chapter 17

Isabella

We make it out of town and to the spot while the sun is still clinging to the sky. Soon it will dip completely below the horizon and there will be a chill in the air before we know it. Luckily, I keep blankets and sweatshirts in the back of the car as part of an emergency kit in case the car should breakdown… in the tundra, I guess.

It never hurts to be prepared, especially with a child in the mix.

Anyway, we follow the same routine we did five years ago. Park on the gravel shoulder meant for people having car trouble and take the short walk out to the rocky outcropping that makes a half-moon shape, offering an unusual cage of privacy.

As a teen, my friends and I would come camping out here. It’s not a legal campground which is why the rocks are so helpful for concealment for building tents, tending fires…

And other activities.

Rex follows me, just as he did five years ago. A California boy, but not a desert boy. He was freaked out by the lack of streetlamps and the distant c