Desert Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

Holly
     left. Well oiled, painfully hot to the touch even through her gloves, the lock opened with
     a metallic click.
    She drove the Jeep through and locked the gate again behind her. A tantalizing hint of
     coolness curled down from the mountains, riding the fitful wind.
    As she drove ever higher, clouds changed color and density, going from oyster to
     blue-tinged slate. The road dwindled to nothing more than twin ruts winding up rocky
     ridges and over dry riverbeds.
    Holly watched the clouds constantly, looking for the first sign of rain in the mountain
     peaks rising above the road. She was relieved to see that despite the growing heaviness of
     the clouds, they hadnt yet frayed into sheets of rain.
    Even so, she wasted no time when the road dipped down to cross one of the many dry washes
     that radiated down the steep, rugged mountain slopes.
    Normally the ravines held nothing more than sand and rocks and wind. Any moisture that
     existed was well beneath the surface, beyond the reach of even the hottest summer sun.
    But Holly knew that a storm higher in the mountains could change that very quickly, even
     if it never rained at the lower elevations. A hard rain ran off the baked land rather than
     soaking in. Soon every crack, every crevice, every crease in the dry land overflowed with
     water.
    Then rain spilled down rocky slopes in tiny streams that met and joined into walls of
     water that roared like muddy avalanches down formerly dry ravines.
    Such flash floods usually lasted only a few hours before they outran the high-altitude
     rainstorms that had created them. The floods left behind tangles of muddy brush, rapidly
     drying puddles, and riverbeds that would know no water until the next storm came.
    To anyone who understood that mountain rains could mean desert floods, the sudden
     appearance of rivers in a dry land was more exciting than dangerous.
    Still, Holly breathed a silent sigh of relief as the Jeep churned up out of Antelope Wash,
     the last big ravine between her and Hidden Springs. She was well above the desert floor
     now, into the chaparral zone. A few thousand feet higher would bring her to the first
     pines.
    But the Hidden Springs road didnt go that high into the mountains. The twisting,
     rock-strewn ruts ended less than a mile away, where water welled silently from the base of
     a shattered cliff.
    Above Holly thunder rolled across the peaks, pursuing fickle lightning, never quite
     catching up. Clouds veiled the mountains, bathing granite peaks in mist. Though the wind
     was stronger now, cooler, there was still no smell of rain. For all their tossing and
     flirting, the clouds werent yet ready to embrace the land.
    Holly unloaded her gear before she drove the Jeep a hundred yards from the place she had
     chosen for her camp. If lightning danced over the land, she didnt want to be sleeping near
     the only metal on the mountainside.
    Nor did she pitch her tent too close to the five rocky pools that glittered like gemstones
     along the cliffs base. As much as she liked water, she liked the desert animals better.
     Bighorn sheep drank at Hidden Springs. If she crowded too close to the water, the animals
     would stay back among the dry rocks, waiting and thirsting until the thoughtless intruder
     left.
    Holly started making a trench around her tent to carry off any rain that might come. Just
     as she finished, thunder rumbled down the granite face of Hidden Springs.
    Straightening, she measured the sky. The sun was no more than a pale disc burning behind
     clouds that thickened and changed as she watched. Streamers of mist flowed down the flanks
     of stone peaks, softening their masculine angles.
    Lightning flickered too fast to be seen clearly in the late-afternoon light. Thunder came
     again, closer now, carried on a rising wind.
    The sudden coolness of the air was more intoxicating to Holly than any wine. She laughed
     aloud and stretched her arms out as though