"Gosh! It sounds like she just went crazy!"

"That's my only conclusion. Apparently turning 18 does that to you. If so, I need to watch Drew closely for the next year. Where is he, anyway?"

"I saw him over next to the window."

"Oh yeah, there he is. He's talking to, what's her name?"

"Audrey. I'm glad she seems to want to hang out with you guys, because she can only get in trouble with girls like Donna. I deliberately matched her up with myself as a roommate, so I can watch over her, being that she is the only underage girl on the trip. And you, your mother, and Drew will be sharing a room?"

"Yes, that's what I asked for."

"They are usually good about matching those who request matching. However, some places might only have double accommodations."

"What about Mrs. Parker? Who is her room mate?"

"She paid extra for private accommodations."

"I was thinking my mother might want to room with her, since they seem to be getting along so well. I think I remember her from somewhere, but I can't place where."

"She is a retired Elementary School teacher. Could she have taught you?"

"No, I remember all my teachers, but I can't remember one named Parker, except in High School, but she bears no resemblance to her."

"We have time to kill. Go talk to her."

"Yeah, I think I will."

He got up and walked over to where his mother was talking to Mrs. Parker, and sat down across from them. His mother immediately asked him a question. "Travis, do you know who this lady is?"

"I seem to recognize her, but the name doesn't ring a bell."

"What if I told you my name was Mrs. Sims?"

Travis broke into a grin. "Yes, now I know you! You were my teacher in the second grade!"

"That's right! My husband died in '66, and I remarried in '71, and became Mrs. Parker! But I remember you very well! You were always such a quiet boy! At recess, you always stayed off to yourself, crawling around on your knees looking for arrowheads. I thought there was something wrong with you, because you never wanted to play red rover, or kickball!"

"Because I was too busy finding arrowheads! To me, arrowheads were a direct link to history! When I picked up an arrowhead, I knew that I was the first person to pick it up since the Indian lost it!"

"Well, I wish I had known that then, because I thought you had some mental disorder! If we had had psychologists in the school back then, I would have recommended you for an evaluation! But look at you now! A published writer, with a book on the Best Sellers List! Who would have thought it back then? Do any of your stories involve Indians, or arrowheads?"

"As a matter of fact, my first book, 'The Relic' is about that very subject."

"So do you think the roots of that story could go back to your arrowhead hunting days in the second grade?"

"I'm almost sure of it! The first couple chapters anyway."

"That is so exciting! I plan to go to one of your book signings in London, and buy an autographed copy from you."

"Thanks a lot. I think you will enjoy the story, if you enjoy horror."

"Horror is not my favorite kind of story, but then, I never knew a horror writer before! I'm sure I will enjoy it, just because you were one of my students!"

"It's kind of you to say that. I hope it doesn't disappoint you."

"Oh, no! Your mother has been telling me about it, and it sounds great!"

"She can be biased."

Lois changed the subject. "Why is the plane late, Travis?"

"I don't know. They didn't say. It could be delayed for a lot of reasons."

"Will that cause them to change the itinerary of our tour?"

"No, I don't think so." Travis replied.

Mrs. Parker added, "No, the first day of any tour is always just a welcome to their country, with some of some kind of introductory thing. It is flexible, to allow for the fact that sometimes flights are delayed. We will not miss seeing anything because of this delay."

"Then why was that professor so upset?"

"According to Nikki, who is a secretary in the English Department, he has 'mental issues'. He gets upset easily if everything doesn't go just so."

"Apparently he has never raised kids!" Lois said, and both women laughed.

Mrs. Parker got up from her seat. "If someone will watch my bags, I will go to the ladies room while we are waiting. I hate to use the facilities on the plane, because they are so cramped. I'll be right back."

"I'll watch them." Lois said. After Mrs. Parker had gone, Lois motioned for Travis to come sit beside her, which he did. Apparently she had something to say, that she didn't want anyone to hear.

"Travis, I see you talking to that secretary a lot. What is her name?"

"Nikki?"

"Yes, Nikki. You are not getting too friendly with her, are you?"

"Too friendly? What are you asking me, Mom?"

