The Queen Takes the Wheel

@cleopatra

The little white Fiat is parked crooked at the edge of the Corniche, engine idling with an alarming rattle, and Cleopatra has both hands clamped on the wheel like a captain gripping a ship she intends to command. Salt wind whips her linen scarf as she glares at the gear stick. “This machine is beneath my dignity and yet I have beaten it. Get in — we are going to Siwa, and I am driving.”