August 8, 1978
Oh Lord, I think I need to confess. I got sucked right into this place, and I’ve been drinking and gambling for real, and I was a terrible example to Lilly. Tell Mama and Daddy I’m sorry I let them down, but thank You that we are leaving today. Bless this trip, Lord. Let Lilly and me get along, help me to be nice to Lawrence who is coming along, and help Lilly not to flirt with him too much. Give my love to Mama and Daddy. Tell them I miss them, and I wish they could have seen Mr. Sinatra last night.
It was hot, with a dry wind blowing from the west. Sally Beth had a little bit of a headache, but she was feeling a lot better in her heart because she knew they were on their way out of this godforsaken place. She and Lilly loaded the car, careful to make room in the trunk for another suitcase. Just as they nudged Sally Beth’s cosmetic case into a corner, Lawrence and Tiffany strolled into sight. They both carried a suitcase. He also had a smaller bag slung over his shoulder.
“Hey!” said Lawrence. “Look who’s coming with us!”
“Oh!” said Lilly, looking as if she had just eaten a green persimmon. She glared at Tiffany, who was smiling at Lawrence, so Lilly’s dirty look went completely wasted.
“Isn’t it funny?” Tiffany turned her smile toward Sally Beth and Lilly. “We just had a big fight two days ago, and then last night, he came over and asked me to come with him and meet his family!” Sally Beth thought she had never seen a prettier face, or hair, either, for that matter. She wondered if those highlights were natural. It looked like a million lights of copper and gold woven among the dark brown curls. It was just too bad that she dressed so unattractively: cowboy boots and an awful muumuu that covered her up from her collarbone to her calves and made her look like she weighed at least three hundred pounds. Such a pretty girl, otherwise, and an air of kindness, and so in love with this guy who didn’t treat her right.
“Lawrence said it was time I met his parents. And to think I thought he wasn’t serious about me!” Tiffany slipped her arm around Lawrence’s back and leaned toward him, eyes rich with love.
Lilly made a funny noise, then, after a pause, said, “I don’t think there’ll be room for all of us and our luggage, too. And there’s two guitars in the back seat.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m good at packing, and all we have is just one suitcase each. If we have to, we’ll just put them under our feet.” Lawrence threw his suitcase into the trunk, and then shoved in Tiffany’s soft-sided bag, massaging and prodding it into a shapeless mass.
While he shoved, Tiffany smiled at Lilly. “Lilly, thank you so much for offering to take us! I’ve been wanting to get out of this place for the longest time. We promise we won’t be a bother.” She laughed, a rich, musical sound, and added, “At least we’ll try.” Sally Beth found herself really liking her new travel companion.
It was obvious by the set of Lilly’s shoulders that she was mad as all get-out. It was going to be a long trip to Memphis with her in this mood, but Sally Beth hoped it was going to be enough of an adventure to get her over her pique. After all, today alone, they were going to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. What more could they ask for?
Sally Beth found the desert no less inhospitable as they drove across Nevada. It was very hot, and the air was so dry her mouth went cottony, and she wondered how Lilly had managed to live here for six months—indeed, how anyone could live here at all. But they were headed toward the mountains, and she thought she would feel better when they began to climb. She would find a tree to sit under and get out from under this relentless sun. Restless, she turned on the radio, but no sound came out.
“Radio’s busted,” Lilly said.
“Oh, yeah. Tiffany, will you hand me one of those guitars? We need to have some music.”
“Sure. Here. And I have a harmonica.” Tiffany handed Sally Beth the Gibson, then, before Sally Beth could even get tuned up, she put the harmonica to her lips, launching into a wailing version of “Me and Bobby McGee”. The air seemed to cool with the whine of the harmonica, and Sally Beth warmed it up again by picking fast to keep up. Lilly opened her throat to let the music slide out while Lawrence pulled a camera out of the case and began snapping pictures. He took advantage of the wavering light bouncing through the car, taking pictures of Tiffany and sometimes leaning over the back of the seat to focus on Lilly and Sally Beth. Sally Beth got tired of him asking her to turn around and smile, but she was feeling so happy she didn’t care. They were on their way to the Grand Canyon, the place her daddy had always wanted to see, and he would be pleased to know that his baby girls were going to see it for him. It felt as if they were on an important mission.
