I reached over roughly and turned her chin.
"Why don't you look at me?
Are you pretending I don't exist?"
"No, Charlie," she whispered. "I'm pretending I don't exist."
When I touched her shoulder she stiffened and trembled, but I pulled her toward me.
Then it happened. It started as a hollow buzzing in my ears… an electric saw… far away. Then the cold: arms and legs prickly, and finger numbing. Suddenly, I had the feeling I was being watched.
A sharp switch in perception.
I saw, from some point in the darkness behind a tree, the two of us lying in each other's arms.
I looked up to see a boy of fifteen or sixteen, crouching nearby. "Hey!" I shouted. As he stood up, I saw his trousers were open and he was exposed.
"What's the matter?" she gasped.
I jumped up, and he vanished into the darkness.
"Did you see him?"
"No," she said, smoothing her skirt nervously.
"I didn't see anyone."
"Standing right here.
Watching us.
Close enough to touch you."
"Charlie, where are you going?"
"He couldn't have gotten very far."
"Leave him alone, Charlie.
It doesn't matter."
But it mattered to me.
I ran into the darkness, stumbling over startled couples, but there was no way to tell where he had gone.
The more I thought about him, the worse became the queasy feeling that comes before fainting. Lost and alone in a great wilderness.
And then I caught hold of myself and found my way back to where Alice was sitting.
"Did you find him?"
"No, but he was there.
I saw him."
She looked at me strangely.
"Are you all right?"
"I will be… in a minute… Just that damned buzzing in my ears."
"Maybe we'd better go."
All the way back to her apartment, it was on my mind that the boy had been crouching there in the darkness, and for one second I had caught a glimpse of what he was seeing—the two of us lying in each other's arms.
"Would you like to come in?
I could make some coffee."
I wanted to, but something warned me against it
"Better not.
I've got a lot of work to do tonight."
"Charlie, is it anything I said or did?"
"Of course not.
Just that kid watching us upset me."
She was standing close to me, waiting for me to kiss her.
I put my arm around her, but it happened again.
If I didn't get away quickly, I would pass out.
"Charlie, you look sick."
"Did you see him, Alice?
The truth…"
She shook her head.
"No.
It was too dark.