“Batteries are running down.” That was an explanation even Ross could understand. Much to his relief, they didn’t question him further.
They staggered out onto the Rim just as the sun began to show itself on the eastern horizon. The few hardy tourists who braved the hour to view the sunrise ignored the weary troop of youngsters and their two adult companions.
If nothing else, Ross reflected, hauling a dead alien around the country sure played havoc with orderly sleep habits.
They bade farewell to the helpful scouts, who marched spiritedly into the Bright Angel Lodge in search of the adults who would drive them home. Caroline gave thanks and bade farewell to their leader with a kiss that instantly ruined him for the college girls he usually dated. Ross Ed admired him for not staggering off the walkway as he led his charges into the building.
Caroline’s van waited where they had parked it, undisturbed and as far as they could tell, free of surveillance. Nevertheless, they approached with caution, half expecting men in sunglasses and coats to rush them from half a dozen different directions. All they encountered was a sleepy family of five and a couple of white-tailed does looking for an early-morning handout.
Unlocking the driver’s side door, Caroline boosted herself into the seat. The van was unoccupied. Taking the seat opposite, Ross Ed removed Jed from the backpack and settled the lumpy body onto his lap. There was no reason to do so, of course, but in a perverse way he felt that the little alien was entitled to a view.
“Hey,” he told Caroline in response to the look she gave him, “he spent all that time bouncing around on my back and didn’t make a single complaint. I can’t just dump him on the floor.”
“Oh, to be sure.” The engine turned over smoothly and she let it warm a moment in the cool morning air. “That’s all right, Ross Ed. I like my men a little crazy.” She patted him fondly on the shoulder, then did the same to the alien corpus. “My aliens, too.”
He tensed slightly, but once again Jed failed to respond to her touch. There was no rhyme or reason to the alien suit’s reactions and he knew he ought to stop worrying about it. Some people it affected, others it ignored. Predicting how it was going to react was something that was clearly beyond him.
They kept a look out as Caroline pulled out of the lot. As near as they could tell, no one was following them. Leaving the park, she accelerated down the long, dull straightaway that in an hour or so would link up with Interstate 40.
Morning was clear and calm. Caroline suggested that instead of turning west on the interstate and heading immediately for California, they go through Flagstaff and down into Oak Creek Canyon.
“I’ve always wanted to see Sedona,” she explained. “While I was living in Safford people kept telling me how beautiful it is.”
“Never heard of it.” Ross Ed shifted the alien body on his lap.
“We have to turn south sooner or later anyway if we’re going to San Diego.”
He shrugged. “It’s your van, Caroline.”
Her expression turned somber. “I know, but they’re your troubles, Ross Ed. I wouldn’t make any decisions without your okay.”
He smiled appreciatively. “Let’s do it.”
Oak Creek Canyon was a south-running green-veined slash in the surface of Mother Earth. The small river at the bottom was lined with giant sycamores, oaks, and all manner of lush vegetation that belied the alpine landscape which covered the spectacular surrounding buttes. When the canyon finally opened out into a vast spray of carmine, russet, and vermilion cliffs and pinnacles, the sight was truly breathtaking.
A small restaurant calling itself Shugrue’s Hillside served up a fabulous view and the best food they’d had in days. The location also let them keep a simultaneous eye on the van and the single highway running through town. There was no sign of any pursuit; no solemn-visaged military types in mufti, no wide-eyed saucer fruitcakes, no homicidal grandparents from the heartland. For the first time in a week he felt comparatively safe.
Although they knew it would behoove them not to linger in any one place for too long, they let the waiter convince them that they simply must drive up to the local airport. Scraped our of a fiat-topped mountain, it afforded the most sublime view in town.
After Caroline finished her second fresh raspberry mousse in a summer basket made of chocolate meringue, they made the short drive. Following the waiter’s directions, they parked in the airport motel lot and started along the trail which led to the designated overlmk, Ross Ed once again not trusting Jed to the locked van and packing him on his back. The rock beneath their feet was the color of powdered rust.
Though it was a brief hike, they were still surprised to find half a dozen visitants of varying age and gender seated on bare rock in a neat semicircle facing the sweeping panorama of mountains and town. Clad in low-cut fringed buckskin, beads, sandals, and a headband straight out of the sixties, the young woman in her late twenties who had been sitting cross-legged facing the semicircle rose to greet them.
“Sweet blessings attend you.” Instead of shaking Ross Ed’s hand, she bowed slightly. “I am Sharona.”
“Uh, nice to meet you. I’m Ross Ed, this here is Caroline.”
Sharona turned and gestured with her right hand. “Please, won’t you join the circle? We were just on the verge of invoking.”
A dubious Caroline noted that the five figures who formed the semicircle were now holding hands. “Just a second. What kind of ‘circle’ is this?”
The woman smiled beatifically, an expression which seemed permanently affixed to her face. “Why, it is the circle of contemplation of the Great Mysterium, of course.” She made an effort to conceal her condescension, but not much of one.
“Sure it is,” Ross Ed acknowledged.
“It may be that as strangers you do not know that Sedona is one of the seven great power centers of the planet Earth. There are many vortexes here. Meditating atop one can improve one’s health, state of mind, and financial prospects, as well as providing insight into the Great Mysterium. On such a journey it is useful to have a guide. I am such a guide,” she concluded, without becoming (or any other sort of) modesty.
Twitching as if he’d just spotted a rattler coiled beneath the bush in front of him, Ross Ed started to back away. It was an instinctive reaction (not to mention the pertinent one), but a curious Caroline restrained him.
“Hold on now, Ross Ed. It’s a dynamite view, and a little contemplation of the Great Mysterium certainly won’t hurt you.”
“I dunno about that.” He’d always been leery of people who joined hands in semicircles. But she was right about the view. Besides, what harm could it do? They could enjoy the scenery while studiously ignoring the contemplating.
Putting her palms together in front of her, Sharona blessed their presence while Ross Ed took the occasion to meditate briefly on the surging cleavage her pose revealed. Maybe it was no Great Mysterium, but it was sure worth a moment’s contemplation.
Additional blessings were shared among the assembled as the guide resumed her yoga stance opposite. Resting her palms on her knees, she closed her eyes and began chanting. Now more than ever, Ross Ed’s natural instinct was to get up and run.
Caroline, however, was holding his lefi hand along with the right of the man next to her as she and Ross extended the semicircle. He leaned over and whispered.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Breathe deeply.” Eyes shut tight, Sharona proceeded to demonstrate most impressively. “Close your eyes. Feel the forces rising from within Mother Earth. It them flow into you, through you. Be suffused with the energy so that you may leave herr a better person than when you came!”
Ross whispered again to Caroline, who had her eyes shui. “I’ve got this com on my big left lv. Think this’ll get rid of
“Hush!” She squeezed his hand. “You’re not giving this a fair
Several responses sprang immediately to mind, all of which he sensibly repressed. “How about you? Feel any energy rising?”
