Night Drive Quotes

In Will Jenkins’ “Night Drive”, the author uses suspense to warn readers to be careful whom they trust. In the story, Mr.Tabor called Madge and asked her for a favor.  He asked if she could take his niece, Eunice, to Colchester because he had heard she was going that way.  Although Madge agreed, she was uneasy about it.  She didn’t know Eunice and barely knew Mr. Tabor.  Madge had known Mrs. Tabor.  In the story, it is mentioned that Madge knew about Mrs. Tabor being in an accident while driving at night alone.  It mentions another unknown girl who was also in an accident.  Madge wonders how Mr. Tabor knew she was traveling that way.  She thinks back about her telling the gas filling station attendant why she was so picky about getting her car

checked for her trip and thinks maybe he had heard it there.  On the trip, Eunice comments about it being lonely out there.  Eunice asks if Madge is carrying a gun.  She talks about the murders in the area and how the killer has not been found.   Eunice also talks about why people murder, the feelings they have, and a certain look that they get in their eyes.  The author describes the physical features of Eunice, and writes “There were short, black hairs on the back of the hand, like a man’s.” This description shows that Eunice was actually a man.  Madge doesn’t know who the man is; it might be anyone, even a murderer.  The reader is thinking the same as Madge, that the man could be the killer.

Madge is frightened.  Up ahead, there is an accident where a motorcycle is down and a familiar face, Bob the gas filling attendant, is limping across the road.  Bob asks Madge to help him stand the motorcycle back up.  The reader may think that Madge has a way out of the situation with Bob’s help. The man thought to be Eunice, now tells Madge that he is actually Mr. Tabor.  He says he is going to go help. Then Madge feels a sign of relief. The author describes the scene.  Mr. Tabor tells Madge to drive away, and she does. She hears a noise, and the reader knows that Bob got shot.  Madge drives off as quick as she can to her husband.  She is so frightened that she couldn’t tell him until the next day what she experienced.  They returned to town.  Madge’s husband said that Mr. Tabor was at his desk at the mill, and Bob, the gas attendant, was not at the filling station.  Bob told his boss the night before that he was leaving.  Madge’s husband returns to tell Madge that nothing happened, but Madge and the readers know what happened.  The author uses suspense to keep the reader’s attention and interest.  In the end, Mr. Tabor is the one who helped take out the women killer, but the readers may have thought that he

was the women killer at first.