“You might think about coming home, Lily, darling,” Marika was saying on the other end of the line, “I don’t know what you did to Kit, but he looked terrible when he came into the shop a couple weeks ago.”

Lily rolled her eyes.  She was glad the Marika couldn’t see her in the phone booth.  “I suppose he was crying his eyes out and carrying on about how he couldn’t live without me.”

“Something like that.   He told me he didn’t know what to do with himself.”

“He barely knows what to do with himself when I’m around, either,” Lily said.  She snorted loudly.

“That’s not very nice, Lily, dear.”

Lily could see Marika pursing her lips and crinkling up the corners of her eyes with a smile she was trying to keep to herself.  “Did you tell him he should take care of my bills?” she asked.

“He didn’t act very thrilled about it, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t do it.”

“No, of course not.”  Lily paused for a moment.  She looked across the street and caught the eye of the Alpine County sheriff parked on the other side.  He smiled at her.  She turned to face the general store window.  “Did he say anything about the car?”

“Not that I remember.  Should he have said anything?” Marika asked.

“Maybe not.”  Lily wondered what Kit thought of her now.

“Lily.”  Marika’s voice took on a disapproving tone.  “What did you do with Kit’s car?”

“I didn’t do nothin’ with his car!”  Lily protested.

“Nothing?” Marika asked.

“Well ... I ... ah ... I did borrow it.”

“Aha!” Marika said.  “And just when did you borrow it?”

“When we were at this rinky-dink campground a couple weeks ago.”

Marika cackled loudly.  Lily held the receiver away from ear until Marika finished cackling.

“Lily!  I can’t believe you!  That’s really a riot.  Did he protest?”

“I left while he was asleep and left a note.  I don’t think he woke up before I was gone.”  At least Lily hadn’t seen any signs of movement.

“You are evil, girlfriend!”  Marika cackled again.  “Truly evil.”

“Not so bad,” Lily said.  “I just needed the car worse than he did.”

Marika’s voice turned serious.  “When are you going to come back?  I think he really misses you.  And his car, too.  When he came in here, he was riding some ancient bicycle.”

Lily didn’t say anything.  She thought Kit would probably be better off without her for a little while.

“Besides, girlfriend, I miss you.  It’s been really dull at the shop without you.  I gotta work harder than I like to.  Ruth’s been after me to drum up business the way you usually do and I’m just no good at it.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to come back.”  Lily wished she could go into work without actually going home.  It would be nice to see Marika and Ruth.  They would enjoy hearing about her adventures.

“Think about it,” Marika said.  “I gotta get going.  I’m meeting Hans for dinner in a few minutes.”

“See you soon.”

“Hope so.  See you, too.”

Lily listened for the click as Marika hung up.  She slowly replaced the handset and stepped out of the phone booth on the porch of the Markleeville General Store.  The bright sun made her squint when she looked down the street.   The sheriff was still sitting on the other side of the street.  He was talking to a man who looked like he might be a brother; both of them had white hair, square faces and dark glass.  Lily hoped that Kit hadn’t done anything rash like report that she had stolen his car.  She didn’t think he would do anything like that.  Still, he was probably pretty mad when he woke up to find her and the car gone.  The sheriff surely would have stopped her before now if Kit had reported it.  She almost wished she hadn’t called Marika and started herself worrying this way.  She had been having a perfectly good time by herself and now she was thinking about Kit and Kit’s car.  Time to relax, she reasoned.  She walked off the porch and got into the car, which was parked near the porch steps.  Only a few minutes and she could be sitting in the hot pool at Grover’s Hot Springs, soaking her cares away.

The hot springs were several miles up a gently winding road.  Lily opened her window as she passed the last house at the edge of town.  The smell of sun-baked pine needles filled the car and she felt herself starting to relax already.  When Lily pulled up to the park entrance, she discovered a sign warning that the park was full.  “Can’t I go in?” she asked the ranger on duty, a pleasant-looking fellow with sandy-blond hair and a mustache, “I just want to go to the hot spring.”

