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traveling fast. Alfred didn’t have time to do
anything. He watched, mesmerized, as the headlights seemed to drill
right into him, but the car swerved at the last second as it roared
by, its horn blaring.
    Now his shaking was from terror. He pressed
the gas pedal, forgetting that his car was still in reverse. It
flew backwards into the bushes alongside the road, narrowly missing
a tree. He braked belatedly and finally got it into drive. The
wheels spun for seconds. Then he surged forward with a squeal of
tires, almost going off the road on the other side before he got
the car under control.
    He turned into the campground and stopped
beside the office. He had to sit for several minutes until his
bodily functions returned to a semblance of normalcy. He got out of
the car. The first thing that registered was how cold the night air
felt. It penetrated his sweatshirt and khaki pants. He was wearing
all the clothes he had brought. He quickly entered the office to
get warm.
    ***
    When Alfred entered one of the campground
restrooms, he remembered how poorly equipped he was. Not only was
he underdressed, he also didn’t have a toothbrush or toothpaste. He
hadn’t brushed his teeth for over thirty-six hours. He had to
settle for rinsing his mouth out with water he sucked from a faucet
by sticking his head into a sink and tilting his mouth up. He tried
to remove the scum that coated his teeth with his tongue. He could
imagine what his breath smelled like.
    He didn’t have any shaving equipment either.
Of course he was wearing a beard, but he was thinking that it might
be better if he shaved it off. He had been in close proximity to
Penny during those Sunday mornings in the café. If she saw him, she
might recognize him by his beard.
    He could sleep in his car, lying across the
bench seat. That wasn’t comfortable, as he knew from his experience
last night, but the worst part was that he didn’t have any
blankets. He would freeze his ass off. He couldn’t handle that
prospect yet. He decided to find Penny’s campsite.
    The campground was dark and silent. The
inhabitants slept in their tents or campers. It was too cold and
too dark for anybody to be outside drinking wine at one of the
wooden picnic tables. Alfred used his flashlight sparingly and
walked warily along the rough roads of the campground, trying not
to run into one of the many tall evergreen trees, or step on a
large pinecone, or, worst of all, come into contact with one of the
bears that his imagination saw prowling at night, looking for
food.
    It was a large campground, and he wasn’t at
all sure of his directions. He had the feeling that he was going
over the same paths again and again. Just as he was about to give
up and return to his car—assuming he could find it—he spotted the
green VW. In the dark it looked black.
    He had to make sure it was the correct car.
He came right up to it and stooped in front of the license plate.
He shone the flashlight on it, shielding it with his hand so its
rays wouldn’t spread. This was Gary’s car, all right. Next to the
car was a small tent. What he would call a pup tent. It must be the
smallest tent in the campground, just big enough for two people. If
they were friendly. That thought brought back Alfred’s rage.
    He stood motionless, a few feet from the
tent, and stared at its dark outline. When he looked directly at
it, the fabric blended into the blackness of the night and
disappeared. The way he would like to make Gary disappear.
    He heard noises coming from inside the tent.
Whispers. Soft giggles. Then grunts. A stifled shout. He knew what
they were doing. He pictured Penny’s body, the way it had looked
when he saw it from her window. Perfect. The body of a goddess. And
that bastard was ravishing her.
    Alfred wanted to dive on top of the tent and
bring it crashing down on them, then beat them with a fallen tree
branch until they stopped. Stopped the whispers. And the giggles.
The grunts and the cries. He would