On this week's selected shorts roads not taken.

A woman alone in a car revels in the scenery, but her inner landscape is not so picturesque.

And a dad monitors a middle school dance, but is not a good chaperone of his own feelings.

I'm your host, Meg Wallitzer, and you're listening to selected shorts where our greatest actors

transport us through the magic of fiction one short story at a time.

On this selected shorts, people in cars take emotional journeys.

Things are already interestingly ambiguous, closed spaces in which we travel toward or

away from experiences in our lives.

In this case, a long road trip leads to wonder and self-awareness, and a short drive across

town almost leads to temptation.

I have to confess that while I am in possession of a driver's license, I don't use it.

I've never been very comfortable behind the wheel.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that my high school driver's ed teacher put a lot of

emphasis on destination, so I spent much more time thinking about where we were headed

than on skills such as merging on an expressway, which now seem fairly important.

I still don't understand how merging is done though.

It seems like a folk dance in which everyone knows exactly when to go forward and when to

hang back.

Everyone except for me.

Where my little driver's ed class was headed, way back when on Long Island, was a fast food

place that our teacher loved called Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips.

Ever since then, you may not find me behind the wheel, but I want all my car trips as

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