Once Janice turned eighteen, there was something else for her to be doing besides working at Spearfish Lake Outfitters and lying on the beach in bikinis brief enough to get Cody’s tongue hanging out.

One of the things that she’d never done was learn to drive. Driver’s education in Spearfish Lake wasn’t handled through the schools but through a couple of different private providers; it cost money, and until Janice came to the Archer family no one had been willing to spend the money on her. There was no public transportation in Spearfish Lake whatsoever, so the ability to drive was very important. Cody, John, and Candice had all made the suggestion that she get her license, but a quick study of the state law convinced everyone that it would be a lot simpler if she waited until she was over eighteen, emancipation papers or not. Privately, all of them were glad that they’d waited until Janice showed more self-confidence than she had in the early days with them.

The law required that Janice get thirty days of driving practice with a licensed driver riding with her, and Cody, of course, was more than willing to ride in the right seat of the pickup with her. For most of a month, they spent part of most days driving here and there – at first down to Camden and back, sometimes but not always stopping at a fast food place for a snack. That quickly grew boring, and they started exploring elsewhere. Several times they drove over to the casino at the Three Pines Indian Reservation, not to gamble – neither of them were interested in that – but to take advantage of the cheap food in the snack bar. Other times they drove to Warsaw and Walsenberg, or just took the time to explore some of the network of back roads and two-ruts in the forests around town. It was possible to get thoroughly lost out there, and more than once they did, but map, compass, and common sense managed to get them back out to the main roads sooner or later.

The practice driving sessions also involved night driving; two or three times they drove down to Camden in the evening to catch a movie, just so Janice could drive back to Spearfish Lake after dark. Once they drove down to the race track outside of Camden to watch the modifieds and stock cars go at it. Although they both enjoyed it, it was again mostly for the opportunity for her to drive home in the dark.

Of course, Janice was quite tentative as a driver in the beginning, and Cody knew enough to shut up and let her concentrate on what she was doing until it became second nature to her, but as she got more practiced they talked a lot more. That gave him time to think, especially in the early days, and having her sitting next to him gave him plenty of food for thought.

One of the things he often thought about was her flat statement back on the beach in June that she was his girl and she would always be. It seemed a very positive statement to him at the time, uncharacteristically strong for her. It had been obvious for months that she was close to him, and for months he had been hoping to get a little distance between the two of them, but now he was wondering if it was ever going to happen, and, for that matter, if he wanted it to.

Cody never really voiced his concerns to her, but couldn’t help but feel that at the age of eighteen with a year of high school and at least four years of college ahead of him, he was a little young to be making permanent commitments like that. On the other hand, he’d become comfortable with Janice in a lot of ways, and they shared a few things that would be hard to share with someone else, especially that one day back in December. Besides, it looked like they were going to be together for years to come, anyway.

The one thing that really needed to get ironed out between the two of them was the sex issue. He’d known for months that she was ready to get it on with him, but always there was that reluctance on his part from seeing her the way she had been when he’d rescued her from her father and her brother. He’d talked it over with Carole Hunt, not once but several times; he’d pretty well conceded it was going to happen, but still had his doubts about it. Not for the first time he found himself thinking that it might be best just to go ahead, do it, and let the chips fall where they might. If everything happened to work out, fine; the big thing between them would be a thing of the past. But if they didn’t happen to work out – well, there were plenty of things that could go wrong, including hurting her in a way that he didn’t want to see her hurt. If that happened, he realized that he could screw up things for himself royally in the process.

As the days went on, Cody thought about it more and more, but mostly kept his thoughts to himself as she drove the pickup. However, as her confidence as a driver increased he felt that he could talk with her some more, but still he tried to stay away from that subject for fear it would lead to someplace he really didn’t want to go, at least not just yet.

Often they talked about college. Between them they were about ninety percent settled on going to Southern Michigan University, at least if both of them could get accepted. They’d looked at some other schools over the course of the past month or so, including Lake State, but none seemed to have the advantages of the school down in Hawthorne. On this particular afternoon, they were talking about it again as they came back from Three Pines.

