by D. J. Holmes
* * *
As Evan puts the map down, he notices a car in his rear view mirror. “That looks like the one that was following me just before I arrived in Salt Lake City.” Deciding to increase his speed, he notices the car behind him does the same thing.
“That same car is still behind me. I only have a few more miles until Hanksville. What in the heck am I going to do?” Looking back over his shoulder, he notices the car slowing down, turning on its blinker and turning off onto a dirt road heading into a private driveway. He breathes a sigh of relief. “Maybe I am just overreacting. After all, many cars drive this Interstate.”
Finally reaching Hanksville, he locates a local convenience store. Parking his car, Evan goes in to buy a few provisions.
“Where are you from, stranger?” the clerk asks. “California,” he answers.
“We use to get a lot of people from California coming this way before the price of gas went up. Maybe it will go down and they will come again,” the clerk replies.
“Hopefully,” Evan remarks.
“Your total is $125.41.”
“Is that all?” Evan remarks and hands the clerk the money.
“…Thank-you, sir.”
“You’re welcome. Have a great evening,” Evan responds
“You, too,” the clerk answers back.
Other customers enter the store, “Hello,” one of them says, as they pass Evan.
“Hello,” Evan responds back, but a strange feeling in his gut emerges, as three other men pass by him, looking down toward the floor.
“Now that seems strange. Everyone else in this town seems to be very friendly and outgoing. And the locals certainly aren’t looking at the ground. These guys have earrings in each ear. People in this town don’t wear earrings.”
In the same local store, after Evan has left, the three men have asked to talk to a professional guide. “Our best guide’s name is Trevor.”
“We’d like to hire him for a day or two.”
“I’ll call him. Can you wait until I get a hold of him?”
“Sure. Just make sure that he is your best!”
The three men walk through the store while they wait for the guide. One of them begins to talk, “While we wait for the guide, may I ask you a question, boss?”
“Sure. What’s the problem?”
“I just wondered why we didn’t just take him while he was here?
“…Because he’s not the one that the boss is really interested in. He wants, Julia, first, and, Evan, second. Get the picture?”
“Got it….”
Now with an anxious feeling in his gut, Evan begins to move faster. “I remember climbing this mesa as a boy. Hopefully I’ll still be able to find the stair case, Black Bear, and I found. I just want to get to the portal I don’t want to look past it to the land where I lived with my tribe.” No one in his current life as a police officer knew of his life experiences there by the mesa, not even Daniel and that was the way that he wanted it to be. It was too painful to remember.
Hiking toward the mesa, Evan notices, “It sure is a lot warmer here than Northern California is at this time of the year. Since the mesa is a little over twelve miles away, it should take about four and a half hours from Hanksville to walk to the mesa. Of course, in this grueling heat, it might take a little longer.”
Finally arriving in Goblin Valley, Evan remembers just how much he loves this area. He can’t understand why most people don’t like the eerie sounds, and the shape of the boulders. Particularly when shadows begin to grow on the ground, as the sun sets in the sky. “Hopefully, this phenomenon will help to protect me, since the shadows are starting to show themselves on the ground right now.”
“Ah,” he says as he looks toward the horizon. “There it is, Big Wild Horse Mesa.” In his mind, he sees two little boys running among the strange formations and jumping from HooDoo to Hoo-Doo, laughing and pretending to be animals and birds. “Black Bear and I always had a lot of fun with our great imaginations.”
Finally, his memories begin to fade as the last rays of the sun disappear behind the mesa, “How beautiful. This is one of the greatest places to be. I’ve missed my home, and my tribe.”
The first star begins to shine. And then on cue one star after another begins to light the sky. “I forgot how bright the stars really are out here, and how beautiful the patterns are that form the constellations. …Shooting stars. Wow! I don’t remember seeing so many of them!” Evan says in awe to himself.
Finally exhausted from his many days of driving, along with several hours of hiking, Evan is lulled to sleep by the full moon’s soft light and the eerie Goblin Valley sounds that seem so familiar, as he lies on a warm berth of dirt underneath a Hoo-Doo overhang.
Sleeping soundly throughout the night, the morning sun wakes him and his eyes open with a start. As Evan looks up at the rock that he is sleeping under, he is shocked to find an unforgettable piece of rock art. The hand drawn picture is of a family: a male with a long tribal head dress, a female with a beautiful smile and long hair, and two boys, one a lot taller than the other. “I remember drawing this picture when, Black Bear, and I would play around these boulders. Mother, Father, you are still with me. I have never forgotten you. Please be with me as I climb to the top of the mesa so that, Daniel, can take me back to the Beach House.”
The feeling of love from his parents filled his heart. “My Mother and Father, I wish I could stay. But I have got to go. Please come with me. Walk with me. It is good to feel of your spirit.” Gathering his equipment he walks with renewed strength.
After hiking for another hour, he slips into a small wedge between two boulders. Evan stands for a minute, taking in another magnificent view of his projected destination, the Big Wild Horse Mesa.
“Just another half hour and I’ll be able to climb the mesa. Once I’m on the top, I’ll be home free!” he says to himself.
