“Shut up, Lola. Everything is bothering me. I’m thinking this is a stupid thing we’re doing. You know why I think it’s stupid? Let me tell you why I think it’s stupid. The minute I saw you haul out that elephant gun, I knew we were in trouble. That thing hasn’t been fired in forty years. Your hands shake. I can’t even lift it, so you get no help from me.”

“That’s why we brought Anthony along. Stop being such a curmudgeon.”

“Anthony is seventy-nine years old. He creaks the way you and I creak. He’s old. Like we’re old. We’re just going to look at a site. There are no invaders or wild boars that we have to take out.”

Lola looked down at her feet. She couldn’t ever remember wearing sneakers. “These are lovely,” she said, pointing to her feet. “Where did we get them again, Mandy?”

“Shut up, Lola.”

“We’re at the hot dog place, Miss Lola. What would you like me to order?” Anthony queried good-naturedly.

“Three of everything. Ask them if they can box it up to look like a picnic basket. That will make this outing so much more authentic,” Lola chirped from the backseat.

Fifteen minutes later, Anthony parked the Bentley inside the entrance to the Judas Grove but far enough away from the main road so it couldn’t be seen.

“Ohhh, I feel so invigorated,” Lola said, getting out of the car. “We’re going to set up camp while Anthony takes down the signs. That orange fence is terribly ugly. Take it down, too, Anthony.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Anthony said, saluting smartly.

“Mandy, get the machetes out of the boot.”

“What machetes?” Mandy squawked.

“The machetes we’re going to use to hack down these weeds. That’s what you do in the jungle. We want to see where we’re walking. Don’t you understand, Mandy? We have to make this place look the way it did that day twenty years ago.”

“When are we going to eat? We should eat now while the food is hot,” Mandy grumbled.

“We’ll be sluggish if we eat. We need to be alert and vibrant. We have to keep our eye on the ball. We’re calling this square one. This is where the rubber meets the road. What’s-his-name would be so proud of me that I remembered all that stuff he taught me. I haven’t had this much fun since…since…a long time ago,” she said at length.

“You know you aren’t supposed to do anything physical. You could break a bone. Then you’ll get laid up in bed, and I’ll have to wait on you hand and foot.”

“You love it, so stop whining. I feel good. When I feel good I want to do what I can do. When I don’t feel good, I go to bed or the wheelchair and let you boss me around. When I feel good I get to boss you around. Now that we have that all straightened out, let’s get to it. Watch me; this is how you hold the machete, and this is how you swing it. My goodness, it does cut a wide swath, doesn’t it. We should be done in no time.”