“You might be able to find a parking place, but you’ll have to wait to get in.”  The ranger looked at his watch.  “You’ll probably have to stand in line for half an hour or so.”

“Why are there so many people here?” Lily asked.

“Markleeville Death Ride just ended,” the ranger answered.

“Oh, of course!”  Lily raised her eyebrows high and nodded vigorously. “I forgot the Death Ride was this weekend!”  Lily had never heard of the Death Ride, but the ranger was so matter of fact about it that she didn’t want to seem ignorant.  She looked out the window and saw several people ride by on fancy bicycles.  She guessed they must be part of this Death Ride.  She turned back to the ranger.  “I was going to ride this year.  I must have missed the deadline.”

“Too bad.  Better keep your calendar out next year,” he said.

“My bicycle disappeared, too.  I couldn’t find it anywhere!”

The ranger made polite noises and nodded sympathetically.

“If I hadn’t missed the registration, I would have made the ride on my in-line skates.”

The ranger stared at her.  He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth.  Before he could say anything, a car horn blasted from behind Lily.  She glanced in the rear view mirror.  The woman driving the car behind her was shaking her fist.  Lily also noticed several other cars waiting.  “I’m going to try the parking lot!” she yelled to the ranger as she put the car in gear and  moved forward.  The ranger waved once, pushed his Smoky-the-Bear hat up on his forehead and turned toward the impatient woman in the next car.

Lily drove the remaining quarter-mile to the hot spring parking area.  She arrived in time to take the space of a car that was leaving and grabbed the bag with her swimsuit and clean clothes from the back seat.  She walked around the weathered wooden fence surrounding the pool until she found the entrance gate.  A line of people stretched into the parking lot, just as the ranger had warned.  The weather was very pleasant, though, so Lily didn’t mind waiting.  She counted ten people ahead of her.  Next to the gate two women waited with four laughing little girls who darted in and out of line.  A young, high school-aged couple stood next in line, clinging tightly to each other.  Two men stood directly ahead of Lily--one dark-skinned with long flowing black hair and the other fair-skinned but tanned and with close-cropped blond hair.  Lily wanted to run her fingers over the nearest man’s brush-cut hair to see what it felt like.  She slowly reached toward his head.  The temptation was too strong to resist.  He turned around just before she touched his hair.  She quickly withdrew her hand and ran her fingers through her own hair instead.  Lily winced as she caught her fingers in a snarl.  I ought to comb it out, she thought.  The man was looking at her as if he had suspected her intentions.  “Were you on the Death Ride?” she asked so he would think about something else.

“Nah,” he said in a deep voice, “Well, sort of.  I was helping a friend who rode.”

“How did he do?” Lily asked.

“He finished,” the man said.  “He had trouble with the high altitude and the sun, though.”

Lily was glad to talk while they waited.  It made the wait seem shorter.  Once Mr. Brush-Cut started talking, she didn’t have to say much in reply except to nod and say “Uh-huh” occasionally.  He told her about all the mountain passes on the ride and went into great detail about the problems his friend had had.  Lily realized why the ranger had given her such an odd look when she had said something about skating the Death Ride.  High mountain passes sounded too exciting even for her.  The potholes of Taco de Bellatos’ streets were enough of a challenge.  She decided she should rename her route over to Kit’s house the ‘Taco de Bellatos Death Ride’ or, for short, the ‘Taco Death Ride.'  Maybe the ‘Death Taco Ride.'  ‘Ride of the Death Taco’ would be even better!  She started snorting loudly at her own cleverness. 

Her new acquaintance stopped in mid-sentence and looked confused.  “What’s funny about road rash?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”  Lily felt blank.  She didn’t know what the man had been talking about.  “Isn’t it supposed to be funny?”

