Honeymoon for Three by Alan Cook Page B

tree and back
toward the cabin. The door was open, and Gary was silhouetted in
the doorway. He was looking around.
    There was no way Gary could see him. Where
he was in the woods it was almost pitch black. Gary came down the
steps in front of the cabin. He was carrying a small flashlight,
and Alfred could follow his progress by watching its beam. Gary
walked to the side of the cabin where Alfred had looked through the
window. He wouldn’t find anything there except a rock under the
window. He wouldn’t be observant enough to see that the rock had
been moved.
    The light of the flashlight flitted along
the ground and among the trees surrounding the cabin. Alfred didn’t
think Gary would come into the woods, but he was prepared to keep
the trunk of this granddaddy tree between them if he did. Gary’s
search, however, was cursory. There was nothing for him to see.
Alfred hoped he would go back inside. This one time he was
depending on Penny’s allure to pull him back into the cabin like a
rubber band.
    Gary did return to the warmth of the
cabin—and the warmth of Penny’s body. Alfred cursed him for that,
but at least he appeared to be out of danger. He waited five
minutes after the door closed. Five cold minutes, since he rapidly
cooled off from his recent exertions.
    He made a wide circuit of their cabin as he
returned to his own. He limped because his ankle hurt. It was
uphill to his cabin, which made it more difficult. When he reached
his refuge, he collapsed on the sofa without taking off his coat.
The movie was still playing. He watched it without much interest
while he decided that Penny could go to hell for all he cared.

    CHAPTER 10
    “I don’t believe Mt. Rainier actually
exists.” Penny was disgusted. She made an adjustment to the focus
of their binoculars and looked again. “The map clearly shows Mt.
Rainier to the south, but all I see is clouds.”
    The map on the Observation Deck of the Space
Needle pinpointed the grand peak to the south and slightly east of
their location five hundred feet above the bustling metropolis of
Seattle, but it was nowhere to be seen.
    “Mt. Rainier is a myth whose purpose is to
draw tourists to the great state of Washington.” Gary took the
binoculars from her.
    Penny was sure
of it. That morning they had driven into cloud-covered Mt. Rainier
National Park. The majestic peak was nowhere in sight. At the
Visitor’s Center near Paradise Lodge, they f ound out that the glacier caves had been closed for a year
due to snow. They tried to walk to Nisqualy Glacier in Paradise
Valley. They reached a viewpoint, only to see fog and more fog.
They did get a look at the lovely Fairy Pond.
    They escaped from the fog and
drove through Tacoma on the way to Seattle. In Seattle, they walked
along the wharf area, stopping at The Old Curiosity Shop, with its
shrunken heads, mummies, and other exotic imports, including items
showcased by “Ripley's Believe It or Not.” Other large importers
occupied nearby buildings. Random walking took them to the site of
the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and the Space Needle.
    “ Anyway, there’s a good view of
Puget Sound.” Gary swung the binoculars to the southwest. “Look,
there’s a freighter.”
    “ Let me see.” Penny playfully
fought him for the binoculars. Gary gave them up without much of a
struggle. She looked in different directions, pretending to hog
them. Gary hovered nearby, so she finally gave them back, acting as
if it were a magnanimous gesture on her part.
    She mentally pinched herself. It
was hard to believe she was actually married. At one time she
hadn’t been able to picture herself getting married at all. So far
married life had been a blast. The curse of Emily hadn’t affected
her, after all. Well, maybe a little. But they had overcome it. She
glanced around the platform, its height a good metaphor for the
high she was on.
    Then she looked straight down.
That was a mistake. The platform extended out from the