"All right, Charlie, I'm not going to contest the divorce. You just go ahead and make the arrangements."

"I don't want you to think I'm being selfish but when the doctor said you could never have a baby, I realized that our marriage had no basis anymore. It's not as though that was the only reason, you're funny ideas about sex just about drove me crazy. Always wanting to do things with your mouth. Mouths aren't for sex in the first place and asking to...well, drink my urine was the last straw. I couldn't force myself to go near you after that. It all comes from that awful pornography you're always reading. We just weren't meant for each other, that's all."

"Charlie, I don't want to argue anymore. I never forced you to do anything you didn't want. All I did was suggest those things and you got all upset and screamed at me instead of simply refusing. Besides, those pornographic books were the only decent sex I was getting around here. Now I told you, you can have a divorce, all I ask is a reasonable cash settlement and you can keep the house and everything in it. Anyway it was all yours when I got here. What more can I say?"

"All I can afford is twenty thousand, you understand that don't you?"

"That's okay with me. Not bad for a year and a half, I guess."

"Where are you going to go?"

"I'll stay with Helen until the divorce, then I'll go to my father's for a while. After that, I don't know yet."

"Talking about your father, he called while you were out."

"What did he want"

"I don't know. He wants you to call him. I gave him a piece of my mind about your behaviour and the awful things you wanted me to do."

"Oh, great, why didn't you call the papers?"

Julie Carver didn't see much of a future for herself. She was twenty-three years old, fifteen pounds overweight which, on her 5 foot 1 inch frame, looked even more. She didn't think of herself as good looking. She thought her face could be described as pretty but nothing special. She was proud of her thick wavy brown hair. She considered that to be her best feature. She wasn't sorry about breaking up with Charlie Carver. She couldn't even remember what it was about him that first attracted her. She was a virgin when she married him and he had never satisfied her. Only masturbation kept her from going crazy. She knew that after eighteen months of marriage she'd had enough. Charlie was utterly dull. She knew from her reading that sex could have many variations but Charlie sure didn't share her sense of adventure. Just in, fire, and out. That was Charlie's idea of sex.

When the divorce was granted, Julie said good-bye to her friend Helen and headed for what she still thought of as home. The town and house she grew up in. Her father was alone there now since her mother died a year ago after a long illness.

Bill Tracy was pleased to see his daughter and welcomed her home gladly. He had been feeling very much alone and Julie's company, loving and supportive, was just what he needed.

For the first time in two years he was enjoying life. They went to plays, concerts, restaurants. They discussed books, music, politics. Julie was amazed and delighted at all she had been missing during her marriage. She certainly didn't mind being seen with a handsome man of forty-five. A man who had always taken care of himself and looked at least ten years younger than his actual age.

During the third week of her stay, Julie asked, "Dad, Helen wants me to check on the condition of a cottage she owns at Bandit Lake. She's thinking of selling it. Would you mind coming up there with me this weekend?"

"Sure, it's been a long time since I've roughed it, it might be fun. "Thanks, Dad, you're a lot more outdoorsy than I am."

"Do you know where this place is, Julie?"

"Helen wrote out a set of instructions. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

Bill read over the directions. "No question about it, we'll have to get there in daylight if we hope to find it. We'd better leave early Saturday." Julie said, "That's fine with me."

"Have you any idea how the cottage is equipped?"

"I have no idea what it's like. We'll have to go prepared for everything."

"Okay, I guess we'll need some blankets, neither of us ever owned sleeping bags. We'd better bring flashlights and I'll borrow a butane lamp and a camp stove from Harry next door. We'll have to bring enough food to see us through Saturday and Sunday, God knows if there's any place to buy food on a Sunday in that area. What else...? A kettle and a frying pan, a few other odds and ends and oh yes, toilet paper. Hell of a thing to be caught without.

"Helen did say there's a wood stove and probably enough cut wood for a few days." "I don't think we want to light a big stove in this heat, I'll pick up enough sandwich makings to last us through, we can use the camp stove for breakfast and coffee."

Because of last minute delays that Saturday, it was two in the afternoon before they were off. Bill was driving and Julie navigating. After three hours of driving, they found the rutted track that was supposed to be the last leg of their trip. Bill was glad they'd taken his pick-up and left the cars at home. After fifteen minutes the track petered out and they found themselves facing a decrepit looking shack.

Bill asked, "Could this be it?"

Julie looked doubtful. "If the key I have opens the door, then this is the place, besides, there's no more road."

They got out of the truck and Julie tried the key; it worked.

They went in and stood facing a single room, twelve feet square. No other doors showed in any of the walls. One corner held an old black stove with a sagging stovepipe leading out of the wall behind it. There was a small wooden table and a couple of chairs in the center of the room and against the wall in the corner opposite the stove was an old brass double bed with a bare mattress. The air was close and stuffy.

While Julie stood and looked around with some dismay, Bill began to inspect the cottage.

"Well, it's dry and pretty clean. It must be well sealed, there's not much dust at all. We'll just have to air it out a little."

Julie said with some urgency, "There's no other door. Where's the bathroom?" "If I'm not mistaken, it's that little outhouse about fifty feet down the path. I noticed it when we came in. Wasn't there a book called 'Fifty Feet to the Outhouse' by Willie Makit?"

Julie was unnerved. "Dad, this is no time for jokes. I've never used an outhouse before."

"It's no great trick to use a privy, you just don't have anything to flush, and there are a few more spiders than in them new-fangled indoor kind."

"Daddy! Don't go pioneer on me. What are we going to do?"

"I'll get a broom and clean out the jakes, there won't be a spider left when I'm done."

"What about sleeping? There's only the one bed!"

"Then we'll use the one bed." Bill looked for signs of shock on his daughter's face.....(cont)