"I was not supposed to tell you this, but I have to be honest. Janice asked me to watch out for you while we are on this trip, as though I, your mother, can keep you out of trouble! She said, in a joking way, to not let some other woman steal you away from her! I know she was joking, but many a truth was spoken in jest! She still does not completely trust you, after what happened in Peru and Colombia, and I have to say that I can't blame her!"

"I explained to her, and to you as well, what happened there. It might have looked bad, but there was nothing going on. It was mostly her meddling sister, trying to break us up! And besides, Miranda, that woman who went down there, is not on this trip! She is rich now, and has found bigger fish to fry."

"Well, all I know is that I have seen you talking to this Nikki a lot since we left Arlington. Explain that to me."

"Nikki is secretary at the school. She knows all the other people on this trip, and she has been giving me the facts about what to expect, especially from the two professors who are leading this trip. She went on the trip to Greece with Janice and me last spring. You never learn anything unless you ask questions. You should talk to her yourself."

"Is she married?"

"No, but I don't even think she's looking for a man."

"Single women are always looking for a man!"

Travis rolled his eyes. He supposed all mothers were that way. "So Janice asked you to give her a report, huh?"

"Well, not in so many words. Actually, I volunteered to keep an eye on you, because I like Janice, and I would hate for anything to happen to your marriage. Think of the kids!"

"Mom, nothing is happening, or is going to happen! I think I am a responsible adult, and I can take care of myself!"

"That is exactly word for word what you told me when you were 18, and about to leave for that war in Vietnam!"

A chill ran down Travis' spine.

She was right. Here he was, a 48 year old man, and was using the same logic he did when he was 18. Leave it to a mother to point that out.

"But I told you the truth, didn't I? I did take care of myself. And I have been doing it ever since."

"I suppose so, but sometimes you are too nave. You trust people you should not trust, and misjudge their motives. I have been around a lot longer than you, and I have seen the good and bad in people's motives!"

Travis started to reply: Yeah, you have certainly kept up with all the major soap operas over the years. What better way to learn about people's motives that to vicariously immerse yourself in other people's problems? But he knew better than to say it. The last time he told her something like that, it was about 1966, and he still had numb spot on his tongue, where she slapped the taste out of his mouth. Some things, though they might be the truth, were best left unsaid. But he had long suspected that she was bored with her family life. True, they had had a good life since WWII, and raised six normal kids, who had all turned out to live fairly normal lives. He had long suspected that she wished her family had a touch of alcoholism, drug abuse, infidelity, insanity, incest, murderous jealousy, or even h.o.m.os.e.xuality, just so there would be a little suspense, intrigue, and excitement in their lives. Since there wasn't any of that, she, like millions of bored housewives and mothers across the world, experienced it vicariously through soap operas. Sometimes, the characters became as real as her own children. More than once, she had called him 'Trevor' instead of Travis. He didn't know who this 'Trevor' was, but most likely he was a dashingly handsome soap star, for his mother to so easily confuse them.

"Watch my bags, Mom."

"Are you going to the men's room?"

"No, I am going to walk up and down the concourse, to check out the hot babes! And be sure you put that in your report to Janice too!"

11.

Miranda's pool was coming along well. She watched them dig all day Friday, and most of the day Sat.u.r.day, from her favorite spot, through the kitchen window. Travis had been right in his a.s.sessment of the local geology. Once they got below three feet, they hit solid sandstone, which would have been impossible to dig through by hand. It was even difficult for the back hoe to dig, but they meticulously chewed their way through it, until they had reached the specified depth, and then widened it to specified width and length. Miranda made them a gallon of lemonade, and took it to them. While she had them stopped, she asked if they still expected to be finished on schedule, being that the rock was harder than they antic.i.p.ated. But the contractor insisted that they still had plenty of time to meet the deadline. She was going to suggest that they make a smaller pool, but since they were confident, she let them go ahead as planned. Sat.u.r.day morning a hydraulic jackhammer arrived, and though it was extremely noisy, it worked much better at breaking up the rock.

