It is a dark and stormy night. A black Hummer with tinted windows turns off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and heads deeper into the Allegheny National Forest.
John McCain thinks he is in the driver seat. He thinks it is his turn to drive. Dick Cheney, shotgun pointed out the passenger side window, is happy to let him think so, but secretly has the entire trip planned out in his head.
In the back seat, Sarah Palin is whistling softly and slowly, trying to cover the sound she is trying not to make while loading her rifle. She thinks the boys don't think she is capable of succeeding on this hunting trip, that they think she thinks she needs them. But she knows she doesn't. She remembers the chill she sent down the spines of the pageant judges with her performance as Lady MacBeth. The rifle's safety is on for the moment, but she has practiced her moves many times over the years while hunting with her husband. She can fire faster than a blink of an eye -- which, by the way, never happens to her.
Nervously twitching, McCain keeps a tight grip on the wheel. He is trying to anticipate the next direction that Cheney will give him. He wants so hard to impress Cheney, but is afraid that if he messes up in any way, Cheney would do the same thing that he did to.... McCain shakes his head to chase that thought away.
Cheney is laughing to himself. He is laughing at McCain -- how he, without saying a word, got McCain to fork over the money for gas (quite a lot, as it turned out). Hell, McCain even paid for lunch, though he doesn't realize that Cheney made him do that, too. Cheney is so happy with his thoughts that he barely even notices Palin in the back seat.
But he should. If her grip is like steel, her ambition is like titanium. This is a dangerous trip, she thinks to herself, not with fear, but with confidence that at least she will make it back. She makes eye contact with Cheney through the rear-view mirror and their eyes lock. Neither one blinks.
McCain is very happy with himself. He thinks he did a great job asking Palin to come along. He thinks that he is her mentor and that she appreciates the relationship. He doesn't yet get that, to her, he is just in her way. Once they get far enough into the trip, she doesn't need him anymore.
Darkness falls. The Hummer pulls off the road. McCain turns on the floodlight and points it toward the woods, in hopes of blinding an easy target. He doesn't notice the click of the safety on the rifle in the back seat. He is thinking about the fourth passenger -- the one they ditched at the rest stop just across the Ohio border. He is thinking about how sure he was Cheney was just joking until it was too late to go back. He is thinking about how poor George is doing, left behind in a cloud of dust. When he first took the wheel, he thought of going back for him, but Cheney's cold stare made him drive on ahead. He feels some remorse, since George had invited him on the trip in the first place, but that was quickly stifled by the tension in the Hummer.
Meanwhile, Palin, eyes still locked on Cheney's, lowers the window on her side of the Hummer and points the rifle into the darkness. She is keenly aware that she is probably the only person in the world not afraid to hunt with Dick Cheney...
(and now the camp counsellor turns the flashlight on you -- its your turn to continue the story...)