As they neared Boulder City, the terrain became more unfriendly. Sally Beth searched the landscape for trees, but the only things in view were the same scrabbly soil, big rocks, and little bushes scattered here and there. Past the town, the scant vegetation gave way to towering piles of red, fist-sized rocks heaped on both sides of the road, and then, to her dismay, the landscape was further violated by hundreds of high voltage power lines and towers. To her, it was awful: the worst unnatural industrial scenery imaginable. Gaps in the hills of boulders afforded glimpses of blue water between the power lines, but it did not soothe Sally Beth’s parched soul. It didn’t even look like real, thirst-quenching water, but simply a swathe of blue paper stuck upon the miserable landscape.
Hoover Dam, enormous and impressive, loomed before them. It might have been considered beautiful in a man-made sort of way, but Sally Beth found it bleak, even suffocating. The earth all around the startlingly blue water was not earth at all, but just rock, glaring, hot, and desolate.
“Whoa, look at this!” exclaimed Lawrence, impressed. “Let’s get out and go swimming down at the lake. And we can take a tour of the dam. This is incredible!”
“Huh-uh.” Lilly shook her head. “I don’t even want to get out to look.” Staring straight ahead, she gripped the steering wheel with white fingers as she slowly drove across the slim, silver thread of the dam.
“Hey!” protested Lawrence. “You’re not even going to stop?”
“Nope,” replied Lilly. “It’s time to head for the hills and find some green grass.”
They stopped for lunch shortly after they crossed the dam and into Arizona. Over dry hamburgers and Cokes, Sally Beth tried to keep the conversation light “Are you two taking a vacation? Will you be going back? Or are you staying in St. Louis for good?”
“Oh, I guess we’ll be going back,” laughed Lawrence. “We’ve both got pretty good jobs in Vegas. At least we did. They probably won’t like the fact that I didn’t show up for work today, and that I won’t be back for a few weeks, but everybody needs bartenders, and they’re used to us taking off now and then. I’m not worried.”
“What do you do, Tiffany?”
“I work for a Mercedes dealership.”
“Oh really? Do you sell cars?”
“Sort of,” Lawrence snorted. “I mean she sells cars. She makes rich old farts think she comes with the deal if they buy one.” Tiffany scowled at him.
“Lawrence, you make me sound like a hooker.” She turned to Sally Beth. “I help customers decide on accessories and interiors when they custom order a car. I’m sort of a Mercedes interior designer.” Sally Beth had never heard of such a thing.
“Is that a common thing?” asked Lilly, bewildered.
“Not really. Just in high-end areas, like Vegas or Los Angeles. People get real picky about how their cars are accessorized. You’d be surprised.”
“Yeah. They’re pretending to pick out the color of their leather upholstery, and old Tiffany makes them think she’ll be all over the back seat with them if they choose alligator hide or ostrich. She gets them to spend an extra grand or two.” He winked at Tiffany. “Tell them about your showgirl days.”
“I was not a showgirl. I was in a band.”
“That’s not what I heard,” sniggered Lawrence. “I heard you had a real stunner of an act going until they shut you down.” He grinned at the others. “Seems Tiffany here had herself a little run-in with the law.”
“I did not. I quit as soon as I found out minors aren’t supposed to perform in the clubs.”
“Not what I heard,” countered Lawrence.
“Well, you heard wrong. It’s getting late. If we’re going to get to the Grand Canyon before dark, we’d better move on,” Tiffany said, standing abruptly and tugging at the neck of her muumuu to cover the cleavage that had begun to show.
“We need to get gas,” Lilly said as they left the restaurant.
Sally Beth shook her head. “I checked before we got out. It looks like we have more than half a tank.”
