Chapter 11: Zion

THE TOWERS OF THE VIRGIN were a deep orange red at dawn the morning we arrived after driving up the Interstate from Las Vegas. My breath caught in my throat and I pulled over without speaking. We got out to join the company of others worshiping, there's no other word, something holy. We heard quiet voices and the soft rattle of camera gear, but mostly people were silent in the face of such beauty.

Persephone put her arm around my waist as we stood quietly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hebe between Oscar and Rick, the three as quiet and contemplative as us.

Out of nowhere came the same six or seven notes I heard at Tuolumne Meadows, trilled and full and melodious, a fragment of song, notes cascading down. Clear and distinct from the quiet conversations around us. I turned quickly, but I couldn't see the singer. From somewhere, not even aloud, I heard what I could have sworn was Harry's laugh, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I shivered.

"Did you hear that?" I spoke as quietly as I could to Persephone.

"What?"

"The six or seven notes? The laughter?"

She shook her head.

"No, Sam. Nothing. What was it?"

"I don't know, and that bothers me."

I stepped over to the other three and asked the same questions, but no one else had heard the notes or the laughter. I let it sit for the moment while we piled back into the Jeep and headed for breakfast.

We'd pulled into Las Vegas the day before, not too much later than we planned, after a long run along the eastern side of the Sierras and across the desert. The descent from Yosemite had been as spectacular as it always is, and we'd had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the sudden appearance of lakes and valleys as we crept down the eastern slope in the company of everyone, I think, who'd traveled up with us.

Kicking back in Las Vegas, we got a little carried away. By the time we'd checked into our hotel and cleaned up and stuffed ourselves at the bistro nearby it was midnight. And it was closer to three in the morning than midnight when we'd made it back to the hotel, surprisingly sober despite wandering from here to there.

Breakfast around noon the next day, plus time to get our laundry done and an afternoon at the pool, plus dinner and whatever, and there was a fair amount of whatever which I won't get into right now, so we pushed our departure back far enough to arrive at Zion at dawn.

"OK, what's the plan?" I looked from one to the other as I drained what was probably several cups of coffee past my limit. I was going to be looking for a restroom pretty soon and I wasn't the only one. I turned to the architect of our road trip. "Hebe, what now?"

This whole trip had been Hebe's idea, Persephone's too, for reasons she still hadn't really shared with any of us except for a couple of sotto voce conversations with Persephone. I'd been there when she'd told her dad so I knew about that part, but not much more. A breakaway, a breath of air, a chance to kick back and think about what lay next, all of those were the usual things.

Hebe took another healthy swig of her own coffee.

"I want to chill today. Do some laundry." Again? I wondered. "Maybe read a little." She looked at me. " And some quiet time with you, Sam."

I smiled. A splendid idea.

"Tomorrow, I want to head up Zion Canyon, the Narrows, you know?"

She looked at Persephone.