The man didn’t say anything.  He looked at her for a moment with a puzzled look on his face, then turned away and rummaged through his bag.  The gate opened, disgorging four people.  Lily was suddenly at the head of the line as the four people in line ahead of her got to enter, including her conversation partner.  She had to stare at the wooden gate few minutes longer until two more people came out.  She finally entered and paid the attendant, who directed her to the women’s changing area.  Lily looked around as she walked to the changing room.  A blue-painted swimming pool full of yelling children was to her left and a smaller, unpainted pool full of calm adults was to her right.  She guessed that the adult pool must be the hot one.  She felt eager to jump in as soon as she could get into her swim suit.

After a very cold and very brief shower, Lily stood at the edge of the hot pool.  She surveyed the crowd.  They seemed to be mostly her age or younger, many of them looking dazed and most of them sunburned.  They were also taking up most of the places at the edge of the pool.  Lily boldly started down the stairs and into the water.  She stopped on the first step.  The water was very hot, especially after the frigid shower.  After a minute or so, she was able to take another step, then another, until she stood on the bottom.  Another minute and she slowly sank into the hot water.  The heat felt very good and relaxing once she got over the shock of plunging herself in a big pot of near-boiling water.

Lily half-floated in the middle of the pool for some time until she got tired and wanted to sit down.  Several other people were also floating in the middle.  Lily didn’t think they would appreciate being sat upon, so she moved to the end of the pool closest to the bath house.  She found a free spot against the wall.  Unfortunately there was no seat, so she couldn’t sit down, but at least she could hold onto the edge.

After hanging on the wall for a while with her eyes closed, Lily opened her eyes again.  She gazed at the fir-covered mountains surrounding the hot springs and at the blue sky above.  She felt more relaxed than she had in a long time.  She let her gaze drop to the level of the water and she looked around at the other bathers.  Her conversation partner from the entrance line floated a few feet away.  He was talking to a woman who had blond hair, too, but considerably longer than his.  As Lily watched him, he glanced at her a couple of times.  She noticed something peculiar on his face, below his nose, the first time he turned his head.  She  looked at him more intently the second time to see what sort of hot-pool creature had attached itself to his nose.  She saw that he needed to blow his nose very badly and apparently didn’t realize it.  The next time he looked her way, she tried to signal that he should wipe his nose by staring at him as hard as she could and running her index finger under her own nose.  Mr. Brush-Cut looked puzzled and turned back to the blond-haired woman.  Lily decided that the subtle approach wasn’t working.  When he looked at Lily again, she frantically ran her whole arm back and forth under her nose.  The man looked alarmed, then tentatively touched his own nose.  He turned bright red and quickly wiped his nose clean with his hand.  He abruptly stood up and waded to the opposite end of the pool.  The blond-haired woman broke out in loud giggles and grinned at Lily.  Lily was surprised at the man’s reaction.  She thought he should be grateful instead of running away.  It seemed to her that an awful lot of men tended to run away when she tried to help them.

Lily decided to ignore Mr. Brush-Cut.  She let herself think of almost nothing at all.  She soaked until she felt her muscles turn to jelly and her skin had become very wrinkled.  When she staggered to the bath house, the cold shower felt better this time.  She slowly dressed, gathered her belongings and went back to the car.  She had just enough energy return to her campsite a couple of miles back down the road toward Markleeville.  On the drive back, she drove past the pull-off and had to come back up the road.  Once there, she managed to fix herself some stew out of can, then sat near the creek until nightfall.  The sleeping bag felt like the most luxurious bed in the world.  Lily fell fast asleep within minutes of crawling inside.

A sudden crackling noise woke Lily up.  She sat up in her sleeping bag and felt around for a flashlight.  There was no moon and she couldn’t see a thing.  The light wasn’t where she expected to find it, but she put her hand on it after a long moment of rummaging.  She pointed it in the general direction of the noise and pushed the switch.  A bright pair of eyes reflected back at her out a masked face near the end of her sleeping bag.  Under the masked face, a pair of little hands was jammed into her bag of corn chips.  “Hey!  Get away from my chips!  Hey!” 