“It always says that,” countered Lilly. “It’s stuck there. You just have to get gas every couple hundred miles so you’ll be sure not to run out.”
After they had stopped for gas, they drove fast until the mountains finally yielded up cooler air, and, Oh, thank You, God! Trees. Although they were not the lush, rolling, uninterrupted green of the stands of the forests at home, Sally Beth was glad to see them. At first, these trees reminded her of someone who had had a bad hair transplant, with each one standing singly, isolated from one another, with bare scalp showing between them. But when she rolled down the window, she breathed in the essence of pine, and her parched soul settled and soothed, and then, to her delight, the scent of rain came billowing upon the wind. As they reached the outskirts of Flagstaff, a deluge began. Gusts of wind and rain rocked and buffeted the car. Lilly turned on the windshield wipers, but because they worked only on the driver’s side, all Sally Beth could see was water streaming down the windshield in front of her.
“We’re getting close to Flagstaff, Lilly. You’re supposed to turn here someplace, on 64, and I can’t see a thing in this rain. What’s wrong with your windshield wipers?”
“Oh, it’s busted on that side. But that never bothered me because my side works fine. I’ll just drive real slowly, and I’ll keep a lookout. Oh, look—here it is. Hot dog! The Grand Canyon in sixty miles!”
Sally Beth’s heart lifted as she looked at the rain and saw the dark forms of trees gliding by. Las Vegas, the sin, the heat, the dry, dry desert was behind her, and the Grand Canyon was before her. She took a deep breath of the moist, cool air.
And then they were there. Just as they entered the park, the rain rolled back as suddenly as it had come. The sparse, pinyon forest fell away to reveal miles and miles of rain and cloud and sun, spires of rock and empty space, light and shadow of every possible and impossible hue. When Sally Beth jumped out to look into the great chasm and felt the cold wind rushing upward, she nearly fell to her knees, suddenly feeling insignificant, overwhelmed with awe at the glory. It was not brown, as she had come to believe it would be, but all colors, red and purple and golden, and the air was pungent with the scent of juniper and pine. She nearly wept with gratitude when a rainbow appeared, flooding down from above the tallest peak into the abyss. It was everything she could have hoped for, and more. Her eyes roved and worshipped.
The rain did not stand abated for long. After a short glimpse, they were forced back into the car by an icy downpour, so they drove back to the small community outside the park where accommodations would be cheaper. After an awkward moment when it became evident that Lawrence and Tiffany were planning on sharing a room, Sally Beth decided not to be a prude about it. She registered for a double for herself and Lilly, then stepped away from the desk so Lawrence and Tiffany could have some privacy as they arranged for their room. After that, they ate a quick dinner, then put on their jackets and went back to the rim to watch the sunset.
Slowly, dusk rose up from the great rift, spreading enchantment and mystery over the spires within the canyon, until at last it was full dark below while the last glow settled upon the rock facing them. The sky turned from blue to turquoise to indigo, and the stone cathedral around them deepened into purples and mauves.
The stars came out, pricking their way one by one into the deep blue dusk, and then, suddenly, the light from the sun completely disappeared, and the wash of the pale Milky Way stretched across the sky, a glowing iridescence, a mother of pearl milkiness that did not so much spangle the sky, but draped across it like the finest of silk illusion.
Dear Lord, thank You, thank You THANK YOU for letting me see this place! I am just overwhelmed by Your goodness, Your beauty, Your grandeur, Your glory. Sally Beth wondered if her parents could see all this from heaven. Yes, of course. Maybe that’s why we came here. They wanted us to see it, and they arranged it. It’s like a gift from them.
August 9, 1978, The Grand Canyon
The early morning was bright with stars. Sally Beth woke Lilly, whispering through the darkness. “Come on, let’s go back and see the sunrise. Lilly groaned before she threw back the covers and sat up, but she did not need coaxing. They were out the door within five minutes, traveling back to the rim where they sat on a bench to wait.
