The Hitchhiking Game

The Hitchhiking Game Summary | Detailed Summary

A young man and woman are driving along the highway, in danger of running out of gas. The young woman (whose age has been approximated at twenty-two) demonstrates a joking annoyance to her companion of his inability to keep the car's gas tank full. After all, she complains, there have been several times when they actually have run out of gas and when that happens, inevitably, she is always sent to hitchhike. The young man finds amusement in this, not necessarily caring that she often has to use her womanly wiles on the side of the road in order to catch a ride to the nearest gas station.

The two tease one another, joking that she probably enjoys the attention she gets from men while hitchhiking. As he drives, he puts his arm around her and then kisses her on the forehead. He knows she is a jealous woman, but at times he finds it a bit endearing, especially when combined with her charming sense of modesty.

Eventually the couple happens upon a gas station. While they wait to get the car filled up, the girl decides that she needs to take a bathroom break, yet she is too shy to say so. The man (who, as it has been revealed, is twenty-eight years old) thinks to himself how much he enjoys the girl's innocent "purity," which, in his experience, is so unlike the attitudes of other women.

The story then flashes on to the young woman's point of view. She worries about her modesty and knows that it seems ridiculous. In fact, she frequently tries to talk herself out of acting so foolishly, but she cannot seem to break past the walls of anxiety and modesty that she has built around herself. She admits that she is happy being with the man, but is also suspicious of other women entering his life. She has often worried that perhaps he will find someone more attractive, and that he will leave her. Yet, today she has no worries. They are beginning their first long vacation together, a two-week vacation of which she has been looking forward to for nearly a year.

When she emerges from the wooded area that she has used as a restroom, she sees her companion's sports car at the gas station. She hails down the driver, and asks him, "Are you going to Bystrica?" to which he replies, "Yes, please get in." She speaks to him as if he was a stranger and she was a mere hitchhiker, and she gets in the car.

The car speeds off and the man is sure to mention that he feels lucky to have picked up such an attractive woman on the side of the road. He thinks to himself that he is happy that she is in a good mood. She is often overworked in her job, and her mother is sick. She is also a woman who can easily become worrisome and fearful. Therefore, he is glad that she seems to be in good spirits.

The girl responds to his compliment with a surprising amount of jealousy. She feels as if she cannot trust him and thinks aloud that he must frequently lie to women. However, her jealousy soon subsides and the two of them begin talking with one another again as if they were strangers—she flirts a bit, and he responds with equally seductive answers.

He tests her by asking what she would do if he got out of the car with her at Bystrica. They continue to tease each other with sexual innuendos as she tries to lure outward affection from him, and he tries to appease her jealous nature. She eventually responds to his suave attitude with sharp anger, hatred even. He looks back at her, wishing for her calm, sweet personality to emerge, and whispers into her ear the nickname he created just for her, hoping to stop the game entirely. She responds by delving into her fictional character even more, and the man has no choice but to resign himself into his well-worn role. He is obviously a bit dejected by her attitude.

The girl discovers that she is able to recover from her jealousy and anger quite quickly, but decides to remain firmly entrenched within her fictional character nonetheless. After all, she thinks to herself, it might help spice up this first day of their vacation. Yet, just as she warms up to him, his own anger begins to show. He is frustrated and angered that she will not simply come out of the game and be herself. As a result, he takes out his emotions on the fictional hitchhiker, treating her more brashly than he normally would.

In response, the young woman becomes even more entrenched in the fictional world she has created. She discovers that while in her role she no longer has to be jealous. After all, in this situation he is not her boyfriend; therefore, she does not have to worry about imagined threats to their relationship. She also discovers that when playing out her fantasy, she can act completely without modesty, without worries about haphazard connections between her mind and her body. She herself is even surmised by the ease in which she slips into such a role.

As the couple continues to drive toward their destination, the man wishes that his life were filled with more fun and spontaneity. He is tired of his job, along with the meetings and the work he has to take home with him; he is bitter that the time required for his job competes with his private recreational time. He regrets that everything in his life—including the vacation he is currently on—must be planned to the last, most precise detail; that even a trip to his country's popular mountain destination (Slovakia's alpine mountain range, the Tatras) has to be planned up to six months in advance.

The bitterness begins to overwhelm the man and so he decides to spice things up a bit. He turns to the young woman and asks her what would happen if she, for some reason, did not make it to Bystrica. She explains she has a date and that it would be his fault if she were to miss it. He seems to enjoy himself as he tells her that they are going in the direction of Nove Zamky instead.

She exclaims that she thought he had plans to go to the Tatras, and is obviously shaken that he, this man who is so reliable, has decided to change their plans. He replies that he is a "free man" and is therefore open to do as he wishes.

When the two arrive at Nove Zamky, it is getting late. As they search for a hotel, they must ask for directions, as much of the town seems to be under construction and they get lost several times. They finally arrive at the hotel, and the man asks the girl to wait in the car as he goes inside.

He exits the car and realizes he is himself again, apart from the character he has been playing in the hitchhiking game. With the realization comes disappointment, because he really did want to be in the Tatras, celebrating a much-needed vacation with the girl. He admits, however, that an unscheduled night in Nove Zamky before traveling on to the Tatras the next day might make for an intriguing kick-off for their vacation. He makes his way through the hotel restaurant and up to the reception desk where he manages to get the key to the last room available.