“You know,” Cody commented, “when you get right down to it, we’re not exactly sure what we’re talking about. We might get down there and find that we don’t like the town, don’t like some aspect of the school, or something. I wouldn’t mind seeing the place, just so we have a better idea of what we’re talking about.”

“That’s true,” Janice replied from behind the steering wheel, “but we’ve agreed that there’s no real point in going down when only summer classes are in session.”

“The heck of it is that it’s going to be a long day to drive, and a long day back. That means if we’re going to go for a look we’re going to have to take another day at least to feel the place out. Even if we use part of a weekend, that means at least two days, maybe three out of school next fall.”

“It would mean two, maybe three days that we wouldn’t have to go to school,” she pointed out. “Cody, I’m looking forward to not having to go to high school anymore.

“I am, too. As much as we’ve started looking forward to going to college, our last year in high school is just beginning to seem like something to get over with. I wish this was next year and it was behind us. I sure wish that we were heading down there for real, but at the same time I wish I knew what we’re getting ourselves into.”

“Well, there’s no reason we couldn’t. We might not be able to find out everything we want to know, but at least we could find out what the town is like.”

“I suppose,” he shrugged, “but we’ll still have to make the trip again next fall.”

“Maybe not,” she pointed out. “I mean, if we get there and discover something we really don’t like, then there’d be no point in going back.”

“True.”

“Besides, it would be another place to go driving. I don’t know about you, Cody, but I wouldn’t mind going somewhere else and seeing something new. Cody, do you realize that the farthest I’ve ever been from Spearfish Lake is Camden? And the first time I was there was when they took me there in the ambulance!”

“Yes,” he shook his head. He knew it, but still couldn’t get his mind around not ever being as far away as Camden. “When you put it like that, maybe it’s time for a road trip.”

“I could get in a lot of good driving, and some of it in conditions like we don’t have around here,” she said to reinforce her argument. “I’ve hardly even driven on four-lanes at all, other than the bypass around Camden, and that doesn’t count for much.”

“That’s about as good a reason as any to do it,” he agreed. “You know, what we could do is stretch it out for a few more days. There are other schools and other stuff to see and do along the way, we might as well not just blow right by them like we’d have to do if we’re taking off from school. I’ve seen some of the sights, but not all I want to.”

“It sounds like fun.”

“I think so too. The thing of it is that it’s a little closer to go to Hawthorne through Chicago than down through the Lower Peninsula, but that means a lot of heavy traffic. We’d avoid most of it by going the longer way, across the Mackinac Bridge. I’ve never driven in traffic as heavy as it gets in Chicago, either. The last time we were there I was real little and it was really scary. We could do it if we felt like it, I suppose, but we wouldn’t have to. Either way, it’s going to cost us some money, too.”

“We’ve got it to spend,” she replied practically. “We’ve been working all summer, and about all either of us have spent money on is ammunition and gas for the truck. We’re going to burn the gas either way.”

“That’s true, too,” he smiled, getting to like the idea more and more. “I’ll tell you another thing, the Michigan free pistol championships are down someplace outside of Lansing on Sunday. I’m qualified for them, but I never thought about going till right now. It’d be a little higher-level competition than around here, and I probably wouldn’t win anything, but it would be good experience and might be fun to check out.”

“What else could we do along the way?”

“Oh, there’s lots of stuff. There’s several neat beaches right along US-2 on the way over to the bridge, but they might not appreciate you wearing one of your thong bikinis on them. Then there’s the bridge itself, Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. As far as that goes, it probably would only be another couple hundred miles or so to go down to Cedar Point, check out a bunch of rides and see if we can find Shay. I’ve kind of envied him being down there all summer and getting to do that kind of stuff. If we came back through Chicago, well, there’s all kinds of stuff to do there, and maybe we could go through Wisconsin Dells. We were there once when I was real little and it was pretty neat, although it was kind of out of the way. I’ll bet it wouldn’t take much talking with Mom and Dad to get some more ideas.”

“I’m sold, Cody. Those are all things that I’ve never been able to do, never even dreamed that I’d have the chance to do.”

“I’m sold, too. Now all we have to do is sell Mom and Dad on the idea.”