The sun came up slowly into the frigid morning from behind a promontory to their right, turning the sky from inky dark to a dusky wash of pearly gray, then pink, to sudden daylight above them. Below, the darkness still gaped at them, but slowly lost its battle against the pearlescent light that probed even the darkest corners. Then the sky blazed, and so did the canyon, brilliantly red, gold, pink, green, purple, and mauve. Birds swept across their line of vision, squawking, winging their way westward, chased by the light. And then true daylight began to pierce the depths, pushing the darkness down and spreading color at their feet. When the breeze came up sharp and cold, the beauty seemed to freeze in a brief moment of chilly stillness, and then gave way to awakening woodland sounds and smells. In a way, it reminded Sally Beth of home, although it looked and sounded and smelled very different from the mountains of West Virginia. But it held the same rightness, the same honesty that made her soul settle into a peaceful place that she had not seen for days. She stood at the very edge, her toes bridging out into the vastness, and felt the texture of the cold, searching wind winging its way over her skin.
Something new and bright began to stir in Sally Beth as she gazed into the airy abyss. She felt exposed, but instead of feeling vulnerable, she found herself emboldened. This place marked a beginning, an awakening, as she become aware that all the other wonders of the world that she had dreamed about were more than just dreams. They were real, and they were there, waiting for her. If she wanted to, she could see them all. The thought startled her. Until now, her mountains had been not just the center of her universe, but her only reality. This place, yes, even the hot, dry desert, had stretched her imagination, shattering the illusion that home was all there was, all there ever could be. She breathed as deeply as her lungs could expand, inviting the great Grand Canyon to become a part of her.
Not until the sun was fully up and the clear sunlight spangled the air both above and below them did they drive back out of the Park to the motel. They went straight to the café where Tiffany and Lawrence sat eating breakfast as they thumbed through the guidebook.
“Did you go back to the rim?” Tiffany asked.
“Yes,” said Lilly. “The sunrise was beautiful.”
“I wish I had gone with you. Tomorrow, be sure to come get me, okay? Now, what do you want to do today? We’re thinking we want to hike the South Kaibab trail, at least to Skeleton Point. We probably shouldn’t go much farther since we’re getting a late start. What do you think?”
“I don’t have any preference, since I’ve never been here before.” Sally Beth figured any trail they chose would be good.
“I’m not going,” Lilly said mildly.
“Not going?” asked Tiffany. “Why in the world not?”
Sally Beth explained. “Lilly has a problem with heights.” She stopped, feeling that was enough, but Lawrence wanted to know more.
“Why are you afraid of heights, Lilly?”
“I just am. I don’t like it.”
“But the trails aren’t that steep or anything. Come on,” he wheedled. “You’ll enjoy it.”
“No, I won’t. It’s already hot, and any time there’s a ‘spectacular view,’ it means looking down, probably from a narrow trail, and I’m just not going to do it. You can go without me.”
“But we’re here, and it’s silly…” Lawrence began, but Tiffany interrupted.
“Lawrence, she said she didn’t want to go. So just drop it. Now, it’s getting late, so let’s go. Lilly, what will you do while we are gone?”
“Oh, I’ll find plenty to do. Just hang out here, maybe go shopping. I’ll have the car, so you’re on your own. Try not to throw Lawrence off a cliff, or if you do, make sure nobody sees you.”
To Sally Beth’s dismay, they had not made it more than half a mile into the Canyon before thunderclouds rolling in from the west brought lightening, hail, and rain swarming up so fiercely they were forced to turn back.
They caught a shuttle back to the village and made their way through the driving rain to the warmth of the café where they ate lunch, dried out, and strolled through the museums, then went back for coffee and pie. They were just dawdling over the last bites when Lawrence spotted Lilly through the window and waved her in.
She was dressed in new clothes: jeans, cowboy boots, a Western shirt, and a cowboy hat. She looked adorable.
“Lilly!” That is the cutest outfit I ever saw!” exclaimed Sally Beth. You look like you belong out here.”
