HE GETS STUNG BY A YELLOW JACKET while swimming a final time at the KOA—a yellow jacket he was aware of, having seen it perched on the railing a short time before, just sitting listlessly on the super-shined chrome as though dying slowly beneath the sun’s brutal rays. It stings him when he puts a hand over it while climbing from the water, having forgotten about it while swimming, while wondering what Tilly looks like in her bathing suit and her birthday suit, too; while wondering what he’ll find beneath her towel, like the girl in The Giant Spider Invasion, when the time comes—lines of grace or a demonic sublime?
He makes a point not to show how badly it hurts as he grabs his towel and heads for the trailer, knowing the slightest vulnerability will draw the attention of Sheldon and John
