FOURTEEN

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL

BLACK HILLS REGION, SOUTH DAKOTA

 

 

 

 

 

ELIZABETH REACHED THE BASE of the monolith, muscles twitching with fatigue, nerves shattered. Thankfully, she had thought to bring water. Retrieving a bottle from her backpack, she drank deeply. She removed her iPhone from a rear pocket of her blue jeans, damp and clingy with sweat and dirt. Holding the device aloft, she searched for a signal. Here, at the base of the rock face, nothing, nada, a flat line where she should have four bars.

“Fuck!” she said. Then “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” this time more meaningfully.

Feeling vulnerable, abandoned, and very alone, at this precise moment, Elizabeth Stein hated Sarah Petty.