Over dinner that evening – which Janice and Cody cooked, as they often had over the course of the summer – it didn’t prove to be a tough sell. “It sounds like such a good idea I’d be half tempted to go with you,” Candice told them. “The only thing is that I’ll have to watch the store while you’re gone, and besides you two need a little adventure by yourselves.”

“The only question I can see,” John pointed out, “is, whether you can get off from the police station, Cody.”

“I can,” Cody replied. “I called up Charlie as soon as we got back this afternoon. He said he had come to depend on having me there, but when I mentioned the state free pistol championships, he changed his mind real quick. He’s even giving me a little sponsorship from the department.”

“Sounds like a good deal, then,” John nodded. “Is there going to be any trouble with you carrying the pistols in the truck?”

“Shouldn’t be,” Cody told him. “I’ll be carrying the pistols locked in the tool locker in the back of the truck, so that makes it legal in Michigan and still shouldn’t be a problem if we don’t come back through Michigan.”

“The only other minor objection I can think of is that, Janice, you might want to wait till you get your regular driver’s license.”

“Cody and I talked it over,” she replied. “And we think I can make do with the permit for now. Besides, I don’t want to get the permanent license until my name change goes through. I want it to read ‘Archer,’ not ‘Lufkin.’”

“You know,” Candice said, “it’s going to be expensive for you to get a motel room every night. They’re real busy this time of the year and the rates are always pretty high. Maybe what you ought to do is take a tent and a couple sleeping bags from the rental stocks at the store. Maybe a camp stove, or something. That would save you some money, both on motels and on food.”

“Could be,” Cody said. “I never thought about that.”

“You mean go camping?” Janice smiled. “I’d love to! That’s something else I’ve never done. I sell the gear in the store and talk about it all the time to customers, but I really don’t know much about it, and it sounds like fun.”

“You have to have learned something about it after having worked at the store all summer,” Candice grinned. “Now you get some practical experience.”

Cody and Janice spent the rest of the evening on the Internet, looking for places that they wanted to visit and places where they could camp cheaply, trying to work out their itinerary. Not surprisingly, the list got longer as they worked on it, and it began to look like they were going to be gone several days. Candice helped them out by heading down to the store and bringing back a long list of places in northern Michigan and northern Wisconsin where they could camp for free in state and national forests and occasionally elsewhere, all accumulated from customer stories over the years. More and more, it began to seem like a real adventure, a real expedition for the two.

What with everything, it took them most of the day to get things together. Cody and Jan both had to work in the morning, but the time was not wasted. In Cody’s case, Charlie went through the department’s training stocks and gave him enough nine-millimeter Parabellum and .22 caliber match ammunition to get him through the state championships and get in a little practice besides. While Cody and Charlie were dealing with that, Janice and Candice went through the stock of rental gear at Spearfish Lake Outfitters, coming up with a couple good sized sleeping bags that would zip together, a good three-person tent, an alcohol camp stove and a number of other useful items. They spent much of the afternoon gathering and packing clothes and other things to take with them. That included a trip to the Spearfish Lake Super Market for food to take – running to cans, but with them taking the pickup and not a dog team, weight was not an issue.

In the morning they loaded the gear under the pickup’s bed cover, locked the pistols in the tool box under it, filled a cooler with soda pop and water, then stopped off at the Holiday station to buy a bag of ice to keep things cold. In another few minutes, they were off on their great adventure.

Although there were places they had to be at given times – the free pistol match near Lansing and meeting with Shay on his day off at Cedar Point the main ones – they had plenty of time and no need to put in long driving days. So rather than take the direct route they took the long way.

They started out by heading east for Marquette and Northern Michigan University, which was on the list of schools they hadn’t out and out rejected, although it was way down the list from Southern Michigan. They didn’t spend much time there, only driving around the campus a bit to get a feel for the place. It didn’t take them long to agree that, while it seemed like a nice place, it looked like it would be even colder than Spearfish Lake in the winter, and they wouldn’t mind a climate a little less extreme.

Soon they were back on the road, heading east. Half an hour or so to the east near a town by the name of Au Train, they found a huge beach next to the road, with Lake Superior yawning far out into the distance. “Look at that!” Janice said as she pulled off the road into a parking area. “It’s like the ocean!”

“Just a lake,” Cody smiled. “It’s not the only one we’ll see on this trip.”

