Honeymoon for Three (28 page)

Once the camper reached the road, it would
roll of its own accord. One of them could jump into it and put it
in gear. Then it would start easily. If she were the one to do
that, she could just keep going and leave Alfred behind. She would
be free. She was very tempted to try to talk him into it.

On the other hand, the person who jumped
into the camper had a dangerous job. What if she didn’t make it and
fell under the wheels? What if she didn’t gain control of the
steering wheel soon enough and it hit a tree or went into the ditch
that ran along one side of the road? It could easily roll over.

No, she would rather give Alfred that job.
If he got hurt, she could make her escape. It sounded cold-blooded,
but it was true. She had to remember that he had tried to kill her
and Gary. He was the enemy. If the camper were wrecked, they would
be no worse off than they were now.

An additional idea occurred to her. She
explained to Alfred what had to be done. Then she said, “Before we
do it, I need to go to the bathroom again.”

“You just went a little while ago.”

“I know, but it’s urgent. I need to get
something to use for toilet paper.”

Not waiting for his acquiescence, Penny went
into the camper and opened the storage cabinet. She extracted a pad
of ruled paper she had seen there earlier, and the duct tape. She
shoved the roll of tape underneath her sweater. The sweater’s bulk
hid the bulge. She needed a pencil. She went forward and opened the
glove compartment, keeping an eye on Alfred through the front
windows. He was contemplating the logistics of what they were going
to do and not looking at her.

She found a pencil, placed it in her pocket,
and jumped out of the camper through the doorway with the sliding
door. She headed toward the trees, flashing the pad at Alfred. That
was her toilet paper. She went behind one of the big redwood trees.
She was thankful for its bulk. He was watching and would see if she
tried to escape, but he couldn’t see what she was doing.

She took the pencil out of her pocket and
printed the words “Penny” and “Alfred” on the top sheet of paper of
the pad in block letters. She held the pad in her hand as she
wrote, and the letters came out very light. They wouldn’t be
legible to somebody driving behind the camper. She had to find a
way to darken them.

She knelt on the ground and placed the pad
on one of her thighs. Then she went over the letters many times,
pressing the pencil against the pad, trying to make them as dark as
possible. Before she was satisfied with the result, the lead of the
pencil broke. She swore to herself. She couldn’t go back and get
another pencil. This would have to do. Gary had sharp eyes.
Hopefully, he would be able to read her sign if he saw it.

Penny pictured Gary driving the Beetle,
coming up behind the camper, and seeing her sign. This was how it
had to work. Unless Gary decided she was more trouble than she was
worth and abandoned her. Or maybe he thought she had run away with
Alfred. That thought nauseated her. No, he would never believe
that. He had to be looking for her. He wouldn’t give up. It wasn’t
like him. She felt sorry for him, alone and not knowing where she
was. He must be going through emotional hell.

Alfred called her name. In a minute he would
come looking for her. She had to do one more thing. She pulled the
duct tape out from beneath her sweater and tried to tear off a
piece. She found she could tear it easily with her fingers. Good.
She threw the pencil away and hid the tape under her sweater again.
Then she folded the sheet of paper in quarters and placed it in her
pants pocket. She walked back to the camper.

She checked to make sure Alfred had the
camper in neutral with the parking brake off. She told him to turn
on the ignition and leave the left, front door open. His station
was by that door. If necessary, he could steer the camper with one
hand while pushing with the other hand. He positioned himself and
gave a push against the frame at a point beside the door hinges,
grunting as he did so. It didn’t move.

“Hurry up and push.” His voice had a growl
in it.

He was irritated that she was the brains of
this undertaking. Penny took a position in back of the camper and
pushed when Alfred did. It still didn’t move.

“Push harder.”

She almost said something obscene. What did
he want from her? He outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. He
had to provide the main effort. However, at his command, she pushed
as hard as she could. Slowly, the camper moved forward a few
inches. Then it stopped.

