Honeymoon for Three

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.”

“So the tsunami uprooted redwood trees, washed them out to sea, and then they were deposited on this beach. Holy cow, as you say. That was some powerful wave.”

“I want my picture taken with one of the tree trunks.”

Penny ran down the slope to the sandy beach and raced over to a gargantuan piece of driftwood. Gary ran after her, holding the camera. They took pictures of each other being dwarfed by the white trunks of what used to be redwood trees. They felt insubstantial, like a mouse would feel when encountering ordinary driftwood.

When they had their fill of photography, they walked down close to the water.

“Look,” Penny said. “This is black jade. And here are agates.”

“Aren’t the pieces of jade too big for our table?”

“ They’re so beautiful. Maybe we can use them for something else.”

Penny began picking up the rocks. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Gary joined in. When she was happy, he was happy. They soon had an armload of the rocks.

“We’re going to have trouble getting these in the car,” Gary said. “Let me take a load back and see how many more we can fit in.”

Gary carried the rocks up the slope to the parking area. He placed the rocks on the ground, unlocked the door of the VW, and popped open the hood. He didn’t want to place the dirty rocks inside the car. He squeezed them into the storage space under the hood and returned to the beach. He saw that Penny had more rocks.

“I’ll take these up,” Penny said.

“Okay, but that’s the last load.”

“Promise.”

“I’m going to walk down the beach a little way and take pictures of some of those other trees.”

Gary ambled along the beach, stopping now and then to take a picture. After five minutes he turned around to see whether Penny was returning from the car. He didn’t see her. Oh well, it was time for them to hit the road again. They had to keep moving. The honeymoon was winding down, much as he didn’t want it to end.

Gary retraced his steps and went up the sandy slope to the parking area. As the car came into view, he noticed that the hood was open, but he didn’t see Penny. Maybe she was inside the car. He reached the top of the slope and looked through the car windows. No Penny.

Where was she? Maybe she had to go-she might be taking a nature hike as they called it in the boy scouts. Bushes grew alongside the road. Penny didn’t like to go in the bushes, but if she were desperate…

Gary went to the car to close the hood and noticed that a couple of the rocks she had brought up were lying on the ground in front of the car. He became mildly irritated. That was sloppy. He picked up the rocks and placed them inside the storage area. Then he saw a scratch on the car just below the opening that he was certain hadn’t been there before. A falling rock must have struck the car. He became more irritated.

He would chew her out for that. No he wouldn’t. What did it say in the Dale Carnegie book he had read, How to Win Friends and Influence People? Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain. But she had to learn to be more careful.

Gary waited beside the car, glancing at the nearby bushes for a sign of movement. Another five minutes passed. He began to worry. Where could she be? At least he knew that she hadn’t been attacked by a bear. They had left the bears in Yellowstone. He walked for fifty feet along the highway, calling Penny’s name. Then he walked the other way, doing the same. The only answer was the sighing of the breeze.

After fifteen minutes he began to panic. His heartbeat accelerated and sweat soaked his underarms. Had she decided that marriage was a big mistake and run away? She couldn’t have picked a more remote location to do that if she had; she wouldn’t get far. Even if she wanted out, she wouldn’t run away here. Had she been hit by a car? No, because, gruesome as that sounded, her body would be on the road.

Had she been abducted? Who would do a thing like that? An awful thought came into Gary’s head.