Honeymoon for Three

make it that much easier for him.
    He spotted the green Volkswagen Beetle as Don drove the VW camper through the campground. The honeymooners had decided to tough it out. He was pleased to see that Don took a site far enough away from Penny and Gary’s that he should be able to steer clear of them. Still, he wanted to make sure. He was cautious when he used the restroom. He sat where he could check anybody coming from the direction of their campsite as Mattie served them a mouth watering steak dinner.
    After dinner, he helped Mattie clean up the dishes, using water heated on the Coleman stove. Don had gone off to the restroom.
    Mattie said, “Don believes that doing dishes is women’s work.”
    “I need to do something to help. I’d like to help pay for the food, too.”
    “Nonsense. I’m just glad to have the company and someone to talk to. Don has these moody spells when he doesn’t talk. Of course, he doesn’t say much even when he’s feeling tiptop. Not that I’m complaining. He’s a good husband in many ways.”
    Don returned and got out the backgammon set. He asked Alfred whether he wanted to play at the picnic table or on the small table inside the camper. It was cooling off, but Alfred didn’t want to act like a wimp. He suspected that Don would be just as happy outdoors in the elements. There was another factor. If Gary and Penny should take a walk through the campground, they might spot him if he were outside and concentrating on the game.
“Do you mind if we play inside?” he asked. “I get cold easily.”
“No problem.”
    They set up the board on the camper table. Mattie sat on the backseat of the camper and knitted. Don also sat on the backseat, in front of the table. Alfred sat on a small seat on the other side of the table that faced the rear of the camper. Don pulled a couple of cans of beer out of the camper’s tiny refrigerator and offered one to Alfred. Alfred had never drunk much, and the taste of beer didn’t appeal to him. However, he took it to be companionable and sipped the bitter-tasting brew occasionally.
    He soon found out what he suspected—he was out of his league playing with Don. When Don suggested playing for small stakes he accepted. He figured that if he lost five dollars a night, it would keep Don interested. It would be a lot cheaper than traveling on his own.

    CHAPTER 22
    The breakfast ride was Penny’s idea. Although he had lived for awhile on a farm owned jointly by his father and his aunt, Gary could only remember riding a horse two or three times in his life. The name of his horse was Goldie, while Penny rode Chic. Some of the other riders appeared to be not much more experienced than he was, but the horses were gentle.
    Penny, on the other hand, had told him stories about how she and her girlfriend mucked out the stalls in exchange for an hour of riding. Why was it that girls liked to ride horses so much? He didn’t know the answer to that. Of course there were a lot of boys who liked to ride, too, but many of them lived on ranches and were born in the saddle.
    They followed an old road and then a horse path. As they walked slowly along the path, Goldie decided that he wanted to climb the almost vertical cliff beside them. As he started up the slope, Gary tried to figure out how to convince him to return to the path. The wrangler had said to let the horse know what he wanted him to do, but Gary must have missed the lesson on how to accomplish that.
    He tried not to panic as he pictured Goldie falling over with him underneath. He didn’t want to become a paraplegic on his honeymoon. Just about the time he was wondering whether it would be less risky to jump off the horse than to stick it out, Goldie came to his senses and made his way back down to the path. As the tension left him, Gary contemplated what people did for love.
    Penny and the others were smiling as if the whole thing were a big joke, but Gary was never so glad to see their destination, a table at a cove on Jackson Lake, laden with all kinds of good food—breakfast. With a backdrop of blue water and snowy mountains under a cloudless sky, they couldn’t have picked a more scenic place to eat.
    ***
    Alfred had been promoted to the front seat of the camper. He protested, saying that the front seat belonged to Mattie, but she said she’d rather sit in back and knit.
    “You men can talk about male things. I have to finish knitting this sweater for my niece. You can read a map, can’t you,