Lilly giggled. “I know! Isn’t it great?” She twirled around, showing off her new clothes and turquoise cowboy boots. “And I know your birthday isn’t for two days, but I got you an outfit, too. We’ll be on the road after today, so there’s no reason not to celebrate now,” she said, placing two large shopping bags in front of Sally Beth.
“It’s your birthday?” asked Lawrence.
“Yeah, day after tomorrow.”
“The ripe old age of twenty-three! Back home, that’s considered ‘old maid’ territory,” laughed Lilly.
“Shoot, where I come from, you’re an old maid at eighteen,” added Tiffany. She smiled at Lawrence. “It’s a good thing you came along. My family was starting to feel right sorry for me.”
Lawrence’s tight smile and darting eyes were not wasted on Sally Beth. She wished she could tell Tiffany that she could do a whole lot better than this man, but she bit her lip and reminded herself that it wasn’t her business as she picked up Lilly’s packages.
Within seconds, she had forgotten Lawrence. Lilly had outfitted her with a hot pink miniskirt and a white peasant blouse, as well as hot pink cowboy boots, stamped to look like ostrich, with gleaming silver tips at the toes. A matching pink cowboy belt with a shiny pink stone at the buckle completed the ensemble. Sally Beth squealed as she hugged her sister. “I’m going to love strutting around in these, Lilly! Won’t we be a sight in Tucker!”
“You know it, girl!” cried Lilly. Sally Beth thought her heart would burst with happiness.
Tiffany threw on an enormous, orange University of Texas sweatshirt over her voluminous muumuu, and the others fetched warm jackets from the car before walking back to the rocky perimeter to watch the sunset. They settled themselves on a bench, huddling into their jackets against the searching wind as the light seared its way across the tops of the Canyon spires.
After snapping a few pictures, Lawrence sat down beside Tiffany. “Out of film,” he mumbled, then threw his arm around her, stroking her hair and neck. His hand strayed below her collarbone.
“Stop that.” She pulled away.
“What, I can’t touch my girl’s hair?”
“I just don’t like being pawed in public.”
“Good grief. This is hardly pawing. I bet Lilly doesn’t mind it if her boyfriend touches her hair, do you Lilly?” He pulled his arm from Tiffany’s shoulder, extending it to give Lilly’s hair a soft tug. Lilly glared at him, rose, and ventured closer to the edge of the rim. After the briefest of glances into the rising dusk, she danced quickly away.
Lawrence guffawed at her timidity.
“Leave her alone, Lawrence,” Tiffany snapped. “You can be such a jerk sometimes.”
Lawrence fell quiet, then after a few sullen moments, he shot Tiffany a hostile glance, jumped up, grabbed Lilly around the waist, and, with a booming laugh, swung her close to the edge of the abyss. Lilly did not scream, but went pale and clung to Lawrence’s arm, pushing herself hard against him.
“See? It’s not that bad,” he insisted, nudging her forward, closer to the brink.
“Lawrence!” warned Sally Beth. “Let her go. She’s scared!”
“But she shouldn’t be, that’s the point,” he insisted. “See, Lilly? I’ve got you. You can get close to the edge, and you won’t fall. I’m holding on to you.”
Lilly began to tremble, her breath coming in short gasps. She didn’t say anything, just pushed with her feet, trying to force herself and Lawrence away from the edge. Suddenly, as if a signal had passed between them, Sally Beth moved into the two-foot space between Lilly and the edge of the void to put her arms around her sister while Tiffany slipped up close to Lawrence’s back. Encircling her arm around his neck, she jerked him backward, forcing him to let go of Lilly.
“I thought you said you had her, Lawrence,” said Tiffany softly into his ear. “Seems to me you let go awfully easy.”
“Well, yeah. You’ve got a choke hold on me,” he gasped.
“Oh, so you think it’s okay to let her go if you are uncomfortable? What if something scared you while you were dangling her over the edge of the rim? Would you think it’s okay to drop her?” She spoke mildly, almost sweetly, but kept her forearm pressed against his neck.
