Riding the River Read Online Free PDF

have made it a conference call, to
take care of all three of them at the same time. They all said
different versions of practically the same things …
     
    “ Sarah, why did you have a panic
attack?”
    “ Why are you leaving tomorrow for Nevada,
of all places?”
    “ When you return, you’ll have twice the
work to do that you have now…”
    “ Are you going to quit that job? That jerk
should be sued.”
    “ But you don’t know anyone in
Nevada…”
     
    Everyone had an opinion… Everyone knew what
she should do. She wanted to step back a few paces and take a good
look at her life. Some changes were definitely called for, but she
wanted to get away first and learn how to breathe again. Her
breathing had become so shallow that her lungs weren’t filling… She
was having trouble catching her breath. Not good…
    But it was to be a seven-hour flight, which
was just fine. No companies to instruct, no boss to endure, no
family to placate and no absentee boyfriend. It was just Sarah, all
by herself for the first time in… how long? Maybe forever. Time to
do something all on her own… Sarah took that first deep breath.
Even though it was airplane air, it was still smelled a bit like
freedom.
    It was a quick flight actually since Sarah
had no one to please but herself.
    She’d passed some of the time by trying to
figure out which states she flew across. Sometimes the pilot would
come on the intercom and announce the newest state… West Virginia,
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois went by underneath the plane as she
watched a movie and read her book. When the pilot announced that
they were flying over Kansas, she took a look. At 35,000 feet up,
she was eating a late lunch and casually looked out her little
window. She could see swirly lines of contrasting colors – greens
and browns – farmland, maybe, as the plane also flew over towns and
rivers that looked like specks.
    The plane hit a pocket of turbulence that
made Sarah’s stomach jump and clench, when the pilot announced they
were flying over Colorado. The plane descended in altitude then,
probably to avoid further turbulence. A look down showed larger
rivers, deep gorges and mountains shrouded in white mist. She was
napping when the pilot came on to announce that they were flying
over Utah. Again, she saw far-away cities surrounded by snow-capped
mountains, but there was also a reddish tint from time to time.
Lots of canyons there, she knew…
    Also, Sarah thought about a great old Western
that had been filmed in Utah, ‘ The Searchers’ with another
of her favorite Western actors, John Wayne. The beautiful red rock
areas and Monument Valley had hosted such movies as ‘Stagecoach’, ‘How the West Was Won’ , and ‘ Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid’. Sarah smiled just thinking of those
great, iconic movies. The woman sitting next to her caught her
smile.
    “Hi… I’m Michelle. I’m being nosy and was
just wondering what you were thinking about… It’s that’s not too
personal a question.”
    “No, it isn’t. So many great movies have been
made in Utah. I was thinking about a few of them. I’m Sarah, by the
way.”
    “Don’t you just love movies? I’m a movie nut
myself. What ones were you remembering?”
    “Oh… ’Butch Cassidy’, ‘Stagecoach’…
    Michelle’s face came alive.
“’ Stagecoach ’… What a great one! One of John Wayne’s first
roles.”
    “And the director John Ford’s too. He had
been a silent film director and this was the first of a string of
hits for him.”
    The man next to Michelle decided to weigh in.
“Yeah, Ford did ‘ Young Mr. Lincoln’ after that…”
    “With Henry Fonda,” added Sarah.
    “Then there was ‘ Drums Along the
Mohawk’…” said Michelle.
    “And ‘ Grapes of Wrath’ …”
    “…Again with Henry Fonda,” smiled Sarah.
    The man turned to the women. “Hi, I’m Tom.
Nice to meet more movie nuts.” They all smiled at one another.
    “Okay,” said Michelle. “What is your