How I Learned to Drive

In 1965, 13-year-old Li’l Bit goes into Peck and Aunt Mary’s basement for a photo shoot. Peck “is all competency and concentration” (40) as he prepares the camera and lighting. Li’l Bit asks where Aunt Mary is. Peck assures her his wife is out with Li’l Bit’s mother. He adds that he told Mary that Li’l Bit was helping him with his camera and that she won’t come down. Li’l Bit reminds Peck that they agreed there would be “[n]o frontal nudity” (40).  

Peck turns music on and tells Li’l Bit he wants her to “[l]isten to it with your body, and just—respond” (40). As he unbuttons her blouse and arranges her on the stool, he tells her she should pretend she’s alone in her room and move to the music as she feels it. Li’l Bit is uncomfortable at first but eventually does as he says. 

Peck tells her she’s “a very beautiful young woman” (41), making Li’l Bit blush. He adds that “[f]or a thirteen year old, you have a body a twenty-year-old woman would die for” (41). When Li’l Bit comments about the boys at school, Peck tells her boys mature more slowly than girls and that this is “a blessing for men” (42). 

Peck tells her to arch her back and throw her head back.