As the young woman waits in the car, she too starts to feel like herself again. She trusts her companion enough that she does not feel any doubts about being in this new town. She surprises herself by realizing that she no longer feels any jealousy, that she feels like an "irresponsible, indecent other woman, one of those women of whom she was so jealous." With this, she is proud of herself. Somehow, she is now confident that she is more than capable of keeping her man.

The man returns to the car and as he returns, the girl slips back into character. The two go into the hotel's restaurant, where they find a table in the corner. They order their food, and the girl uncharacteristically asks for vodka. He orders for both of them and they are served vodkas and steak dinners.

Looking across the table at her, the man realizes that he is more than a little annoyed with her behavior, with this game that she insists on playing. He thinks he is annoyed because, to her, this is more than a game, that everything about her changes when she is immersed in her fictional world: her body language, expressions, everything. The charm and innocence that originally drew her into his interest has been erased, the void filled with an overbearing, sensual type of woman of whom he knows too well. The reason why he first became intrigued with the girl is gone, and he does not like it one bit.

When the vodkas arrive, the man gives a toast to the girl. She argues, wanting a toast with more imagination. Eventually, after arguing a bit, she decides that he should be toasting a specific part of her. With obvious sexual tension, she insists he toast her belly, then her breasts . . .

In the meantime, the man is becoming disgusted with her behavior. He thinks to himself that if she can so easily slip into the role of the sexually experienced woman than it must be so, and that her innocence outside of the game must be the actual act. He wonders if the game is freeing some side of her. Regardless, he feels himself disliking her more and more, yet the more she repulses him on an intellectual level, the more he becomes aware of the allure of her body. He realizes he has never been so intrigued with her body, having before been so enamored with her mind.

After three drinks, the girl excuses herself from the table. He asks her where she is going, clearly hoping for her typical modest response. Instead, she responds, "To piss, if you'll permit me."

The young woman loves that he was surprised by her response, and is intoxicated by the sexual and bodily freedom she experiences while in the role as the hitchhiker. Normally she is shy about her body, not wishing anyone to notice her hips or her breasts; she thinks such things should be private and sacred to a personal relationship. However, as the hitchhiker, she can outwardly respond to the looks and remarks she receives from ogling men, such as those who catcall her on the way to the restaurant's bathroom. The realization arouses her.

For the man, however, the game has become almost tortuous, the problem being that no matter how well he slips into character, he cannot help but notice the charming, innocent girl he knows underneath all of the hitchhiker's charades. As he sees her acting as this woman with no boundaries, he begins to fill with fury.

When the girl returns to the table, the man accuses her of looking like "a whore." She responds that she does not care, and he continues the argument by telling her that if that is how she truly feels then she should just pick up one of the men in the bar. She, unaware that he is feeling true emotions amidst this game, continues to bait him with her sassy comments, even as she feels the control of the game slipping away from her.

The man tells her that they are leaving. She asks him where they are going and he will not tell her. She gets upset, and he explains that he does not need to treat "whores" with respect.

The couple makes their way up the staircase to their room on the second floor. The young man takes advantage of the low lighting and steps behind the girl, grabbing her breast from behind. Other men in the hallway witness this and start making remarks. The man simply tells the girl to stay still and keep going.

When they get to the room, the man switches on the light, locks the door, and turns to his companion. In her, he sees her dualism, how she can be both innocent and sexual, charming and devilish at the same time, how regardless of how she looks on the outside, she will always have the manipulative capacity of any woman, of all women, of the women whom he has learned to despise. He feels as if he does not even know this girl standing before him. Because of this, he suddenly begins to hate her.

He turns to her and demands that she strip. She does not think it is necessary, but he is desperate to embarrass her, to humiliate her—and this time it is not just the hitchhiker he's targeting but also the girl herself. He wants her to suffer. He has forgotten about the game. She reaches out to kiss him and he refuses, telling her that he only kisses women that he is in love with and that he surely does not love her. He then tells her again to strip.

The young girl removes her clothes, amazed that she has never before stripped in such a manner. Nevertheless, once she is naked, she feels as if the game has stopped. She once again becomes shy, modest, and innocent.

She looks to the man for reassurance that the game has in fact stopped, but there is no such affirmation. He still sees her with hatred, longs to treat her as nothing more than a whore. He has never had a whore before, but he imagines what he has seen in the movies—when a woman in black lingerie gets up on a piano and dances. Having no piano in their room, he asks the girl to get up on the table in the corner.

She pleads with him, but when she sees that he is not about to relent, she tries to get back into the game but she cannot. Fighting back tears, she gets up on the table. Her clear awkwardness and humiliation is pleasing to the man. He calls out sexual obscenities to her, secretly hoping that she will beg him to stop the game. However, she does tentatively respond to his wishes.

The man then has sex with the girl, and she is relieved, thinking that they can now go back to being the loving 'real' couple that she thought they were. However, he will not kiss her; he will not respond to her emotional needs. She cries in response, but he will not even allow her to sob, pressing his body down atop her instead. She tries to give in to her body, but this is what she had been most fearful of for most of her life: sex without love. Yet, some small part of her enjoys the pleasure of losing such innocence, and she is shocked that she has never experienced it before.

When they are done, the man reaches up and turns off the light. He knows that the game is surely over now. Laying beside her, not touching her body and not able to respond when she tries to touch him, he dreads having to face her.

The girl begins to cry, to sob actually, at his blatant rejection. She calls out to him repeatedly that she is no longer playing the game, that she is in fact the girl he knows so well. At first he does not respond, does not move, for fear of having to comfort her. But as the sobbing and pleading continues, he is forced to tap into one final reserve of kindness because, after all, they still have nearly two full weeks of vacation left.