Honeymoon for Three (22 page)

Unloading wasn’t a big deal. They unloaded the
perishable food and dirty sheets and pillowcases, but not much
else. The camping equipment and some of the food stayed in the
camper.

When they were finished, Mattie
led him to a bedroom and said, “This is the spare room. You sleep
here. We’ve only got one bathroom in this God-forsaken place, but
when we’re finished with it, it’s all yours. I suggest you take a
long, hot shower because those cold campground showers don’t cut
it. I’m going to wash your clothes since you’ve only got one set,
and I noticed that they’re starting to stink. You don’t want to
offend the passengers on the bus. I’ll give you a bathrobe of Don’s
to wear. I’ll have your clothes clean for you in the
morning.”

“
That’s very nice of
you.”

“
Don’t mention it. Don has to go
to work tomorrow. I have off till Monday. I’ll drive you to the bus
station or wherever you want to go.”

Alfred had taken a quick shower at
the Tetons, but the water had been cold and he hadn’t stayed under
it long. While he was taking the first hot shower he had enjoyed in
days, Alfred wondered whether Mattie was cleaning him up to have
sex with him. If so, he would accommodate her. He was a man now,
and men had responsibilities. It was time he stepped up to his. He
went to sleep with a smile on his face.

CHAPTER 24

This must be some kind of a record, Gary
thought as he looked at the Wittnauer watch his parents had given
him at his college graduation. Six o’clock was probably the
earliest they had risen on the whole trip, other than the morning
they escaped from Alfred. They must be getting back into work mode.
He didn’t want to do that quite yet. They still had three days to
go on their honeymoon, including today, and he intended to enjoy
them.

They quickly packed the car and were on
their way by six forty-five, intending to eat breakfast along the
road, probably in Klamath Falls where they would cross the route
they had taken heading north. Then on to the California coast. The
prospect of returning to California gave him the keen feeling of
anticipation one has when something exciting is about to
happen.

Penny must have sensed it too. She started
singing, “California, here I come.” Gary joined in. What their
voices lacked in quality they made up for in volume.

***

There was nothing like sleeping in a real
bed. Alfred stretched and yawned luxuriously as he awoke. The sun
streamed in through the white lace curtains on the window. He
glanced idly at the small clock on the bedside table. It was almost
eight o’clock.

Alfred jerked himself upright, instantly
fully awake. He had things to do. He couldn’t sleep all day. He
stood up on the hooked throw rug that covered a small section of
the wooden floor that was painted green and glanced down at his
stomach. He had slept in the nude. Why? That wasn’t like him. He
fingered his bellybutton and looked around the sparsely furnished
room for his clothes. They weren’t on the old wooden rocking chair
or on the small dresser that had been painted and repainted many
times. He spotted his shoes on the floor where he had carelessly
thrown them. A bathrobe lay in a heap on the chair.

That prompted his memory. Mattie had said
she would wash his clothes. He grabbed the yellow bathrobe,
shrugged his arms into the sleeves, and tied the belt around his
waist. He opened the bedroom door and was about to step through the
doorway when he saw his clothes lying in a neat pile on the floor
outside the room. In addition, there was a Gillette razor and some
shaving cream, a toothbrush, and toothpaste.

He placed his clothes on the bed. Then,
taking the razor and shaving cream, he walked down the short
hallway to the bathroom. He heard noises coming from the direction
of the kitchen. Don and Mattie must be up. He shaved for the first
time in several days and combed his hair with a comb he found in
the cabinet. Returning to the bedroom, he dressed quickly.

An oval mirror hung on the wall over the
dresser, in a gilt frame with a carved design that had once been
fancy but now was chipped and cracked. He glanced at his
reflection. He didn’t look bad, shaved and wearing clean clothes.
If he had appealed to Mattie when he was dirty and bearded, he
should appeal to her now.