The raccoon just looked at her, as if to say, who are you to tell me what to do?

Lily felt around her sleeping bag again.  She wanted something to throw at the invader so it would pay attention her.   She found one of her running shoes and gently lobbed it at the raccoon.  Since she was throwing left-handed, the shoe went wildly off-mark.  The raccoon went back to work on the corn chips.  Lily was getting mad now and when she found her other shoe, she threw it harder.  The second shoe didn’t land on the raccoon, either, but it was evidently too close for comfort.  The thief dropped the bag of chips and ran off toward the bushes at the edge of Lily’s campsite. 

She heard a small splash and realized the raccoon wasn’t her only problem.  She got clear of the sleeping bag and pointed the flashlight beam toward the stream just below the campsite.  Her shoe was bobbing at the edge of the stream.  It must have rolled down the bank, she thought as she stepped over log by the fire ring and started down the bank.  “Ow! Shit!”  Her left sole was suddenly on fire and she almost dropped the flashlight.  It was a bad idea to be walking barefoot over the roots poking out of the bank.  A very bad idea.  Lily ignored her injured foot as best she could and leaned down to fish her shoe out of the water.  She put it on even though it was wet.  At least one foot would be protected.  She limped back up the bank, found the other shoe and shone the flashlight around her campsite to survey the damage.  All the food she had stupidly left out lay scattered around the ground in a mess of plastic wrappers, bags and shredded foil.

Lily pulled her injured foot out of the shoe, brushed her feet off and climbed back into the sleeping bag.  She wondered what time it was.  The stars were bright and unwinking, with no hint of light in the east.  She was wide awake and didn’t feel happy at the prospect of any more raccoons visiting.  Her watch, when she found it next to her pillow, said it was almost four a.m.  Worries nibbled at her brain--worries about Kit reporting the borrowed car and of men running away from her.  She felt annoyed at having such a wonderful night’s sleep interrupted.  Soon she decided she was so awake that she wasn’t going to get back to sleep.  Kit worried her much more than she would have liked.  Maybe she had been away long enough.  No telling what Kit had been doing in her absence, but she suspected that he wasn’t happy and might be doing something that would make her unhappy, if only she knew about it.  She hadn’t figured out whatever it was that she had decided to figure out when she left Kit at the campground two weeks ago.  She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to figure out.  Time to go home, she decided and she climbed out of her sleeping bag to start packing up her camp.

Breakfast was a hard roll and a banana from a bag of food that she had been fortunate enough to leave inside the car.  Traffic was light so early on a Saturday morning.  She drove steadily along Hwy. 88 across Carson Pass and down into the Central Valley, stopping only for gas and a restroom near Stockton.  Traffic began picking up as she crossed Altamont Pass and drove through the Livermore Valley.  Thick, brown air hung over the south Bay Area.  Lily thought she was having trouble breathing after becoming accustomed to clear, fresh mountain air.  She rolled down the window part way when she came to the Dumbarton Bridge.  The familiar smell of the San Francisco Bay filled the car.

Lily drove across the Hwy. 101 overpass shortly after crossing the bridge.  She felt nervous as she entered the familiar streets of Taco de Bellatos.  The neighborhoods didn’t look much different for her absence.  Maybe no one even knew that she had been gone.  What would Kit say when she drove up in his car?   Despite her scrapes during the driving lessons, she had been fairly careful with the old heap.  No more than a few new scratches, anyway.  Lily knew that Kit was probably expecting that the car would be in pieces mailed back by UPS, a box of pieces at a time.  Lily laughed as she imagined Kit trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle of his car.  That would keep him occupied for a long time.  It might even give him something to do when she wasn’t around. 

A car horn suddenly blared to her right.  She jumped and realized that she was in the middle of an intersection and that she hadn’t stopped at the stop sign.   She could swear that this particular intersection with Frontage and Anejo Street hadn’t had a stop sign the last time she drove it.  Maybe things had changed since she was last in Taco de Bellatos.  She smiled sweetly at the driver in the car to her right.  He didn’t look very happy, even after being graced by Lily’s smile.  Lily was glad Kit hadn’t been with her.  Too many daydreams in the middle of intersections and she would have to mail his car back to him in multiple boxes.  She didn’t believe that Kit would like that. 

