EXCERPT
When Benny came back downstairs, Dena was gone. He peered out toward the pool area to see if she was talking to her parents, but saw nobody at the table where they had been. He walked out to the pool area, cupping his sketchbook under his wrist as if hiding it. Most the people in the party were crowded around the pool, cheering loudly. As Benny worked his way through the crowd, he bumped his head on more than one of the "cornhead" foam hats partygoers were wearing. A group of burly college-age men were preparing a ritual sacrifice of an inflatable alligator, in effigy of the mascot of the University of Florida. The crowd was chanting "Go Huskers! Go Huskers!" as three men were circling the floating alligator. Benny joined in the chant, scanning the crowd in the unlikely event he'd find Dena there. A man straddling the gator lifted his arms above his head, and yelling "Huskers!" plunged downward with a broken beer bottle, into the gator. The gator deflated and the man gently sunk until standing on the floor of the pool. The crowd chanted "Huskers! Huskers!" and the executioner lifted his arms in celebration, the broken bottle still in his hand. He was bleeding from a cut on his forearm, but didn't seem to notice or care.