Paul spent the rest of the day in something like a state of shock. He felt guilty and embarrassed about what he had done with Lisa, but he also felt extremely aroused by the little girl, and he knew nothing could prevent him from seeing her again.

He forced himself to work on some trivial but time-consuming calculations for the computer program until dinner. He went out for supper and had several drinks and returned home to a fitful night's sleep. He was conscious in the morning of having had many erotic dreams featuring the little girl across the courtyard.

Paul rose early, but couldn't bring himself to eat more than orange juice and coffee for breakfast. He carried the coffee pot and mug to his desk and stared moodily out the window at the empty pool. Finally, around nine, a man he had seen once or twice before came out the back door of Lisa's apartment and crossed the courtyard to the garage. He was blond and round-faced, and Paul recognized him immediately as being Lisa's father. Paul experienced a moment of irrational fear that the man would see him, and only with difficulty did he restrain himself from ducking below the desk. Of course, Lisa's father never glanced towards Paul's window.

Paul never consciously decided to go over to Lisa's house. It was as if someone else had taken his body into the bedroom and dressed it in cotton slacks and a T-shirt. Who commanded his feet to walk across the court, around the pool, stopping at her back door? Who pressed the doorbell?

Lisa answered the door in her nightgown, but she seemed genuinely glad to see him.

"Hi!" she greeted. "You must be up early today! My daddy just left for work!"

"Good morning!" Paul said. Suddenly he felt very strange. He looked at the little girl… she seemed like a perfect stranger, and he wondered what he was doing there, as if he had sleep-walked.