Lily slowed as she approached Kit’s street.  He would probably be at home, knowing Kit.  This was Saturday and it was still early in the day.  Kit wouldn’t be out of the house yet and she might have a chance of finding him.  She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when she turned into his driveway. She couldn’t imagine what he had done to keep himself busy without her ever since that night in the Warblen Pines Campground.  Staring at the cracks in the plaster in his living room, no doubt.  Nothing was resolved between them yet, but at least she could rescue him from staring at the walls.

Kit’s neighbor, Fred, was puttering around his yard across the street from Kit’s house.  Lily waved at him as she pulled up to Kit’s drive.  He waved back slowly, his eyes wide. 

Lily eased into the drive and stopped.  She left the motor running so Kit would be sure to hear the car.  She waited.  Kit was not appearing.  Maybe he was in the backyard or had the radio on.  She honked--two shorts and a long.  Still no Kit.  This is very strange, Lily thought.  She turned off the motor and got out of the car.  She stretched.  She had been driving far too long without a break and she felt as though she could barely walk.  She stumbled to the front door, grasped the bull’s-head knocker and dropped it with a thud.  Still nothing from behind the door.  She put her ear up to the door.  Dead silence.  Maybe Kit was asleep.  He certainly wasn’t listening to the radio.  She picked up the knocker and dropped it with greater force.  The noise reverberated from inside the house, but Kit didn’t come running.

“If you’re looking for Mr. Bean, he’s not home right now,” a voice called out from behind her. 

Lily turned around to see Fred Naybor looking at her from his yard.  “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?  I had to work hard to knock on this door.”

“I thought you would figure it out soon enough.” Fred laughed.

“So...can you maybe tell me where Mr. Bean might be hiding himself?”

“Funny thing.  Some friend of his showed up and they went off to play golf.”  Fred scratched the back of his neck.  “At least that’s what I assumed they were doing.  Kit had on knickers, as usual. so that alone doesn’t mean golf, but they were carrying golf clubs.”

 “I can’t imagine that Kit would be playing golf, but when the cat’s away...”  Lily looked intently at Fred, who backed up slightly. “Did you happen to overhear WHERE they intended to play golf?”

“Um...” Fred scratched his neck again, then moved his hand to his scalp. 

Lily noted the resulting snowfall, but refrained from commenting on it.

“I think I heard something about the Foxwell Country Club.”  Fred looked relieved at being able to produce an answer.  

Lily wondered if he had really heard the name or whether he was just saying the first name that came to mind because she was staring at him.  The look that worked so well on Kit occasionally caused Kit to make expedient answers, too.  “You’re sure you heard that right?” Lily asked Fred. 

Fred nodded vigorously.  “You can probably find them if you hurry.  They only left about an hour ago.”

Lily got back in the car and searched through the glove compartment for the Redwood City map.  Even though she didn’t golf, herself, she had heard of the golf course before.  She located the course, started the car and backed out of Kit’s driveway.  It was just like Kit to run away and play some silly game when she wanted to see him.  She had to admit that Kit was usually very predictable, but she wasn’t usually making such an effort to see him.  Fred waved at her as she started down the street.  She waved back and headed toward the Foxwell Country Club.

Kit’s map, surprisingly enough, led her straight to the country club entrance on Alameda de las Pulgas, almost in neighboring Woodside.  Lily turned left and slowly drove through the double entrance pillars.  She hadn’t made it a habit to visit many country clubs.  Her Great Aunt Sophie had always sniffed disapprovingly at country clubs and the people who frequented them.  Lily could almost hear Great Aunt Sophie sniffing as she drove around looking for a parking place.  “I’m only here to find Kit” she firmly told the ghost of Great Aunt Sophie’s sniff.

