She started again, quietly, deciding that she would first get a look at the scene before committing herself; and even if it wasn't Rick there, it had been worth the climb to put her mind at ease. The trail reached a level area, and now she could see that the illumination came from a flashlight lying on the ground about ten feet ahead, but whatever it was shining on had been blocked from her vision by the base of a large tree. She knew someone was there as she could hear heavy breathing, and with skin tingling from fright and nervous excitement, she cautiously moved to the near side of the tree trunk. She was scared, frightened by what she might find behind the tree, but she was drawn to it, somehow feeling she had to look. My God, please don't let it be Rick who's fallen and hurt himself.

Gradually she moved around the tree, her eyes wide as she progressively took in more and more: a dark green blanket, a pile of clothes, the movement of naked flesh… and then she wanted to scream! Her head began spinning crazily as images – prurient, intense images – swam through her brain to make her legs weak and her heart pound. Abruptly, she thought she was going to faint as her whole world came to a shattering end. There, a few feet away, before her horrified and disbelieving eyes, was her son and Karen… nakedly locked together, lewdly and violently in the process of sexual intercourse. The young mother couldn't move as she stared transfixed at the heated coupling, the impact of the shock thrusting into her silently screaming brain again and again like a mad surgeon's scalpel jabbing repeatedly into her nerve centers.