Eric's lips cracked, revealing clenched teeth. 'Follow him.'
'Yes, follow him, my boy,' Dr. Epson mumbled absently. 'We all need someone to follow, eh?'
19.
Rydell Grimme peered into the dark room, squinting in the dim light from his lantern. 'That you, Molly?'
Molly Sing was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, her face slack with exhaustion. 'Anybody found him yet?'
'Nope. Son of a bitch seems to have disappeared.'
'It would be just like Eric,' she nodded with a mixture of admiration and annoyance. 'Do you think he's left the camp?'
Rydell shrugged. 'Maybe. But I doubt it.'
'I don't. We've had a dozen people searching for him for almost an hour and nobody's seen any trace of him. To me that suggests he's not here.'
'You can't tell with Eric,' Rydell said, entering the room, his lantern held in front of him. Molly winced slightly at the light. 'He could be sitting right next to us and there's a good chance we wouldn't notice. Some kind of Zen trick.'
Molly glanced around the semi-dark room. 'If you're here, Eric, don't show yourself until I've had another five minutes rest, okay. My feet are ready to bark.'
'Mine too,' Rydell agreed, walking slowly around the room, holding out his lantern here and there to examine something. 'So this is where he lived?'
'Yup, the four of them. Not exactly Jim and Betty Anderson.'
'Huh?'
'You know, Father Knows Best. Did you ever notice how all those TV families had two-story houses? Ward and June Cleaver, The Brady Bunch, even Archie Bunker.'
'I don't know. We didn't have a TV when I was a kid.'
'Oh. Moral or financial?'
'What?'
'How come you didn't have a TV? Moral or financial grounds? Your parents didn't want their child corrupted by the tube, or they couldn't afford one?'
'A little of both, I guess. My mother didn't want me to learn about sex until I was too old to use it. And my father didn't want to take the money away from his drinking fund.'
'Oh, it was like that, huh?'
'Yeah.' Rydell poked around on Eric's desk. 'Did you see these?'
Molly clicked on her flashlight, shined it at the desk. 'Yeah, what are they?'
'Trip flares. He was building trip flares.' Rydell shook his head and grinned. 'Clever son of a bitch.'
'I don't think a man should be referred to as a son of a bitch in his own home. Especially by uninvited guests.'
'Right. The loss of manners is the first step of our descent into savagery. Stiff upper lip, that's the ticket, what?'
'It's possible, but I don't think I've ever heard a worse British accent in my life.'
Rydell slipped out of his quiver and plopped down next to Molly. The lantern sat at their feet, casting a flickering light onto their faces. 'Reminds me of Boy Scout camp.'
'You were a Boy Scout?'
'A Boy Scout, a Cub Scout, every kind of scout there was to keep me on the right track.'
'The right track?'
'The manly track. Masculine, macho manhood. My father had read an article in Reader's Digest about the ten warning signs of homosexuality in children and he was determined that I never show one of those signs.'
'Did it work?'
He looked at her, her eyes twinkling mischievously, a half grin curling her lips. He took a deep breath and smelled her distinctive odor. That was one of the pleasant side effects of this new lifestyle they'd all been forced into, each person had a very distinctive scent. He understood now why dogs sniffed each other when meeting. Molly's scent was delicate, yet hearty, like stir-fried vegetables. He felt his mouth watering as he leaned over and kissed her.
She accepted the kiss without moving, either to encourage or protest. Her arms bung limply at her sides, but her lips parted to allow his tongue to enter her mouth. She sucked on it a little, then pushed him away.
'Don't you have the wrong girl, pal? I'm the short oriental with the Chinese doll haircut. I think you've mistaken me for the gorgeous blonde with the big tits.' She smoothed the bib of her overalls against her chest. 'See, no tits.'
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Reality, man. You're a pretty decent hunk of guy considering the depressed market lately. Okay, let's be honest. You're a knockout in any market. But me? Well, I've been around enough to know that guys like you always end up with Gidget. It's in the script, man.'
Rydell laughed. 'Relax, the doctor will be right here. I think you're going through a severe case of TV withdrawal.'
Molly's laugh tinkled like wind chimes. 'Maybe. My father used to have the thing on day and night, trying to learn English and American customs.'
'My God, what a distorted view of us he must have gotten. To say nothing of his children.'
'Child.'
'Still, it's warped.'
Molly shrugged. 'Maybe.'
He reached out, smoothed her hair lightly with his fingertips.
'I told Tag I was going to rest here, so he should be picking me up soon.' She stared into Rydell's eyes. 'That doesn't really give us enough time for a quick boff, does it?'
Angrily, he jerked his hand away from her hair. 'Jesus, is that what you think this is all about?'
'Isn't it?'
He hesitated, sighed. 'Yeah, okay, partially. It's such a rare occurrence around this camp to be alone in a room with a woman, well, you know.'
'Yeah, we're just as horny as you guys. It's not much fun catching a quickie behind buildings at night. The draft is murder.'
Even in the dim light, Molly could see Rydell was blushing. She laughed. 'Don't look so shocked, man. What do you think the women talk about at night on their side of the gym? When and where the best places in camp are to do it. The sixteen-year-olds are the worst. Half of the time it's hard to sleep because of all the women masturbating themselves or each other. It's a little like a prison. Hell, a lot like a prison.'
Rydell nodded. 'Yeah, well, men aren't quite so open. Most of them don't talk about it, but you can see they think about it a lot. As for masturbation, never in the open.' He chuckled. 'I think that was one of the ten warning signs for homosexuality in that article my father read. Apparently everybody's father read the same article.'
'What about the gays?'
'Whatever they do they do in private, just like the rest of the guys. I think men are embarrassed by wanting sex.'
There was a couple minutes silence as each drifted into his own thoughts.
'Rydell?'
'Yeah?'
'If we'd had the time. You know.'
'Sure.'
'It's just that I wouldn't want Tag or Season walking in on us.'
He looked at her. 'Do you think I do?'
