On second thought Tabitha had been a rather dominating woman,and she'd effectivrly
made this her house.
That train of thought made Rick reflect on his marriage to his first wife.Gertrude,and the
nerdy mousey 17 year old daughter from that marriage,Petunia.
Rick glanced over at the lab calendar and realized he was due for a visit to Gertrude and Petunia
in 5 days,as per the terms of the divorce settlement.
<Screw this,why not go visit them 5 days earlier> thought Rick to himself.
So he loaded up the necessary supplies from his lab in the beat up and worn out white
cargo van he used for that purpose,hastily packed a suitcase,yelled through Brendans bedroom
door that he'd be gone for the next ten days,and drove off.
Five hours later Rick was finally approaching Graves Mills.a out of the way hamlet near which
his first wife and daughter lived in a old industrialists Victorian mansion.
He moved along County Road 666 till he came to the turnoff sign for
Deathshead Swamp Road,at the end of which was the mansion.
It was still another nine mile ride through Deathshead Swamp,and Rick drove
slowly along the dirt road,as there was no shoulder and the roadbed plunged steeply into the
swampy land on either side.
It was all too easy to slide off the road and then Old Rufus would need to be
called to pull the van out of the greedy swamp muck...