“Humph!” the ghost sniffed back before falling silent.

Lily didn’t tell the ghost that she suspected that she might have been to the  Foxwell Country Club once before.  There was something familiar about the club house.  She thought Ted had taken her there for some dinner once.  She remembered that the dinner had been a fund raising event for a local politician for whose campaign Ted had volunteered.  Lily frowned when she recalled that the other guests seated nearby seemed to have been sniffing at her attempts to liven up a terribly boring evening--sniffing at her, in fact, much as Great Aunt Sophie would have sniffed at them.  Ted had been trying to pretend he didn’t know her and they had left early in a snit.  The ghost of the sniff was right.  The less time she spent here the better.  She just needed to find Kit.  Surely the sight of her would be enough to pry him away from whatever silly game he was playing. 

The main parking area was full.  It was probably better that way, Lily thought as she slowed to a stop and rolled her window down.  She wanted to maintain the element of surprise.  Kit might dash out to take possession of his car if he saw it in the lot and then Lily would be surprised when she came back and didn’t have a ride any more. She looked around before driving on.  A number of conservative and well-off men (and a few women) strolled at the edge of the course or were rolling by in their carts.  Lily liked their loud plaids and bright Kelly green golfing pants, but other than that, she thought Great Aunt Sophie was right to sniff at them.  Lily sniffed as loudly as she could for the effect. 

“Would you like a tissue, dear?”  a voice asked from out the window and behind her.

“Oh, no, thank you,” Lily replied, trying not to giggle.  She turned her head to see the speaker.  A gray-haired woman with dark sunglasses and a broad-brimmed hat was walking past her car.

“The pollen is so bad this year,  isn’t it,” the woman remarked over her shoulder.

“Um,” Lily grunted in reply.  She was glad the woman hadn’t known why she was sniffing.  Just as well to let the woman think the pollen bothered her.  She put the car in gear and drove out of the parking area to look for a better hiding spot.

Lily drove down the winding lane until she spotted a pull-off under some oak trees.  Perfect, she thought,  Kit won’t look over here.  She parked the big black car on the gravel under the trees and took a deep breath before getting out.  She felt more nervous about seeing Kit than she cared to admit, but she had come this far and Kit would certainly be more surprised that he would have been at his house.  Lily closed the door firmly and set off through the woods to find Mr. Bean.

Heavy brush soon made the way too difficult.  Lily tramped back toward the road.  She thought she should start looking near the main lot, especially if she couldn’t go directly to the course.  When she arrived, she looked around.  Nobody but more of the same conservative looking golfers.  Since Lily had never played any kind of golf before, even miniature golf, she had only a hazy idea of what the game involved.  She knew that a game meant playing through a number of holes.  It seemed likely that Kit would be several holes along by this time, so she asked one of the men standing at the edge of the course where she could find the first hole.  He looked at her with a surprised expression on his face, but he pointed off to her left.  She waved and walked toward the first hole. 

“Fore!” a shout came from behind her.  What was that supposed to mean? she wondered.  Something whistled overhead.  Lily glanced up to see golf ball sailing toward the first hole.  She suddenly had the idea that “Fore” meant she had better get out of the way.  Maybe walking at the edge of the trees would be a safer idea than heading straight across the green grass.  She ran over to the woods.  Walking in the trees would also maintain the element of surprise, she thought brightly.  She liked the phrase “maintaining the element of surprise.”  It made her imagine that she was in a spy movie.

Lily had already noted that Kit was not playing near the first flag, so she kept walking toward the next one she could see.  No Kit at that one either.  She kept walking.  After the fourth flag, she started worrying that Kit wasn’t at the golf course at all.  What if Fred had indeed made up his story?  What if Kit had decided to go out for ice cream instead?  He might have had a premonition and changed his mind about the golf.  Lily tried not to feel unhappy that her plan could utterly fail and that she might have to go back to Kit’s house after all.  She continued walking.  The dead oak leaves crunched underfoot.  Even if Kit weren’t here, it was a fine day and the air felt good. 

