Rear-View Mirror — Caroline B. Cooney

A warm October day, a car-and an excuse to drive. That ranks right up there with bread, wine and thou, thought Susan Seton as she sat in her snug little diesel automobile, a half-dozen doughnut holes in a white paper bag beside her and the fuel tank more than two-thirds full. That morning Dr. Fiori, the dentist for whom Susan worked for, had announced that he was feeling under the weather and closed his office for the day. With her husband, Roger, away on business, the prospect of time off loomed warm and wonderful in Susan's eyes, she decided to drive through the countryside in search of dried weeds instead of doing laundry. Meandering in her car along a remote road, she discovered the perfect field, waist-deep in dried gold weeds. The scene was marred only by the presence of two men busily engaged in putting a tiny, struggling child in a big black plastic garbage bag. Startled by her screams, the men retreated-and Susan, reacting quickly, grabbed the child and ran frantically back to her car. But the men pursued, laughing and jeering in a dreadful way until they finally caught up with her. They are in my car, Susan realized with horror. What happens then turns the day filled with promise into a nightmare of terror for Susan, who in a brief afternoon endures a series of appalling experiences that changes her entire future life.