Unexpectedly, he hears footsteps echoing up from behind. He ducks down between the two boulders. Looking through his binoculars, he can see four men. “Three of them look like the three that passed by me as I was walking out of the convenience store last night. The fourth is a stranger leading the others, by following the tracks that I have carelessly left behind because I was in such a hurry. They must have hired a professional guide. I’ve got to be a lot more careful as I finish my journey.”
Evan quietly stepped onto smaller rocks that are closer to the ground, so that he won’t leave a trail of footprints behind him. Finally, he is able to quickly burrow into the sand under another overhanging Hoo-Doo.
As the steps get closer, the men walk by him on the opposite side of the mushroom shaped Hoo-Doo. Evan heard one of them say, “I don’t like this place, Spencer.”
“Quiet. He might hear us.”
“Ok,” he says softer. “What if we don’t find them? We saw, Evan, in the store. He’s got to be going to where Julia is. Do you think that he knows that we are following him?”
“I don’t think so. We had our first car turn off onto that dirt road.”
“That was good thinking, Spencer.”
“That’s why the boss put me in charge of bringing both of them back to him.”
“How much further do you think that we have to go?”
“I don’t know. Just follow his footsteps.”
“I don’t see any more tracks,” Trevor states.
“What do you mean? He can’t just vanish into thin air,” Spencer responds with frustration.
“Ok then. You find him,” Trevor retorts.
“What do you think that I hired you for?”
“Look, if you want me to continue to work for you we need to go back to where we saw his last tracks.”
“He was going in this direction. Can’t we just continue going this way?”
“Whatever you say…. You’re the one that hired me. But know this, if we do as you suggest we may lose him all together.”
“Ok. Let’s go back. You’re the guide. I’ll g
o by your lead, Trevor. Just find him, ok?”
“I will, Spencer. You can count on me.”
Evan quietly waits until they pass by him. “I think that I’m going to take this opportunity to take a short rest and make sure that they are far enough away that they don’t see me walking through the open ground toward the mesa.”
After his short rest, he climbs out from under the HooDoo. He hasn’t heard anyone for quite some time so he decides to continue his journey.
Finally, he reaches the bottom of the mesa. “Ah, nothing has changed here. The pockets and jutting rocks are still strategically positioned. Thank you, Mother and Father, for giving me the strength to get here. And, thank you, Black Bear, for showing me our secret staircase to the top.” With that Evan begins to climb the vertical side of the cliff.
“The boss isn’t going to like this,” Spencer remarks. “We haven’t seen or heard him in quite a while. Let’s sit down under one of these mushroom overhangs and look around.”
Looking at Trevor, he says, “Give me the binoculars,” as he holds out his hand. Turning around, he looks in the direction that they have just come from. “I can’t see him anywhere...Say, what’s that big land mass over there?”
“It’s the Big Wild Horse Mesa.”
“…A Mesa? I’ve never seen one of those before. Look at the steep walls. With these binoculars I can see everything… say, what’s that? There’s something moving perpendicular on the side of that mesa.”
Trevor takes the binoculars back, and carefully scans where he has been directed to look. After a few minutes he sees Evan, a tiny speck, self-assuredly climbing the face of the mesa, putting his hands into the pockets in the rock, and stepping onto the jutting rocks strategically positioned on the face of the mesa.
Suddenly Trevor stands up, “He’s climbing the side of the mesa!” Trevor yells. Spencer stands up next to him, “He’s trying to get to the top of the mesa? Is there a shorter way to get to the top?”
“I don’t know if it’s shorter, but we could go back to town get a jeep and ride up to the top. There was a road put in on the back side just last year,” Trevor suggests.
“Well, now, that sure seems a lot easier than what Evan is doing. Lead on my man,” and he slaps Trevor on the back.
When they reach town, Spencer and his group go into the convenience store. “Do you have another set of binoculars that I could borrow?” he asks the clerk.
“Spencer, I’m going to rent a jeep. Wait here for me” Trevor announces.
“Great, Trevor, we’ll stay here, hurry as fast as you can.”
“I will…. See you soon.”
“Here are the binoculars. Is there something special that you found out there?” the clerk questions.
“There sure is,” Spencer proudly proclaims. Finally, Trevor drives up with the jeep.
“There you are, Trevor. Look through these binoculars. Tell me if you think that we will reach the top around the time that, Evan, reaches it,” Spencer asks.
Looking through the binoculars, Trevor says, “Oh, yea. No problem. We’ll be waiting for him.”
Spencer and his men climb into the jeep. “We’ve got some meat to catch!” he yells as Trevor puts the pedal to the medal.
“Yea,” they all chorus.
After they reach the road behind the mesa, Spencer orders, “Quiet down, we don’t want him to hear us.” He turns to Trevor, “Drive a little slower so that he can’t hear our jeep.”
Finally reaching the top, they all sit and quietly wait to see exactly where Evan will come up.
“Man, I’m sure glad that I’m almost to the top,” Evan says to himself. “I don’t remember it being this hard. I can’t wait to see Daniel.”