Alfred made his way to the kitchen. There
was an odor to the house that he associated with the old houses of
New England. It was probably mildew. He put a smile on his face,
rounded the corner, and stepped into the kitchen. Mattie was
sitting at the small table at the far end of the room, reading a
newspaper, and sipping coffee. She was dressed in slacks and a
long-sleeved shirt. Don was not in sight.

Mattie looked up when he entered and said,
“Well, Sleeping Beauty. I thought you were going to sack out all
day.”

“The bed was comfortable.”

“Just about anything is more comfortable
than the top bunk of the camper. You’re probably starving. Omelet
okay?”

“Sure. Where’s Don.”

“Oh, he left for work hours ago. Sit down
and have some coffee. Breakfast will be ready in five minutes.”

Mattie rose from the table, and Alfred sat
down.

“I’ve checked the Greyhound schedule.
There’s a bus at ten thirty, heading for Los Angeles. I can drive
you to the station, although it isn’t far, and you could easily
walk it. You don’t have any luggage to weigh you down.” She
laughed.

“Thank you.” Now was the time. Alfred
swallowed some coffee. It felt hot going down his throat. “I owe
you a big apology for what happened the other night. I-I’m really
sorry.”

Mattie stopped whisking the eggs and looked
at him. “The other night? Oh that? I’ve already forgotten about
it.”

“I feel terrible about it.”

“Don’t worry. I was too pushy. A lot of guys
don’t like pushy dames. I owe you an apology for insulting you. I
don’t know why your wife left you, but I’m sure it wasn’t your
fault. You did need clean clothes, though. However, you smell as
fresh as a changed and powdered baby now.”

“It was partly my fault. If there’s anything
I can do to make up for it…”

She looked at him again. “Like what? Oh, you
mean have sex now? I don’t cheat on Don at home. Couldn’t live with
myself if I did.”

“But in the camper—”

“That’s different. The camper isn’t home.
One reason we travel a lot is to relieve our itches. Both of us.
You don’t think his problem bothers him? We have to get away from
the burdens of home once in awhile before they get to be too heavy
a load to carry.”

Alfred was relieved that she was turning him
down. “Does Don drive the camper to work?”

“Naw, he drives the old pickup you saw in
the driveway.”

“So you drive the camper.”

“I have another car. It’s in the garage. We
reserve the camper for…camping.”

Maybe what he was thinking about was
feasible. “This sure is beautiful country you have here. I’ve never
been to this part of California before.”

“You should see the redwoods. The tallest
tree in the world is close to here.”

“I’d like to. My wife and I were planning to
come through here on our way home. Of course, I don’t know which
way she went since I haven’t heard from her.”

He had made a show of pretending to try to
phone his wife’s parents a couple of times in the last two days,
saying that his wife might be in touch with them. When Don and
Mattie asked him if he’d reached them, he said no.

“She might be back in L.A. by now. Do you
want to try and call her from here?”

“No thanks,” Alfred said quickly. “I…I don’t
want to try to talk to her over the phone. I’ll wait until I get
back to L.A. and deal with her in person.”

“You never told me your wife’s name.”

“Uh…Penny. Her name is Penny.”

“Nice name, Penny. Shiny new Penny. Or a bad
Penny. Sorry, couldn’t resist. If there’s anything I can do to help
you two get back together…”

“Thanks. I’m afraid not.” She was
transforming into mother mode. “What I was thinking, since I’m
here, I might spend a couple of days sightseeing. See the redwoods
and the coast and everything. If you’re not using the camper, maybe
I could rent it from you. Of course, I’ll pay for the gas and
everything. I’ll even get it washed and leave you with a full
tank.”

Mattie chuckled. “Well, you were the one who
fixed it. It’s running great now. You’re a pretty good driver. I
don’t think Don would object. I’ll tell you what; you can take some
of the food we had left over from the trip. I’ll even give you a
change of underwear and socks. I don’t think you can wear Don’s
pants—your waist size is a little larger than his—but his shirts
shouldn’t be a problem.”

Now she was definitely acting like a mother.
Things were working out just fine.

