| Andrea had never seen an old lady hitchhiking
before. However, the weather and the coming darkness made her feel sorry for the
lady. The old lady had some difficulty in climbing through the car door, and
pushed her big brown canvas shopping bag down onto the floor under her feet. She
said to Andrea, in a voice that was almost a whisper, "Thank you dear - I'm just
going to Brock Bourne" Something in the way the lady spoke, and the way she never turned her head, made Andrea uneasy about this strange hitchhiker. She didn't know why, but she felt instinctively that there was something wrong, something old, and something dangerous. But how could an old lady be dangerous? It was absurd. Careful not to turn her head, Andrea look sideways at her passenger. She studied the hat, the dirty collar of the dress, the shapeless body, and the arms with their thick black hairs. Thick black hairs? Hairy arms? Andrea's blood froze. This wasn't a woman. It was a man. At first, she didn't know what to do. Then suddenly, an idea came into her racing, terrified brain. Swinging the wheel suddenly, she threw the car into a skid, and brought it to a halt. "My god!" she shouted. "A child! Did you see the child? I think I hit her. " The "old lady" was clearly shaken by the sudden skid. "I didn't see anything dear," she said. "I don't think you hit anything. " "I am sure it was a child!" insisted Andrea. "Could you just get out and have a look? Just see if there is anything on the road?" she held her breath. Would her plan work? It did. The passenger slowly climbed out to investigate. As soon as in front of her vehicle, Andrea gunned the engine and accelerated madly away, and soon she had put a good three miles between herself and the awful hitchhiker. It was only then that she thought about the bag lying on the floor in front of her. Maybe the bag would provide some information about the real identity about the man. Pulling into the side of the road, Andrea opened the heavy bag curiously. It contained only one item — a small hand axe, with a razor-sharp blade. The axe, and the inside of the bag, were covered with the dark red stains of dried blood. Andrea began to scream. |