***
They stopped for lunch in Bodega Bay. Helen was thrilled. This was where Hitchcock’s The Birds had taken place. Their table at the restaurant overlooked the very same stretch of water that Tippi Hedren had been crossing in a motorboat when a bird had swooped down and pecked her head. ‘I can’t believe I’m actually here,’ she said, and took an eager gulp of her Bloody Mary.
Abilene laughed. ‘Last year, Grandpa Munster’s. This year, Bodega Bay. You’ve really been lucking out.’
‘Yeah,’ Finley said. ‘Even if the rest of the trip turns out to be a total bust, you…’
‘It won’t,’ Cora interrupted. ‘We’ll have a great time.’
‘Watching you ride a surfboard?’
‘It’s great so far,’ Helen said. ‘And next year’s my turn. We’ll go some place really cool.’
‘Lining up a haunted house for us?’ Abilene asked.
‘I’m still working on it. But you can bet I’ll find some place just dripping with spookiness.’
After lunch, they went to a market and stocked up on supplies: groceries, soft drinks, booze, ice, sun block, and fresh batteries for their flashlights.
Before leaving town, they drove past the old schoolhouse that had played such a prominent role in The Birds. Helen gaped out the window at it. ‘Fantastic,’ she muttered. ‘Incredible.’
‘You’ll have to come to L.A. sometime,’ Vivian told her. ‘Fin and I’ll take you to Universal, and you can see the Psycho house.’
‘Yeah! Neat!’
Then they left Bodega Bay behind. In the late afternoon, the fog came in. It had been lingering over the ocean, but moving slowly closer until its white, smoky fingers began creeping over the edge of the bluffs and scurrying across the road ahead of them.
‘You’d better start looking for a place to pull off,’ Abilene warned.
‘Gotta find a way down to the water,’ Cora said, and kept driving. Soon, the fog was so thick that it blocked out the sunlight. They were moving through a murky grayness that hid the ocean and the cliff at the left edge of the two-lane highway and the rocky slope to the right. The pavement itself seemed to dissolve into fog. Its yellow, center lines faded and vanished only a few yards in front of the vehicle. ‘Can’t see shit,’ Cora finally said.
‘Just get off the road,’ Abilene said. Peering out the passenger window, she saw the vague shape of a low stone parapet. ‘But not here. I think we’re on a bridge.’
‘Great.’
‘Slow down,’ she said as the end of the wall passed her window. ‘There’s gotta be a pull-out, or… here!’
Braking, Cora swung to the right. The smooth pavement went away. The camper rocked slightly. Its tires crunched along the gravel shoulder.
‘Get as far over as you can,’ Abilene suggested.
Cora steered more to the right, then stopped.
‘We aren’t gonna stay here?’ Helen said.
‘Would you rather go off a cliff?’ Vivian asked.
‘Some real excitement for a few seconds,’ Finley said.
‘The fog probably won’t lift till tomorrow,’ Abilene explained. ‘It’s just one of those things, when you drive the coast up here. But we’ve got everything we…’
‘Is it a mirage,’ Cora broke in, ‘or is that a road there?’
Abilene leaned closer to the windshield. Just ahead and to the right, the gravel area seemed to flare out. ‘Might be.’
Cora drove toward it. ‘A road, all right.’
‘If you can call it that,’ Abilene said. The lane was unpaved, rutted, and angled downward for a brief stretch before disappearing in the fog.
‘Is it wide enough for us?’ Vivian asked.
‘Let’s give it a try,’ Cora said. ‘Maybe it goes down to the shore.’
‘I hope it’s not someone’s driveway,’ Helen said.
‘I doubt it,’ Abilene told her.
‘This’ll be fun,’ Finley said.
‘What if we get stuck?’ Helen asked.
‘You worry too much,’ Cora told her, and started forward.
‘Be careful,’ Abilene muttered.
Cora inched the camper down the road. On her side was a steep, rocky slope with a few scraggly bushes. On Abilene’s side was nothing but fog. She suspected that a wrong turn in that direction would send them plummeting to the bottom of a ravine.
The camper bounced and shook. Sometimes, Abilene heard the squeak of bushes scraping against its side.
She spent much of the time gritting her teeth. And clenching her thighs through the corduroy legs of her pants. And holding her breath.
We’re getting lower all the time, she told herself. Eventually, we’re bound to reach the bottom. Or at least a nice, broad area of flat ground where we can stop for the night.
Eventually. If we live that long.
A hairpin turn reversed their direction and put the hillside close to Abilene’s window. She felt a little better, having it there - almost near enough to touch.
‘I don’t like this,’ Cora said. Apparently, she didn’t enjoy having the abyss beside her.
‘You’re doing fine,’ Vivian told her.
‘Maybe the rest of you should get out and walk ahead.’
‘The worst is over,’ Abilene said. ‘We’ve gotta be almost down, by now.’
‘Just think,’ Finley said. ‘If we do get to the bottom in one piece, we’ll have to go back up again.’
‘Sooner or later,’ Abilene agreed.
‘Not today,’ Cora said. ‘No way. Wherever we end up, that’s where we’re gonna stay till the fog goes away.’
‘Driving back up won’t be nearly as bad,’ Abilene said. ‘Maybe we’re lucky we can’t see what we’re doing,’ Finley suggested. ‘We might not’ve had the guts to try it if…’
‘All right!’ Cora blurted.
Abilene looked to the left.
Where the gray void had been, she saw a blurry dark shape beyond the roadside. A treetop?
They continued downward, and more trees appeared. Each seemed taller than the last.
Turning to her window, she watched the desolate slope recede. Soon, there was level ground on both sides of the camper. She reached over and slapped Cora’s thigh.
‘A piece of cake,’ Cora said.
‘Ya done good,’ Finley said.
‘God,’ Helen said, ‘I didn’t think we’d make it.’
‘Can we stop now?’ Vivian asked.
‘Let’s see where it goes,’ Cora said. ‘I think we’re heading back toward the water. We might as well get as close as we can. Maybe we’ll run into the beach.’
She drove slowly onward. Out the windows, all that Abilene could see beyond their strip of road were nearby pines and thickets, fallen trees, boulders and fog.
That was all.
Until, gazing through her side window, she glimpsed the rear end of a pick-up truck. It loomed for an instant - green paint and rust, a broken brake-light, an open tailgate - and then they’d left it behind.