Penny used up her strength and couldn’t
maintain the effort. She and Alfred must have let up at the same
time, because the camper rolled back to where it had been and even
a little farther. Then it rolled forward to the starting point and
stopped.

“We’ll rock it,” Alfred said. “When it rocks
forward, push with all your might.”

They pushed the camper forward and when it
stalled they let it go back. When it rocked forward toward the
original position, they pushed together “with all their might.” It
almost stalled again at the point of furthest progress, but an
extra effort on both their parts got it into new territory.

It continued to move forward slowly,
begrudging the inches it gave up. The effort was exhausting. They
had to stop several times to catch their collective breath, but
each time they were able to get it moving again. Eventually, they
moved it close to the road. One more push and it should start to
roll downhill.

Penny looked around the camper at Alfred.
“Do you know what to do?”

“I think so.”

Alfred looked inside the camper, presumably
rehearsing in his mind the sequence he had to go through. Penny had
an urge to tell him to be careful, but she suppressed it. It was in
her best interests that he not be careful, and she found herself
wishing for that eventuality. She was becoming a terrible person.
She reminded herself that she couldn’t get any worse than she was
already.

They gave a final shove, and the camper
started rolling, slowly, by itself. It would quickly pick up speed
on the slope. Penny stepped over to the side of it to see if Alfred
had control of the situation. He didn’t look very coordinated.

He was walking beside the camper with one
hand on the steering wheel. He swung his right leg inside but in an
awkward fashion, and he didn’t seem to be able to get his left leg
in. The camper was picking up speed. His left leg bounced along the
ground. It looked as if he were trying to run on one leg.

He gave a big yank on the steering wheel and
jerked his left leg inside, but the camper veered toward the ditch
at the edge of the road. Then it swerved toward the trees on the
other side as he turned the wheel in that direction. Then it
straightened out. Alfred should stop it now and gain full control
before he tried to start the engine. He could easily get it rolling
again.

Instead, he was apparently trying to start
it immediately. Penny heard the sound of the engine coughing at the
same time the camper bucked violently. He had put it in first gear,
and it was going too fast for first gear. Penny had forgotten to
tell him to use second gear. Or perhaps she hadn’t forgotten.

The camper swerved again, and this time the
right front hit a tree before Alfred could control it. The tree
stopped it with a jolt. Penny found her heart racing; she was glad
she wasn’t inside.

She ran forward to the open front door to
see if Alfred was okay. His forehead was bleeding, but somehow the
engine was still running. He had instinctively depressed the
clutch. She pulled on the hand brake and reached across his body to
shift the camper into neutral. Now the engine would keep running
even if he couldn’t hold the clutch down.

“Are you all right?”

He looked at her for a moment without
comprehension. Then he said, “Yeah, I’m all right.”

He didn’t sound all right. He sounded
groggy.

“Did you hit your head on the
windshield?”

“Yeah.”

“Take it easy for a minute.”

Penny walked around the front of the camper
to survey the damage. The spare tire, which was fastened to the
front, had hit the tree. The tired looked flat, but there was
little damage to the camper, itself. It was probably drivable.
Penny wasn’t sure this was a good outcome, but she remembered what
she wanted to do.

She went back to Alfred’s door and said, “I
think it’s okay. Rest for another minute. I’ll check the back.”

She ran around to the back, making sure that
Alfred stayed in his seat. She removed the paper with their names
printed on it from her pocket and unfolded it. Then she took out
the duct tape from underneath her sweater. She quickly tore off
four pieces of tape and secured the four corners of the sheet to
the back of the camper. She hoped that Gary or the police would see
it and be able to read it.

She went back to Alfred’s door. “Let me look
at your forehead.”

“My head’s all right.”

He sounded angry.

“Let me at least wash it off.”

“Leave it alone.”