By late Sat.u.r.day afternoon, the digging process was complete, and a different crew came in to begin forming up for the concrete for the floor of the pool. Miranda watched as the professional crew installed the drainage pipes, and reinforcement rods. Then they filled areas between the forms and pipes with loose gravel, then used the big hydraulic jackhammer (fitted with a different attachment), to pack down the loose gravel. They then used black plastic sheets to cover the gravel.

Now Miranda understood what Travis meant when he said that she should bury the body underneath the plastic and gravel. But they were hauling more reinforcement rods into the hole, to a.s.semble and wire together, to form the strength for the floor of the pool. If they did that, she would not be able to bury anything in the gravel underneath. Since it was already after dark, and they were working by portable floodlights and a generator, she was about to ask them to stop for the night, when she saw that they were stopping for the night anyway.

"Giving up so soon?" she asked the contractor."

"Well, we are at a good stopping point. We still have to a.s.semble the reinforcement rods, and finish forming the sides. But I just learned that we can't get cement delivered here until 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, being that tomorrow is Sunday. So we'll be back early in the morning to finish the forming up, and to wait on the cement. And that should give you a peaceful Sat.u.r.day evening! This looks like a really nice place to live. You must like it here."

"Oh yes, I love it here. Very peaceful!"

"Okay, my crews will be back by about 7 in the morning. Good evening, Ma'am."

"Yes, good evening to you!"

She stood on the deck and watched as they shut down the generator, and the lights died. They stowed their tools, then headed for their trucks, and left. She waited fifteen, twenty minutes, in case someone forgot something and came back after it. Then she walked up the driveway in the dark to lock her gate. She didn't want anyone coming in on her unexpectedly. She noted the almost full moon that was coming up in the east, already shedding light across her back yard. Would that be enough light? Probably not, because she wanted to be sure of what she was doing. She got back to her house, and went to the bedroom to change into her work clothes, which she already had laid out. She picked up her work gloves from the utility room, and went out on the deck.

She had already a.s.sessed that she was going to need her digging fork, and several of the contractor's empty five-gallon buckets. But first she needed light.

She went to the contractor's generator with a flashlight, and saw how to start it up. It started just like a riding mower. She opened the choke, and pressed the start b.u.t.ton, and it shattered the silence when it came to life. She adjusted the choke and stabilized the engine, and the flood lights illuminated the entire pool area. Noisy and bright, it caused quite a disturbance. It was a good thing her only neighbor was dead.

She threw the buckets and digging fork into the bottom of the pool, and then climbed down the ladder. She already knew where to dig, because she had been watching. She knew that this area had no pipes, and that the gravel was deep enough to bury the body. She had to move some of the loose reinforcement rods they had laid out, in order to roll up the plastic sheets that covered the gravel. She started digging with the fork, and was horrified to realize that the gravel was packed so tightly that it was going to be very difficult to dig. She climbed out of the pool and got a pick out of her tool shed, and it worked better than the fork, but it was still difficult. Sweat poured off her, as she labored to loosen the gravel, and then hand-load it into the buckets. She toiled frantically for almost an hour, and only had the hole about half-dug, before she stopped. She looked at her watch and realized that there was no need to panic. Though it was tough, she had plenty of time. It was only 10:30.

She climbed out of the hole and went to get a drink of water. She rested on the deck railing and looked into the hole. It would have been a lot easier to let Travis do this, but that wasn't an option. He was gone to England, and this was her project. She had killed him, so it was up to her to clean up her own mess. She was just glad that Travis had told her how to do it, or else she would have done something stupid, and gotten caught. Actually, she wasn't out of danger yet, was she? Only if everything went as planned! Endowed with a new sense of urgency, she put down her gla.s.s, put her gloves back on, and returned to hole.

