Free Honeymoon for Three by Alan Cook Page B

misunderstanding. There was no mention of how
the misunderstanding came about. No reference to another person,
which would be him. And no mention of any doubts that Penny might
have about Gary.
    Well, that had to change. He had to sow
seeds of discontent. Alfred zipped the tent flaps together while
still holding the notebook. He stood up and returned to his car,
throwing the notebook onto the passenger seat. It contained useful
information. They would blame each other for its disappearance. He
wanted a document in Penny’s handwriting, anyway. Even if he didn’t
like what she had written.
    Now that he knew where they were going, he
was getting out of here. Out of the rugged country and the cold
weather. The outdoor life wasn’t for him. He wasn’t cut out to be a
camper. He had enough money to hang on for a few more days. He
would meet them a little later in their trip. Assuming that they
didn’t call the whole thing off, which was what he wanted to
happen.
    ***
    “I had it this morning. I’m sure I put it
with the maps.” Penny frantically looked through the pile of maps
and guidebooks again, even though she had already done so twice.
She compulsively looked in and under the sleeping bag and threw the
dishes around the tent in frustration.
    “I’ll look in the car,” Gary said.
    “I know I put it in the tent.” But since the
notebook obviously wasn’t in the tent it made sense to look in
other possible places. So she let Gary check the glove compartment
and under the front seats. The backseat contained a pile of food
and clothing, almost to the ceiling. She couldn’t have put it
there.
    Penny was close to crying. She had wanted
their honeymoon to be perfect, but it wasn’t turning out that way.
Gary returned, empty-handed. When he saw the expression on her
face, he took her in his arms.
    “It isn’t worth getting upset about, honey.
We can recreate our schedule from memory.”
    “But it also contained our trip log.”
    “This is only the third day of our trip. We
can recreate that too. I’ll do it. I’m supposed to be the writer in
the family, anyway. Let me keep the log from now on.”
    Penny clung to Gary. More than ever, she was
sure she had made the right decision to marry him.
    “When we go into the village, we’ll get a
notebook or something to write in,” Gary continued. “We can
probably find something where we’ll buy postcards. We’ll eat supper
in the village and watch the show at the lodge. I’ll try to call
Henry again.”
    There had been no answer when Gary had tried
to call Henry before.
    “You’ve just made everything all better,”
Penny said. “Now can we crawl into the tent and snuggle for a
while? I’m freezing.”

    CHAPTER 9
    “We’ve been married two whole days now.”
Gary was filled with awe. He couldn’t grasp the implications of
this change in his life that had happened so quickly and yet was so
permanent. “Or to put it another way, this is the third day of our
marriage.”
    “And we’re out of the snow,” Penny added.
“It’s getting warmer.”
    It had been snowing while they made
breakfast.
    “Now all we have is rain.”
    “A little rain never hurt anybody.”
    “There must be enough wheat out there to
feed the whole country.”
    They had been passing through miles and
miles of wheat fields as they neared the Columbia River, which
marked the border with Washington.
    “After we cross the river we’ll start
gaining altitude again on the way to Mt. Rainier,” Penny said,
looking at the map. “We may run into some more cold weather.”
    “We’re tough. We can take it.” Gary was
feeling good. Even though he hadn’t been able to get hold of Henry,
he had a feeling that nothing could go wrong.
    ***
    Alfred didn’t want to get too far ahead of
them. He stopped at a lodge in Packwood, a few miles from Mt.
Rainier National Park. Last night he had stayed in a motel in
northern Oregon. Traveling this way, while not luxurious, was at
least comfortable.