Man at work told me.”
He was silent for a while. “Well, I didn’t know that.”
“There you are, see? If we had one of those, we wouldn’t be lost.”
“I keep telling you. We’re not lost!”
“I think you should pull over, before we get more lost.”
He sighed. “You can’t get more lost.”
“No?”
“No. No such thing. Lost is lost.”
“Is that an admission?”
The frustration finally got to him and he pulled off the road and parked on the grassy verge.
He took out his mobile phone, looking for maps.
He looked at her with raised eyebrows, and said, “We are lost.”
“So, you do admit it?”
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
“We’re lost in time.”
She looked at her watch. “In time?”
“Yes. The barbecue’s tomorrow.”