Fear Of The Dark, a novel by Joe Lake.
So far: Julie and Robert take an evening stroll in the park away from their mobile home when Julie notices someone stalking them who looks incongruously like Barack Obama. Robert races to confront the stalker and rips a rubber mask off the person to find that it’s a blonde woman.
Robert held the full-head mask of Obama in his hands. The blonde woman who had worn the mask stared at him with aggression, then turned and ran away into the night. For a moment he thought of following. He had looked into the woman’s eyes and recognised her from somewhere in his past. Someone he had known. The rubber mask felt pliant in his hands. He was amazed as to how well it was made. Then he focused onto the place where Julie was still waiting under one of the park’s lamps.
She came towards him. "What’s this?" She was pointing at the mask.
"It’s a good likeness of the American President. Why would anyone want to stalk and frighten us? Further, I recognised the woman from somewhere."
Julie said, "Throw it away!"
"No, there’ll be DNA evidence if anything happens to us." Robert tucked the Obama rubber mask under his left arm and took Julie’s hand in his. He turned and kissed her hair, then gave her a smile just because she was Julie, the best thing that had ever happened to him. "We’ll go back to the Winnebago. I don’t think the woman will bother us again. Unless she wants the mask."
"She’d have to apologise."
"Let’s run," he said. He was worried for not being able to remember where he had seen the blonde. As they came towards the beach where their Winnebago was parked, they had to cross a busy road. They waited for a lull in the traffic and then went on. "There you go," Robert said, "us running from a dumb blonde." He checked himself because that was Julie’s hair colour too. Despite the fact that he thought that he liked brunettes, he had always dated blondes.
Julie had stopped and was staring into the darkness of the park across the road. "The woman in black is still there," she said.
(To be continued next month.)
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