A Ride Through the Past

By night, Marta works as a sober driver, and one pickup turns out to be a Rolls-Royce whose owner is Anderson, the ex-boyfriend she left seven years ago. He sits in the back with Judy on his arm, and though Marta pulls her cap low and keeps her voice down, the ride becomes a slow humiliation: a lowered partition, cruel remarks, a bottle thrown into the rain, and a wad of bills stomped into the mud at SKY Hill Estate. She endures it all because Lester's hospital bills are unpaid.

Anderson has known her from the start, and he calls her nothing more than a plaything. Judy, amused, offers her a cleaner's job and threatens to report her for theft if she refuses. Marta picks up the muddy money and agrees.

Then the hospital calls: Lester is in critical condition. After he is stabilized, Marta returns to SKY Hill Estate the next day to keep her word.