The Madness Of Love | The Secret History

XX

I bought a newspaper at the little store down the street, caught a cab and went back to school. It was still early when I got to campus. I went in the back door of Monmouth and went right to my room, locking the door behind me.

I slept all day, face down in the pillow, a comfortable dead-man's float only remotely disturbed by a chill undertow of reality.

Day ran into night, and I still slept, until the rush of a flushing toilet rolled me on my back and up from sleep. The Saturday night party had already started, that meant dinner was over.

I got up, put on my robe and walked downstairs to see if any messages had been left for me by the phone. There were three. Bunny Corcoran, my mother from California and a Dr H. Springfield, D.D.S., who suggested I visit at my earliest convenience.

When I got to Henry's, I was glad to see that Charles and Francis were there too, still picking at a cold chicken and some salad.

Henry and Lilith both looked as if they haven't slept since I've seen them last. Henry was still wearing an old tweed jacket and there were grass stains on the knees of his trousers; Lilith's shoes were all muddy and I could see her also muddy overcoat hanging on the clothes rack.

"Where have you been?" I asked them.
"We'll talk about it after dinner."
"Where's Camilla?"
Francis put down his chicken leg. "She's got a date. With Cloke Rayburn. He took her out for drinks and everything."
"Marion and Bunny are with them." Charles said. "It was Henry's idea. Tonight she's keeping an eye on you-know-who."

After the dishes were cleared Henry put his elbows on the table and lit a cigarette. He needed a shave and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"So what's the plan?" asked Francis.
Henry tossed the match into the ashtray. Lilith, sitting next to him, yawned and put her head on his shoulder.

"This weekend." Henry said. "Tomorrow."
I paused with my coffee cup halfway to my lips.
"Oh my God" said Charles. "So soon?"
"It can't wait any longer. If we wait we won't have another chance until next weekend. If it comes to that, we may not have another chance at all."

"This sounds sort of indeterminate." said Francis.
"It is. It can't be any other way as Bunny will be doing most of the work."
"How's that?" asked Charles, leaning back in his chair.

"A hiking accident. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, Bunny will go for a walk. And we have a fairly good idea of his route." Henry took a map out of his pocket.
"He goes out the back door of his house and when he reaches the woods, heads not towards North Hampden but east. Heavily wooded, not much hiking out there. He keeps on till he hits the deer path. That runs for three-quarters of a mile and then-"

"You'll miss him if you wait there." I said. "He's as apt to turn west here as to keep heading south.
"Well we may lose him before then if it comes to that, but I'm counting on the likelihood he won't do that."

"But the second fork? You can't say where he'll go from there."
"We don't have to. You remember where it comes out. The ravine."

"What will we do when we get there?"
"Well we wait. I made Bunny's walk to the ravine from school and back and timed it. It'll take him at least half an hour from the time he leaves his room, which gives us plenty of time to go around the back way and surprise him."

Lilith was still laying on Henry's shoulder with a gazeless look into the abyss. Francis bit his lower lip. "Let me get this straight. We wait at the ravine and just hope he happens to stroll by. And if he does, we push him off and go back home. Am I correct?"

"More or less."
"But what if someone sees us?"
"It's no crime to be in the woods on a spring afternoon." Henry said. "But what are the odds that someone will stumble into that very isolated spot, during the precise fraction of a second it will make to push him?"