Did he blame her for his injury? Alfred
wiped his forehead, smearing the blood on his hand. He pulled his
handkerchief, already dark with Penny’s clotted blood, out of his
pocket and wiped his hand with it. That wasn’t sanitary.

“Let me drive. You need to rest for
awhile.”

Driving would give her more control. She
wasn’t sure Alfred was competent to drive right now. Especially
downhill on a winding, potholed dirt road with trees, cliffs, and
ditches.

“I’m driving.”

Alfred shifted the camper into reverse to
back away from the tree. Penny got out of the way. He gunned the
engine and released the hand brake. The wheels spun, sending a
spray of loose dirt into the bottom of the camper. It inched away
from the tree. The tires found traction and the camper surged
backward. Penny thought it would go into the ditch on the other
side of the road. Alfred jammed on the brakes and managed to stop
it just in time.

He sat for a few seconds, breathing heavily.
He wiped some more blood from his forehead. Then he seemed to
remember Penny. He looked at her and said, “Get in.”

Penny didn’t want to get in. She didn’t want
to die in a car accident any more than she wanted to die by a knife
or a gun. If she ran into the woods right now, was Alfred in good
enough shape to chase her? She was afraid he was. She really didn’t
have any choice in the matter.

She went to the right side of the camper.
She couldn’t open the passenger door because the door lock was
still taped down. The damage from the tree had bent the frame
slightly. It might not be possible to open it even if the tape were
removed. She tried the sliding door, but that was also locked. She
went back to the driver’s side and told Alfred.

“Climb over me.”

Why should she have to climb over him? “Get
up and unlock the sliding door. Or get out and let me get in this
door.”

He again told her to climb over him. He
wasn’t about to move from his seat. Was he that badly hurt, or did
he think that she would drive off, either with him or without him?
She had been considering doing just that. Could he read her
mind?

Exasperated, Penny climbed over him. It
wasn’t easy. She considered accidentally elbowing his wound but
decided that would only make him angrier. Instead, she brushed her
breasts across his face to see how he would react. He didn’t react
at all. With grim satisfaction she planted herself in her seat.

She hoped he wouldn’t kill them both. She
said, “I suggest you use first or second gear to let the engine
help hold the speed down.”

Alfred started off slowly, but soon he was
going faster and had to brake almost continuously. Penny saw that
he was in third gear. She told him to downshift into second. He
ignored her. She held on for dear life as they bounced down the
hill, on the razor’s edge of control. This was a lot scarier than
the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland. She hoped the brakes
wouldn’t fail.

By the time they reached a level section
close to Route 1, Penny was mentally promising sacrifices to the
gods in exchange for her life. Alfred stopped the camper, and she
had a chance to compose herself. He shut off the engine and took
the key. The battery had regenerated enough to start the camper
now. His forehead was still bleeding a little, giving him the look
of an injured combatant, but he seemed to be in possession of his
faculties.

He got up and looked in the storage cabinet.
What was he doing?

“What are you looking for?”

“Duct tape.”

The roll of duct tape was under her sweater.
What did he want it for? Was he going to tape her legs? Should she
play dumb? She didn’t want her legs taped. He looked at her,
accusingly. If he searched her, he would want to know why she had
the tape. And if he got suspicious and went outside the camper, he
might find the sign.

She figured it was better to have her legs
taped than to have him find the sign. When he looked in the storage
cabinet again, she quickly pulled the roll of tape out from under
her sweater and placed it on the floor just behind her seat.

She let Alfred search for a few more
seconds. Then she got up, saying, “I’ll help you look.”

She scanned the inside of the camper with
her eyes, as if she were looking for the tape. Then she picked the
roll of tape up from the floor. “Here it is. It must have fallen to
the floor and rolled behind the seat.”

Alfred looked dubious, but he took the tape
from her.

“Get on the bed.”

“What? I’m the navigator.” She hadn’t
figured on this. Hadn’t she won his trust?

“We have to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and
pay a toll. I’ll release you after we go through San
Francisco.”