“Let go of me, Tiffany!”
“Oh,” she said, with a note of surprise and dropped her arm, stepping back nonchalantly, as if she had merely been giving Lawrence a friendly hug. Lilly was trembling and glaring at Lawrence as if she wanted to compete the job Tiffany had started.
“You okay, honey?” Sally Beth asked. She was shaking nearly as hard as Lilly was.
“Yeah.” Lilly took a deep breath as she tossed her head to cover her embarrassment and fear. Lawrence looked embarrassed as well, and sullen. They sat silently, watching the sunset, and although it was glorious, they all felt a certain regret that tainted the experience. This was their last evening at the Grand Canyon, and they spent it probing their wounds.
August 10, 1978
Sally Beth and Lilly were awakened in the darkness of the small hours by a banging on their door. Sitting up, Lilly called out, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Tiffany. Let me in!” Sally Beth jumped up, opening the door to find Tiffany standing at the threshold, dressed in a frumpy housecoat that fell to her knees. Below that swirled a shimmering blue nightgown, and below that, Sally Beth could see her cowboy boots peeking from under the gossamer fabric. Her suitcase and a few parcels were in her hands.
“What is it, honey?” Sally Beth asked, stepping back so Tiffany could enter.
“That no-good louse. I am so done with him.” She brushed her way past Sally Beth, threw down her load, and flopped on the bed, crossing her arms and blowing a pent-up breath through pursed lips. Her eyes flashed so angrily Sally Beth could see them even in the dim light that shined from the lamp outside.
“What happened?”
“I caught him calling another woman! Can you believe it? He gets up out of my bed, sneaks the phone into the bathroom and calls another woman, and I can hear every word he says! He’s telling her he’ll be there in a week or two and they can go to Mexico together.” She clenched her fists, then ran her fingers through her crinkly hair, grabbing it in the process and pulling it distractedly.
“Oh no! What did you do?”
“I threw everything I could into my bag and got out of there. What do you think I did?”
“You didn’t confront him?” asked Lilly.
“Ha. If I did, I’d kill him!” Her lower lip began to tremble and she ran her hand over her face. “No good, sorry—”
“Well, you did the right thing,” interrupted Sally Beth. “You can just stay here tonight, and we can sort things out in the morning.”
“I already have sorted things out. We are leaving. Now. He might still be talking to that poor, stupid girl, but if I know him, once he’s figured out I’m gone he’ll be over here trying to sweet talk his way back in, and none of us will get a lick of sleep anyway. We have to get out of here before he comes sniffing around, all whiny and apologetic. Come on!” She jumped up and threw her bag on the bed, rummaging through it.
“Oh, no. My good underwear was in the bathroom. All I have is this slutty stuff he bought me, and I can’t stand it. I have to wash my decent things out every night, and it was in there drying.” She flung thongs and delicate, silky bras the size of tires onto the bed, then stood, unbuttoned her housecoat, and yanked it off.
Both Sally Beth and Lilly blinked and gasped.
Tiffany wore a diaphanous silk negligee that clung to the most stunning body either of them had ever seen. Her breasts were enormous, high, and firm, and her hips were huge but perfect, sitting proudly on long, strong, and shapely thighs. Her broad shoulders and arms gleamed, muscular and smooth, and her waist and belly were slim and tight. Then she yanked off her gown, and she became even more astonishing. She looked like an over-endowed Barbie doll, with every ounce of muscle and fat placed perfectly. Sally Beth wondered how a body like that was possible. She did her best not to stare, but failed.
“I thought you were fat,” said Lilly in a small voice.
