Hi there, mister.

Oh, sorry -- didn't mean to startle you.

No, I know; I don't make much noise and I came up behind you unexpected like. My bad.

Nice camper; you travelling?

Oh; I wish I could do that. Just get in a camper and travel all over the country till I found a place to rest. Lots of places I never been to I'd go, let me tell you.

Me? No, I never been more than a hundred miles from home since I was born. It's boring, let me tell you. Same old people, same old trees...

Well, sure -- I guess I'm still young; maybe you're right and I'll get to move on some day. Need to find the right man, though...

Oh, hey -- wasn't meaning anything particular by that; sorry if I startled you... I meant I can't drive, I'd need someone to drive for me.

Learn to drive? No -- I couldn't do that; can't take the test, got a kind of problem with my records that's too hard to explain or straighten out so I just walk most places... not like I'm going anywhere, much, anytime, anyway...

Sorry -- I get a little bitter sometimes.

Nah. So -- where you from originally? Chicago? I hear it's a nice place. My brother was stationed at Great Lakes during the war. Korea, that is; he was too young for the World War.

Say -- I hate to ask -- you got anything to drink with you? Soda pop, even cold water...

Oh, heck no -- I wouldn't mind a cold beer at all, if that's what ya got. I love these pull tops -- i still rememeber when you hadda use a "church key" to open the can.

Yeah, I s'pose I am maybe a bit older than I look.

What's a camper like this like inside? Well, no, I wasn't hinting, but if you don't mind...?

Whoof. Bit of a step up there for somone who usually has her feet on the ground.

Neat. a little dining table. Mind if I sit down for a minute? This is really nice; a sink and a stove and bunk beds and everything.

Not that it's any of my business, but what're you doing 'round here? Pretty much a backwater since the mill shut down; the motion picture show closed years ago... Not a lot to do.

Plannin' to settle, huh? Whereabouts?

Here?

Well, yeah... I know it's available, what with Johnny Hanford dying down there in South America somewhere and his family wanting to get shut of the place, but...

Didn't you wonder why nobody's built a house or cleared and farmed it? It's twenty years or more since Johnny disappeared one night and left his cabin burning behind him. But no-one 'round here wants the place. The Hanfords and the Higginses kept up the taxes on the place, just in case Johnny come home -- kin is kin -- but they'll be right glad to get shut of it if a chance comes, now they can sell it.

The cabin? Right over that way -- if you lean across this bunk here and look out the window, you can see -- right over there -- see the blackberry patch and the roses? -- that's the rosebushfolks say Cindy planted the year she and Johnny got married; it's the south corner of the cabin. If you poke around in the blackberries you can find the stone steps and bricks from the chimneys that fell down a few years ago. You can see places along the roads all round out here in the country where there's nothin' standin' but a chimney marks some family's house went up in smoke before anyone could get help to 'em, you know. Sooner or later the chimneys fall too, and then, 'less there was a murder or somethin' extra gruesome, no-one's even sure where they were.

Anyway, that's where the cabin was.

If you look over that way -- lean real close to the window, cause it's a sharp angle -- you can see where most of the old stone well-house was, and...

Whoops! <giggle> Didn't mean for you to slip and fall like that, mister...

Been so long, even one beer's made me a little light-headed and I just slipped and...

Well, move over so I can get up off the bed and...

Oh, my. What could that ever be that I feel pressed against my leg. <giggle> Let me feel around and see.