“Yes, but it’s the first Great Lake that I’ve ever seen. You want to go swimming?”

“I don’t know. It’s supposed to be pretty cold.”

“I don’t care,” she smiled. “I want to say I’ve been in it.”

“There’s no place to change.”

“I’ll make it work,” she insisted. And she did, mostly as Cody just stood back and marveled at the way a girl could get a bikini on under her shorts and T-shirt without revealing anything. He soon realized that he was going to have to go in the lake with her, if for no more reason than to not let her show him up. With a towel, the use of the pickup’s door and a little good luck he managed to get his swimsuit on without revealing anything himself.

The lake proved to be awfully cold, as expected, and they didn’t stay in long. The wind coming off the lake was cold as well, but on the sunny side of the sand dunes along the shore they were out of the wind, and they took advantage of that to warm up, playing in the loose sand and having a ball. Of course that got sand all over both of them, and the only way to clean up and keep from messing up the pickup was to go back into the chilly lake again to wash it all off. They went back up to the pickup, dried off with towels, and without much discussion just decided to pull on T-shirts for a while instead of going through the hassles of changing clothes again.

They pressed on eastward to Munising and the Pictured Rocks. They’d heard that the boat ride along the rocks was a sight not to be missed, so even though their money was tight and the afternoon was wearing on, they took the tour and agreed that it was worth it. They headed on east for a ways, then headed off into the woods to find a place to camp for the night, a place that came highly recommended on the confidential list of free places to camp maintained at Spearfish Lake Outfitters.

It proved to be everything it was cracked up to be. It was well off the main road on a faint two-rut, but with four wheel drive on the pickup it was no great trick to get down to the spot, which was close to a clear, fast-running little stream.

In spite of his mother and her job, Cody only had limited experience with camping. After they moved to Spearfish Lake they started to make two or three overnight trips a year, just around the local area here and there, but it had tailed off in recent years and they hadn’t done it at all the previous summer. Within that limited experience Cody had managed to learn the basics of setting up a tent and things like that. Soon, the two of them were searching around the woods for some down dead wood to make a little campfire after they used the alcohol stove to heat a large can of stew that they shared for supper.

Once they were done with supper and had the dishes cleaned up and put away, Cody introduced Janice to the marvels and the mysteries of the campfire. It didn’t take him long to get it going in the failing light. It was getting cooler now and the bugs were starting to come out, so the shorts and T-shirts were exchanged for jeans and flannel shirts. They sat on the ground in front of the fire, just watching the flames dance, leaning up against each other and not talking much. “Cody,” she whispered finally, “I never knew it could be like this.”

“Neat, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I know this trip is a long way from being over, but it’s already going to be too soon.”

“I know what you mean,” he agreed. “It’s nice to be out by ourselves like this, isn’t it?”

“Very nice,” she agreed. “Cody, we’ve spent the night together a lot since you brought me home, but do you realize that this will be the first night that your parents haven’t been right up the hall?”

“I realize that,” he replied, expecting that he was about to receive another suggestion that they have sex. In fact, with no one else around, it was more tempting than before, maybe too tempting. In spite of his reservations, she had a very appealing body that he’d been close to a lot, and there was no doubt that she was willing.

She didn’t reply, at least with words. She just leaned over to him, put her free arm around him and pulled his lips close to hers. They had kissed goodnight a good many times before, kissing on the lips, but this was a whole lot hotter kiss than that; their open mouths met, and for the first time their tongues entwined, exploring each other’s with an urgency that was like nothing they’d ever experienced before. Helplessly, he felt his hand going to her shirt covered breast, something he’d often looked at but never dared touch before.

The kissing and touching and making out went on for a long time – how long neither of them could tell but however long it was, it wasn’t long enough. Cody was really enjoying it; this was far and away the furthest they’d ever gone and right at that moment his reservations could not have kept him from going as far as he really wanted.

Finally Janice pulled away from him. “Cody,” she said. “You know what I want, don’t you?”

“You don’t have to ask,” he said.

“I understand,” she said, “and believe me, I really want to and I’m as ready as ever if you want to. But I just started on my period and I don’t think we want to mess up the sleeping bags like that, so maybe we’d better not tonight.”

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