There were a lot of things I could have done after reading the note. But I followed the instructions perfectly. The gully was about three miles from my house directly west on Highway 72, past the old quarry. But I couldn’t be followed so I headed east. I was going to take some strange turns to see who would follow. I liked to think of myself as a kidnapping-movie buff.

I drove eastward trying to remember different ways I could out-think someone following me. I turned quickly into the golf course parking lot without using my signal, feeling a bit like a rebel. A dark blue sedan followed me, but promptly parked. An older man was pulling a set of golf clubs from the trunk as I turned onto the highway. I figured that to be a coincidence.

Heading into town the toad widened and became a four-lane boulevard. I slowed down to 25, ten under the speed limit, but all the cars passed me.

There was really only one other trick I was willing to waste my time on, as my efforts were proving that I wasn’t being followed. I pulled into the Dairy Queen drive-thru and ordered a Reece’s Blizzard. I just love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but who doesn’t.

I was satisfied, both my taste buds and that no one was following me. Of course, why would I have been followed? I had merely taken the suggestion to heart without really wondering why I would be asked.

As I drove out of town, licking the ice cream from the spoon, on County 2, which would take me south so that I could catch Old Quarry Road out to the gully, I started to ponder the reason I’d been told to make sure I wasn’t followed. Shouldn’t I have been told to come alone? I was distracted by my thoughts and the ice cream, and didn’t notice that a brown Cherokee was approaching me very quickly. Probably they had actually tailed people before, and had not relied on the movies as I had.

When the SUV was just inches from my bumper, filling all of my rear window, I finally noticed. Before I could remove my eyes from its chrome grill there was a terrible crunching as my head snapped forward, reflex crushed the Blizzard between my legs, and the car swerved.

Instinct took over and pressed the gas peddle to the floor. We raced along the narrow road; I was headed to the gully with my follower. My mind fixed on the gully as a place of refuge, the place I needed to be. I wasn’t worried about not being followed, or who I wanted me there. Iwas only trying to get there at all.