Groping his way through darkness， certain he was no<br >longer on the right path， Jonny suddenly saw a square<br >of light appear al~ead of him--the window of a house.<br >His long scramble~rough unrelieved blackness was al-<br >most over.<br > Looking at it from the road， uneasy in this odd rural<br >area still so close to the city it did not seem like proper<br >country， he had thought everything would be straight-<br >forward. The drive， well used and wide， had curved<br >sleekly in under the trees. The solitary street lamp had<br >illuminated the notice at the gate. Rivendell Community，<br >it had read， Kia Ora， Welcome.<br > Underneath this were the names of the five families<br >making up the community， and there， quite clearly， it<br >said Carl and Ruth Benedicta and Family. There had been<br >nothing to suggest that， only a little way from the road，<br >great trees would press in around the drive and that the<br >cloudy night would become completely impenetrable.<br > "I m not that drunk，" Jonny had argued aloud. But<br >nothing had argued back at him out of the darkness.<br ><br >