Lily made her way along the green, staying just inside the line of oak trees.  After the fourth or fifth hole, she was starting to feel tired of looking and Kit was showing no signs of appearing.  By the time she reached the tenth hole, Lily was ready to give up.  She stepped onto the edge of the grass and surveyed the course without any luck.  Maybe she could wait for him at the entrance.  Assuming Kit was here, of course.  Maybe she could wait just a little while and then come up with a new plan if she didn’t see him.  Then again, Kit might be at the next hole or the one after that.  Lily thought there must be eighteen holes to this course since she had already seen ten.  Just in case she might yet spot Kit, she got an idea of the location of the next hole and ducked back in the trees.

Voices were coming from behind a small hill ahead of Lily.  Something about the voices sounded familiar, though she couldn’t quite make them out.  She picked her way through the brush, moving as quietly as she could, until she could see around the edge of the hill.  There seemed to be a sandy pit at the base of the hill.  She still couldn’t see anyone, but the voices were louder.  And more familiar.  Lily could swear that one of the voices sounded a great like Kit’s.  Why would he be playing in the sand?  The other voice sounded almost as familiar, although she couldn’t quite place it. 

Lily thought the element of surprise was of critical importance now.  She carefully placed one foot in front of the other, slowly stretching over brambles and around fallen branches.  Snap! she put her left foot down on a small dead branch.  Lily froze.  Kit surely heard that, she thought.  She listened for a reaction, but the voices didn’t cease their chatter and laughter.  Lily let her breath out and took another step, this time without noise. 

A few more feet and she stopped by a large and moss-covered old oak.  She looked through the brush between her and the sand pit.  She could finally see figures at the far end of the pit.  No mistaking Kit.  He was wearing one her favorite pairs of knickers and a shirt she had given him earlier this spring.  As Lily watched, Kit swung wildly with a golf club, sending up great showers of sand.  Kit slapped his forehead and yelled, “Augh!  Not again!”

Lily’s eyes focused on Kit’s companion and her stomach tensed up.  Standing behind Kit was the one and only Ted, her old Ted, her dear old ex-boyfriend Ted who now ran away every time he saw her.  Why were they together?  Kit hadn’t mentioned Ted in a long time and Lily had supposed they weren’t in touch in more, but here they were.  Together.  Playing golf, at that.  Lily didn’t think Ted played golf any more that Kit did.  As she watched, Ted gave Kit a shove.  “Get out of the way and let the pro play, you duffer,” Ted said, laughing.  He started swinging at the same spot of sand that Kit had been working on.  He sent up spray of sand, just like Kit.  Lily decided neither of them could play any better than she could.

When she had seen Kit flailing away with his club, she had been ready to tear out of the woods as fast she could and whoop at the top of her lungs as she tackled Kit.  No doubt about it--Kit would have been surprised out of his little mind!  Ted, though.  Now it was a different matter.  Lily hunkered down next to the base of the tree trunk while she thought.  She wanted Ted out of the picture and out of her mind.  She had tried as hard as she could to forget about him and yet ... he kept reappearing.  

Lily rubbed her eyes and looked out from her brushy hiding place.  Ted was still there.  She bit her lip and frowned.  There was just no way to get around the fact that Ted was married and Kit was the one she ought to be thinking about.  That is, unless she ruled out kidnapping Ted and making him renounce his wedding vows.  Lily bit her lip harder to suppress a giggle.  Ted would really run away after that!  She started to feel new resolve for tackling Kit and ignoring Ted.  A small branch overhead gave Lily a handhold as she stood up again.  She carefully walked around the tree.  Good.  The bushes still hid her from the pair of golfing fools.  A few more feet and she made it to the cover of another tree.  Lily crouched down to prepare for the mad rush into the sand pit.  Another minute and she was ready.  She stood up again to launch herself out of the protecting woods.  Kit took a mighty swing and suddenly everything went dark.