She lifted one hand involuntarily to her neck. Her fingers sensed a small roughness, like two pin prickes, where the dream child had kissed her so strangely, so poignantly. Lucy got out of bed then and went to the mirror. Clear on her neck were those two marks, as if a great beetle had clipped the soft flesh with sharp mandibles. She cried out softly at the sight of those ruddy punctures.
That there was something wrong, she was now convinced. That it also concerned herself, she felt certain. She was unable to analyze the precise nature of the wrongness but knew that it held something inimical in the very atmosphere of the Renner farmhouse and unreasoning terror mounted within her. Could she get to her car and escape? Escape. . .? She stared at her neck in the mirrored reflection and fingered the red marks gingerly. Her thoughts could not be marshalled into coherence and she found herself thinking of but one thing—flight. She could not have put into words just what it was from which she ought to flee but that she must leave the Renner farmhouse at the earliest possible moment became a stronger conviction with every passing moment. In her mind one ugly, incontrovertible fact stood out only too dearly: Cora Kent had visited the Renner farm and had not been seen since.
Lucy dressed hastily and managed to slip out of the house without encountering her landlady. She found her car under the shed at the rear of the barn, where she had left it. It looked all right but when she got closer, she saw to her dismay that it had two flats. She had, as was usual, but one spare tire. She did not know how to take off or put on even that one spare tire, let alone manage to repair the second flat. She would be unable to drive away from the Renner farm in her car. She stood staring in dismay at the useless vehicle.
Aaron Gross’s whining voice came softly to her ear. She whirled to confront him accusingly.
"What happened to my car? Who—?”
"You can’t be using it right away, miss, with them two tires flat,” Aaron volunteered, whiningly. "Want I should take them down to a service station for you?”
She cried with relief: "That would be splendid, Aaron. But I don’t know how to get them off.”
"Neither do I, miss. I dunno nothing about machines."
Impatience and apprehension mingled in the girl’s voice. She threw open the luggage compartment and began to pull out the tools.
"I think I can jack up the car, Aaron. I’ve never done it before, but I do want the car so that I can get to town. Shopping,” she added quickly, trying to smile carelessly.
Aaron made no comment. He stood at the end of the shed watching her as she managed to get the jack under the rear axle and began to pump the car off the ground.
"I’ll need a box to hold this up when I put the jack under that other tire,” she suggested.
Aaron shuffled away.
Lucy managed to pry off the hub cap but with all her feverish attempts at the nuts and bolts, she could stir nothing. She stopped in despair, waiting for Aaron to return with the box. She thought she might get him to have a mechanic come up from town. Panting and disheveled, she walked out of the shed to look for him. As she emerged, Mrs. Renner confronted her, grim-lipped, narrow-eyed.
"Anything wrong?” inquired Mrs. Renner, both fat hands smoothing down blue checkered apron over ample hips.
"My car has two flats. I can’t understand why,” blurted Lucy.
Mrs. Renner’s face remained impassive. She stated rather than asked. "You don’t need to go into town. Aaron can do your errands.”
"Oh, but I do want to get to town,” insisted Lucy with vehemence.
"You don’t need your car until you’re leaving here,” said Mrs. Renner coldly. She regarded Lucy with impassive face, then turned her back and walked toward the house without another word.
Lucy called: "Mrs. Renner! Mrs. Renner! I’d like to have Aaron take these two wheels into town to be repaired but I can’t get them off.”
Mrs. Renner continued on her way and disappeared into the house without turning or giving the least sign that she had heard a word.
