Arizona Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

in a thousand acres of wilderness. But the instructions in the letter were true. I walked a couple of hundred yards on the trail, heading for the butte. Then, as promised, I found a metal fence post, alone in the ground. Turning left, I could see an odd break in the ground, off to my right.
    I wandered toward it, and in a moment an arroyo appeared. It was maybe 20 feet deep and held a dry wash. But its walls were steep and sudden. I didn’t want to stand too close to the edge. The arroyo’s edge was flush with the desert floor. A casual hiker would never know it was here. I started thinking of the hidden canyons where the Apache had eluded the cavalry. And then I saw a formation of bowling-ball-sized rocks exactly the shape and size of a man. They were maybe ten feet from the arroyo edge, and on the hard dirt of the desert floor. I looked around for similar sized stones, and none were nearby. These had been placed here. For a grave.
    That was when I heard footsteps.
    â€œThis is private property.”
    The voice went with a giant. I’m six feet two, and I swear my eyes were on the level of his chest. With him, was a skinny kid wearing a football jersey bearing the lettering ghetto .
    I started to speak and the giant shoved me to the ground. My hand blazed in pain at breaking my fall against an outcropping of shale. But that was nothing compared to the kick in the ribs, and then I felt cholla biting into my arm. The kid was laughing, a high-pitched keening. I tried to roll off the cactus, but something sharp erupted into my stomach. I saw a large hiking boot flash between the ground and me.
    Then I wasn’t seeing anything.

6
    By the time I made it home, the sky was rippling in deep scarlets and oranges. It would be a sunset for the record books, but right that moment I just wanted a martini with Lindsey. My right hand was on fire from the jumping cactus, and my left side felt as if it had been caved in by a rockslide. I kept touching it, and was surprised my ribs were still there. But every time I touched it, a bolt of pain zagged across my chest and up my neck. So much for helping old students. No good deed goes unpunished.
    The lights were already on, glowing warmly through the picture window that faces Cypress Street. But when I came through the door, I heard muffled sobs. A look around the archway into the living room, and I saw Lindsey and Robin sitting close. Lindsey’s arm was around her sister, who had her head down and was hunched forward on her elbows. I quietly closed and locked the front door, and took the right turn into the hallway that led to our bedroom, there, to pick out the remaining cactus spines with tweezers and take stock of my mess of an afternoon.
    When I’d come to, I was about an inch from the edge of the arroyo. I was still woozy, and the wrong twist would have deposited me two stories down into the wash bed. I was surprised my attackers hadn’t thought of it. But they were gone. As I spat a mouthful of bile into the sand and tried to rise, I could hear a distant buzz. Motorcycles, or all-terrain vehicles. Fading away.
    By the time Lindsey came in, I had washed the worst of the desert off me. I managed to kiss her and let her snuggle into my arms without getting my ribs involved or letting her take hold of my injured hand. She offered to make martinis, and I let her.
    â€œDo you feel better about Robin now?” I asked, after we had settled on the leather sofa that faced the picture window.
    â€œOh, Dave,” she said, a small smile. She lithely swung her legs onto my lap while hanging onto her drink, and lolled her head back against the arm of the sofa.
    â€œAre you all right?” She must have noticed I winced. I said I was. I was getting better at least. Despite a kick in the stomach, my system eagerly accepted the gin.
    She said, “I guess I feel a little better. I know I’ve been acting weird. Seeing her for the first time in years…it