***

Gary and Penny reached the coast
at Crescent City. They turned south on Route 101 and found
themselves almost immediately in a forest of redwood trees. They
stopped at Redwood National Park and took a hike along a path with
the giants towering above them. The vista reminded Penny of
pictures she had seen of the interiors of large European
cathedrals, with the ruler-straight tree trunks representing the
cathedral columns. This was on a much grander scale than any
cathedral.

“
The tallest tree in the world is
somewhere in this area.” Penny read from her guidebook. “It’s
almost four hundred feet tall.”

“
Taller than a football field is
long.”

Penny looked up the trunk of one
of the trees, imagining what it would be like to be in the
relatively stubby branches at the top. She felt dizzy and almost
fell over backward. She quickly looked down and went back to the
guidebook.

“
They need a damp climate, with
moderate temperatures all year long.”

Tendrils of fog drifted past them,
and they were none too warm in their sweatshirts. The place was
enchanting, but it was also a place where Penny didn’t want to
linger. The canopy of branches high above their heads blocked out
most of what sunlight there was, leaving an eerie aura.

A half hour of feeling like
Lilliputians was enough for them, and they headed back to the car.
Penny said, “Let’s find ourselves a nice sunny beach.”

***

Alfred stationed the camper in a
parking lot facing Route 101, which was also the main street of
Crescent City, near the intersection where Route 199 came in from
Oregon. That was the route that Mattie, Don, and he had taken last
night to get there, and he was positive that Penny and Gary would
be coming the same way.

The question was when? He hoped
they hadn’t already passed this way. If they didn’t show up by
mid-afternoon, he would return the camper to Mattie and take the
bus back to Los Angeles. Mattie had provided him with plenty of
food so he wouldn’t go hungry as he waited. She had gone from
trying to be his lover to being his mother. He was more comfortable
with her in that capacity.

A green Volkswagen Beetle approached from the
north. Alfred glanced at his watch. He had been here less than two
hours. His excitement grew as he became more and more certain it
was them. He started the engine of the camper. His excitement
peaked when he saw Penny’s profile in the side window of the small
car as it passed.

He pulled out onto the highway, keeping enough
distance between them that they wouldn’t become suspicious. At
least they had no reason to be looking for him in a VW camper. He
hadn’t followed them very far when they slowed down and pulled into
the entrance of a park containing redwood trees—the trees Alfred
had told Mattie he wanted to see. Now he would get to see
them.

Alfred pulled in behind them and
was careful to park some distance away from their car. He saw them
walk off along one of the paths that led through the groves of big
trees. He couldn’t follow them on foot without risking being seen.
In addition, there were a few other people in the park. Not many,
but enough to scotch any plans he might have had.

Alfred sat in his car and pondered his next
move. He obviously hadn’t thought through what he was going to do.
He needed them to be in a more isolated area. In addition, he
needed to separate Penny from Gary. How was he going to do that? He
didn’t know.

While he was wondering what to do, he saw the
honeymooners returning along the path. He would keep following
them. Maybe his luck would change.

***

They continued south on 101, through the
village of Klamath and across the Klamath River. The road went
inland for a bit, but it still wound through forests of the
magnificent redwood trees. After the village of Orick, the road
came back to the coast again.

“
Let’s stop here,” Penny
said.

Gary obediently pulled the car off the road at
a turnout with access to the beach.

“
The guidebook says that we can
find black jade and agates in this area,” Penny said. “Maybe we can
collect some for our table.”

They got out of the car and walked toward the
water. As they came to the top of the sand slope that led down to
the beach, Gary stopped in amazement.

“
Have we shrunk or are we in the
land of the giants?” he asked.

“
Holy cow. That driftwood on the
beach is…those are redwood trees.”

“
How did they get
there?”

“
Remember, there was an earthquake
in Alaska last March. It was one of the biggest quakes ever
recorded. It caused a tsunami. I remember hearing that several
people in Crescent City were killed by the tsunami.”