The Boat Lullabies

Finally! An image of a true setting that enhances my imagination rather than disrupts it.

"We started up the first long up-grade, into the mountains. There were three miles of it. I had told her how to run it. Most of the time she was in second. That was partly because there were sharp curves every fifty feet, and the car would lose speed so quick going around them that she would have to shift up to second to keep going. But it was partly because the motor had to heat. Everything had to check up. We had to have plenty to tell."

From James M. Cain's novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'