“Yeah, well, parts of me are,” muttered Tiffany as she stepped into a tiny thong. “I hate these things. How anybody can even walk with this crammed up your crack is beyond me. I’ve got to go to Penny’s and get some decent underwear just as soon as we can.” She grabbed a bra and strapped it on. It was so flimsy it looked like it wouldn’t do any good at all, but then, she also looked like she didn’t need it. Every inch of her body was so firm she could have been sculpted from stone. “Look at this stupid thing. Any bra that hooks in the front isn’t worth a plug nickel. The thing probably will break if I sneeze. I hate Lawrence and what he’s done to me. Don’t ever let a man shop for you or pack for you,” she grumbled. “Come on!” she added, as she put her housecoat back on and buttoned it up. “He won’t wait long—just until he thinks I’m not mad enough to bash his head in.”
Lilly jumped out of bed, picked her underwear off the floor, and started flinging her clothes on. Sally Beth, who had put her clothes away neatly, ran to the bureau and put on the first things she came to. They all were completely dressed in a moment, then they rushed around hurling clothing and makeup into their bags and slipped on their shoes. Lilly struggled for a moment longer to pull her new cowboy boots on, but still, they were out the door within five minutes.
“Oh Lord, here he comes!” whispered Tiffany while they were slinging their suitcases into the trunk. Lawrence spotted them, and realizing that he was about to be left behind, he sprinted toward the car. “Hurry,” Tiffany hissed. Lilly let out a shriek, starting the engine and throwing it into gear as Tiffany jumped into the back. She slammed the door in Lawrence’s face, and they careened out of the parking lot, squealed around the corner and disappeared into the night, leaving Lawrence churning after them in the fumes of the exhaust. Sally Beth, her heart thrumming adrenaline through her arteries, began to laugh uncontrollably. Lilly joined her, her mouth wide open, shrieking with excitement, and Tiffany added her musical laughter to the cacophony.
“Go, girl, go!” she shouted, leaning over the back of the seat, fueling Lilly’s screams, urging her to press her foot down hard on the accelerator, to run stop signs and take the curves like a madwoman. Lilly laid rubber on the deserted road as she careened away into the night, leaving the Grand Canyon and the small, white moon shining over the hapless head of Lawrence.
“Where are we going?” Lilly finally asked after they had gotten their giggles under control. “Back to Flagstaff?”
“No!” exclaimed Tiffany. “Not yet. I didn’t get to see the sunrise over the Canyon yesterday. Let’s go back and watch it come up.” She checked her watch. “It’s nearly four o’clock. We’ve got less than two hours before sunrise.”
“Yeah, let’s,” added Sally Beth. “We may never get back here, Lilly.”
Lilly slowed to make a U-turn in the middle of the road. “Might as well,” she said. “This has turned into the best adventure I’ve ever been on, and I don’t want to miss any of it.”
Stopping at the overlook at Grandeur Point, they leaned back into the seats, dozing as the wind howled and danced with the pine trees until Tiffany’s voice broke into the pre-dawn.
“Come on, girls. I see some light,” she said, rummaging in her bag to pull out her sweatshirt. Sally Beth and Lilly put on their jackets, and they stepped out into the morning chill.
They were not disappointed. Silver-gray light pricked the outline of trees and rocks close by, and then a delicate pink kissed a pinnacle just below them. The pink deepened as the sky lightened, and then, suddenly, a small sliver of gold graced the eastern horizon, and glorious light spilled out over the spires, gilding the air and the rock until they gleamed in the milky dawn. Light rained down upon Lilly’s face and sleep-tangled hair. Tiffany’s hair lit up with copper beside the gold and silver of Lilly’s.
“Sally Beth, you are so pretty,” said Lilly. This light makes you look like the Virgin Mary. You’ve got a halo.”
“I was just thinking that about the two of you,” she countered as she stepped forward to insert herself between Lilly and Tiffany. Putting her arms around both their waists, she raised her face into the glorious light, a perfect hymn to the morning. They watched it for several minutes as the Canyon below them faded from black to gray to purple and red and colors indescribable. She felt herself floating into the abyss of light, and somewhere in the corner of her mind, she felt a stirring that told her something she could not quite grasp, something important. She searched her soul for the meaning, but all she could discern was that she was certain her life was changing.