The darkness kept coming.
No moon.
No stars.
Only the headlights pushed pinpricks of light onto the forest road.
No other cars were out. Why should they be? They were in the middle of the Maine wilderness after midnight.
"You okay?" she asked Jack. "Not sleepy?"
"Don't worry. We'll get to your folks in time."
In time. Time for her father to die.
The forest's darkness didn't scare her. She'd grown up here. Her father's work was a botanist, a tree specialist. She'd learned to live with the loneliness. Her dog skipper had been her only friend.
How different her life had been when she went to Boston University, returning only for holidays.
She loved her parents, loved Skipper, but she needed more things like the internet. She and Jack were a couple, but even in the city she valued solitude.
"Take a right at that big rock." It probably had been dropped by a glacier.
There were lights in the windows of her parents' cabin.
The door opened. Skipper hobbled out, his tail wagging at seeing her.
Her mother followed. "You made it in time."
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