She toiled for over an hour, digging non-stop at the hard packed gravel. It was amazing that loose gravel could be as hard packed as this was. Now she understood why they used the hydraulic jackhammer to pack the gravel. It made it as hard as concrete. She had tenaciously dug out a roughly five foot long, by three foot wide hole, down all the way to the sandstone bedrock, which was about three feet deep. Then she stood up to look at her work, and to straighten out her sore back. As she caught her breath, she asked herself a strange question: What's a pretty gal like you, doing in a place like this? What got you to this point? You are out here in the middle of the night burying a body, which you have sawed up like a pile of fire wood, with a CHAINSAW! You cut up another human being with a CHAINSAW! What got you to this point? Stupidity, just plain and simple! Doing things that you knew better than to do! No self-control. Apparently no morals! My G.o.d, you are trying to raise your two girls to do right, and then you do something like this? What would you say to them, if THEY had done something this stupid? There was no answer to that one. She had herself completely stumped. The only possible answer was, that they could never, never find out about this, or else she would never be able to stop them from doing whatever stupid things they decided to do. And knowing them, if they found out about this, they would do something that was totally 'off the wall' stupid, just because they knew that she could not say a thing about it. Teens were that way, especially her teens. They were quick to jump on anything that smacked of parental hypocrisy!

Oh well. She glanced at her watch. Time to get back to work. And it was time to do the dirty deed of hauling the body. The almost full moon looked down on her accusingly. The Man in the Moon sees everything, doesn't he? Good, bad or indifferent, he sees it all! What would he say, if he could talk! All the dirty deeds he's seen! Humph! No doubt, he's seen what I'm doing now, a thousand times or more! He's seen millions of lovers falling in love! He's seen it all! Well, he's about to see one more body go into the ground!

Reluctantly she climbed out of the hole and headed for the freezer. She stopped on the back porch to gather her courage. Girl, just get him under that concrete, and this whole nightmare will be over! She went to the kitchen to get a roll of black garbage bags. The box said 'maximum strength, for no messy spills'. I certainly hope there are no messy spills, she thought.

She opened the freezer door, hoping that he was gone, and all she saw were bags of frozen vegetables. She had bought the vegetables and packed them in around the body, to keep someone from seeing the body, if they should look into the freezer. She opened one of the garbage bags and began throwing in bags of peas and carrots, baby limas, chopped turnip greens, broccoli and field peas, until she had it as full as she dared, then started filling another bag with the same vegetables, when an arm appeared. She unceremoniously grabbed the hard frozen arm, pulled it out of the mix and dropped it onto the wooden porch floor. Next she found the head. She tried not to look at it as she picked it up. With her leather work gloves, the head felt no different than a frozen pork shoulder. She put it into one of the bags of vegetables, to keep it cold. Then she saw the severed p.e.n.i.s, so small and insignificant, yet the root cause of this entire mess. She threw it into the bag too.

That revealed the torso, the biggest part to be handled. She pulled it loose from the surrounding vegetables and slipped a garbage bag over it, then tested the strength of the garbage bag, by pulling it out of the freezer by it. She positioned herself to pick up the dead weight, and carried it across the porch, down the steps, and threw it into the hole. She climbed down into the hole and lugged the torso into her hole, and positioned it there, still in the garbage bag. There, the biggest piece is in place!

She returned to the freezer, saw the arm still lying on the porch, and opened another garbage bag to put it in. She dug in the freezer, and found both legs, and the other arm, and put them all into the same bag, and lugged it to the pool as well. She threw it in, then climbed down and lugged it to her hole and placed it. There was plenty of room for the remaining bag. She was climbing out of the pool to get it when the phone rang.

Who could that be at this hour? She raced to the kitchen to answer it.

"h.e.l.lO!" She realized too late that she had answered with an almost fanatical tone.

"Mom, is that you? This is Fay."

She couldn't believe it. Her girls never called. Why, in G.o.d's Name, were they calling her now?

"What do you want, Fay?" Her voice was still much too intense, and her irate tone scared Fay.

"Mom, are you okay? Did I interrupt something?"

"What? No! What could you possibly interrupt me from doing at one in the morning?"

"I don't know, it's just that you sounded . . . I don't know. I thought you might have a friend over, or something."

"Me? A friend?"

"Yes, Mom, like a man-friend?"

"No! No, I was just watching TV. A really scary movie!"

"What's the name of it?"

"I don't remember!"

"The Texas Chainsaw Ma.s.sacre?"