Gigantus
Portal, Arizona
Predawn twilight. Ed & his eight year old grandson Jimmy climb into
Ed's old battered pickup, head toward sunrise. Jimmy is all exited and just
a bit scared. He is going back to Tucson, going back to live with his mom.
He doesn't remember before. Seems he's always been in this tiny town, these
mountains. Didn't remember his mom till she suddenly got in touch. He'd
talked to her had experienced her through MA but not the same, not to live
with someone new.
Portal sits at the eastern entrance to the only road over the Chiracauhua
Mts. A bar/cafe/store. A post office and a couple of dozen homes. High above
a dry valley running north/south straddling the Arizona, New Mexico border.
Portal in a rocky canyon hemmed by small volcanic peaks.
They bounce along a rutted dirt road. Somewhere, high above, but in their
minds, MA hovers, warm & benign ...
Drive safely Ed. We'll see you next summer eh, Jimmy? Be sure to write.
"I will MA, good-bye!"
Will you be back by supper Ed?
"Pretty sure MA."
Good-bye boys! I love you.
"Love you too MA"
Dawn - strange night structures, arabesques of light flashing spectacular
among the stars, settle down, collapse before the coming sun, a rising bright
horizon. Ranch land. Horses by the road. They stand head to head, drinking
their favorite horsey beverage - telling each other dirty jokes. They laugh
- boy those horses can laugh - some joke about Catherine The Great - whoever
she is. Jimmy didn't get it at all.
"Why do they always tell the same joke over & over Grandpa?"
"Humph! Horses aren't that smart ... I mean, yeah, they got smarter.
But not that much to start out with ..."
He eases around them. One lifts a foreleg in greeting. Jimmy waves back.
Flash of a silvery bottom hoof.
Valley floor. Road turns from dirt to broken asphalt. Battered sign sez
"WELCOME TO NEW MEXICO THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT." The main road.
Ed turns north. In a low ditch the burned shell of a police car. Further
down a tank, it's turret & barrel twisted by some impossible heat. Then,
a cotton gin looking like the skeleton of some huge tick. The town of Rodeo,
an empty ruin.
"Wow Grandpa what happened?"
"Well, when everything CHANGED some people panicked, they wanted to
resist. Then they started fighting the people who decided to go along."
"& that's when MA came to tell us everything is OK?"
"Yeah, sorta like that."
Jimmy is silent, thinking. They leave the valley climb back into desert
up to a low pass. To their left a small mountain all red & white rocks
rising out of a sea of green bushes, the fresh blue of a morning sky, beautiful
...
"When we gonna see it Grandpa, huh?"
"Pretty soon Jimmy."
They topped the pass looking down at a deeper wider valley white with the
alkaline dust of an ancient dry lake bed. There it is, stretching from horizon
to horizon ...
Road Forks, New Mexico
Another busy morning at the Double D Truck Stop. Akbar "The Highway
Chef" is slinging eggs, big grill of hashbrowns, bacon frying, toast
to be basted from an urn of melted butter. Dee Dee washes her red chapped
hands, nails worn to quick by work & nervous chewing. Pats her dark
curls, puts a little powder on the dark bags under her eyes. Her back and
feet hurt already, hurt from the week before. She gave up her day off last
week so she could have two at the end of the month, a break, two glorious
days. She tucks an order pad, a few pens into the back pocket of her black
Levis, puts on her best customer smile. With a sigh she steps out to work
...
to be continued ...
