Alice Gets Out of the Car Carrying the Newborn

Alice Gets Out of the Car Carrying the Newborn is a brief but consequential incident on the drive home from the clinic. With her infant daughter, Angela, in the car and her son, Alex, still hospitalized, Alice Espanet suddenly leaves the vehicle at a traffic light because she believes petrol fumes will kill the baby. The scene exposes the gulf between Ritxi’s expectation of a homecoming and Alice’s fearful certainty, and later acquires the weight of a warning sign that the couple did not fully confront at the time.

The Journey Home

The drive is short, about fifteen minutes. Alice sits in the back with Angela; Alex has had to remain at the clinic. Ritxi is nervous but exhilarated, filling the journey with plans for the hours ahead and the prospect of soon having the family together. Alice, by contrast, appears drained: her face is grey and subdued, with dark circles beneath her eyes. Ritxi attributes her silence to having left Alex behind and expects that seeing him again later will help.

Alice gives no answer to Ritxi’s stream of talk. He eventually falls silent and turns on the radio, which is playing Fauré’s Requiem. He is exhausted too, and recognizes that his own exuberance has been more performed than felt. At a traffic light, the mismatch between their outwardly ordinary journey and their unspoken states of mind becomes an abrupt physical break: Alice releases the straps holding Angela and unfastens her own seat belt.

Leaving the Car

Without warning, Alice gets out carrying the newborn. Ritxi remains frozen in confusion, waiting for some explanation or clue. The light turns green, but he cannot simply drive on; horns from the cars behind him add pressure without clarifying what has happened. He eventually gets out as well and finds Alice in a doorway, sheltering with the baby and singing her a lullaby.

When Ritxi asks what she is doing, Alice answers calmly that they cannot stay in the car because the fumes will kill Angela. Her certainty, rather than agitation, defines the encounter: she is not described as panicking, but as obstinately convinced of a danger that Ritxi cannot see. The newborn’s safety is the immediate stake, and the car—moments earlier just the means of getting home—has become, in Alice’s understanding, a threat.

It takes Ritxi nearly five minutes to persuade her that there are no fumes inside the car and that Angela is all right. He promises to drive with the windows open for the rest of the way. Meanwhile, two municipal officers arrive to find out what has caused the traffic disruption. Ritxi tells them the matter has been resolved and describes it as a misunderstanding. With a newborn involved, they let the family go, and the journey resumes.

What Follows at Home

The car ride continues in silence. Angela cries; Alice tries to comfort her by putting a pacifier in her mouth, but the baby spits it out. Once they reach home, the practical demands of caring for the infant occupy them. The incident is never discussed between Alice and Ritxi. That silence leaves the event unresolved: the immediate crisis has passed, but neither a shared explanation nor a plan for what the episode might mean emerges from it.

In the later account, the scene is placed beside the question of whether Ritxi should have recognized the danger and sought help. His subsequent testimony makes clear that the couple had taken steps to address Alice’s distress. They had hired Mélanie to ease the workload, arranged for a Reiki practitioner to visit the home, and enrolled Alice in Pilates classes twice a week. The general impression had been that she was improving and that the situation was under control. In retrospect, these efforts were not enough; at the time, however, the apparent improvement helps explain why the episode did not immediately become a subject of discussion or intervention.

A Recalled Incident Under Scrutiny

The episode reaches the reader through Ritxi’s later account, and its presentation holds together two different kinds of evidence: a vivid reconstruction of what happened in the car, and a retrospective question about what the couple understood then. The traffic light, the horns, the doorway, the lullaby, and the promise to keep the windows open make the event concrete. But the account does not turn that concreteness into a diagnosis. It shows Alice’s conviction and the disruption it causes without establishing exactly how far her illness extended or what would have been the right response.

The account also carries a significant qualification: the municipal police files contained no record of the traffic incident, a fact demonstrated at trial. The officers’ arrival and departure belong to Ritxi’s testimony, but the absence of a corresponding record means that this part of his account could not be independently confirmed through those files. The discrepancy does not erase the scene from the narrative; it changes how it can be used. What appears in Ritxi’s recollection as a clear episode of alarming behavior was also evidence whose documentary support was contested by its absence.

The incident therefore matters both as an intimate family moment and as part of the later dispute over how Alice’s condition should be understood. On the road, Ritxi manages the immediate danger as he sees it: he gets out, reassures Alice, secures her agreement to return, and deals with the officers. At home, the event disappears into the work of caring for the baby. Later, it returns as a possible warning and as testimony subject to scrutiny. Its unresolved ending—the family reaches home, but the couple never speaks about what happened—preserves the gap between containing a crisis and understanding it.