“Don’t shoot!” Lucy shouted. “The dog’s got me stuck in this tree.”

She watched in horror as the man slowly and deliberately raised the gun to his shoulder and fired. Instinctively she crouched as the shot rang out. She saw the dog’s legs go out from under him as he collapsed on the junk heap, whimpered once, and went still.

Perhaps the dog belonged to someone else, Lucy thought as she jumped down from the tree. Maybe it was a nuisance dog he’d been looking for an excuse to shoot. She advanced toward the man, smiling. He had smooth round cheeks and blue eyes and smiled back at her. Then he raised the shotgun to his shoulder. Lucy ducked behind a big old steel desk just as he fired off the second round.

Lucy peeked out from behind the desk, saw that he was busy reloading, and ran for more secure cover behind a big stump of elm.

“God,” Lucy prayed, “don’t let this be happening to me. Let me wake up, let it be a bad dream. Please. I know. Bill was right, I was wrong. Now, get me out of here.” She cringed behind the stump, shaking violently as two more shots rang out. The man wasn’t coming any closer, she saw. He was still standing in the same spot, reloading again. If only he’d stop smiling at her. Damn it, that smile was familiar. She just couldn’t place it. Maybe he would run out of ammunition and give up. It would be getting dark soon; maybe she could creep away in the darkness. Maybe she’d die like the dog, shot by a smiling idiot.

“Harold, put that gun down,” said a voice. “Harold, I mean it. This is an order. Put it down, right now.”

Raising herself just enough so she could see over the stump, Lucy saw Lisa standing at the edge of the yard, pointing her finger at the man as if he were a naughty child. Obediently he dropped the gun and shambled off to the house.

“Is that all I had to do?”

“Yeah. You just gotta let him know who’s boss. He shouldn’t have a gun. Dunno why they let him have it. I can’t believe he shot his dog. He’ll be sorry when he realizes what he done. You okay?”

“I feel a little shaky,” admitted Lucy. “My car’s stuck.”

“You can use those shingles,” Lisa informed her, walking back toward her house.

“Thanks a lot, I guess,” Lucy muttered, scooping up some shingles. She spread them in front of the car tires, and by accelerating very slowly and carefully in four-wheel drive, she got going again.