NEXT DAY

Both of us knew it was the next day.  The Sun rose like a huge copper disk....we could tell it was going to be a hot day.  Unknown to each other, both of us wanted to stay here for awhile. Both of us were dying for a refreshing shower with soap.  Neither of us could see any water.  Both of us were hungry and there was ham, eggs, bread, fruit, and coffee in the truck.  Neither of us could decide what to do first.  I decided on breakfast and hot coffee.  Both of us agreed.  Both of us worked on our project and both of us enjoyed a grand breakfast.  As we were finishing our cup of coffee, I mentioned that this was Monsoon season here with almost daily cloudbursts here and there.  We worried about the dry wash at our front door and we knew how walls of water could come through with no notice other than a wall of water moving fast.  Blythe had a thought.  "maybe this only looks like a wash and ends just a little way up.  There were no flash flood warning signs on the road and there was no bridge over the low place in the road."   "That's right" I said.  We put on our grubbies and high topped boots and began the walk up the sandy wash.  I found a good stick and got my knife out of it's scabbered.  The branch had a fork in it and I cut off the two branching twigs.  "The handle was about six feet long and each prong on the end was about three inches each.  "This if for rattlers"  I said.  Then, we got to talking about rattlesnake boots and purses.  Blythe mentioned that rattlesnake anything was very expensive and we played with the idea of becoming purveyors of fine rattle snake purses and boots.  We went about a mile or so and the wash made a sharp bend....and there it was...a low water dam.  Both of said  "I wonder".  When we reached the dam, oh, yes, oh yes...a fairly large pond with a few cows drinking water from the shore.  "No doubt, this is Indian Land and those are their cows."  I said.  Blythe said:  "Let's get naked...did you bring any soap?"  "NO"    She had to have soap, so I told her to sit in the shade of an Octillo and I would RUN back to the truck and get the soap...to which she agreed...."And bring the canteen so we can have water"    When I returned, Blythe bore the bad news:  she had stripped naked and splashed and swam in the pond and had spread her Levis on a bush.  A cow had ambled over to her pants and sniffed and then went back to the herd.  In the process, the cow had hooked his horns onto her pants and had dragged them off.  Actually, I didn't mind as I admired her sitting there on a rock with only her bikini panties clinging to her skin.  I got naked and we bathed and washed and frolicked quite a long time.  I swam out a ways from shore and dived down to see how deep it was.  It was at least fifteen feet deep towards the center of the pond and the water down there was cold.  I also noticed some good sized fish swim around me.  I yelled to Blythe.."Hey, swim out here, it is pretty deep and the water is cold."  Blythe was a good swimmer and showed off her back stroke.  We swam around a little more and went back to shore.   Blythe said"Honey Baby, I love you so much...would you mind getting dressed and try to find my Levis?"   OK!  I dressed, looked at where the cows were and walked a straight line towards them.  I found her pants.  They must have driven the cow crazy and he shook them off.  Blythe smothered me with kisses and thanked me so much.  The Sun was getting high and we could see the thunderheads beginning to boil and I got excited..."For being arid country, it can rain so hard here you can't see across the street for about ten minutes, then its all over."  We made it back to the cave and combed our hair. and sat down in our chairs.  I turned on my battery powered portable radio and could not understand a word...the speaker was speaking in Hopi...I think.  The sky got dark quite suddenly and the sharp cracks of close lighting was quite exciting as they seldom had this in Sacramento.  And then it came...a grey curtain moved towards us and when it hit..it just poured.  Even though we had bathed, we stripped off again and went out and got the coldest and most drenching shower we ever had.  Even with the dam upstream, the wash did run with a surprising amount of water.  Within thirty minutes, it was all over and the Sun came out and a beautiful rainbow stretched out across the mesas and all the stories of the ancients who lived here.  Yes, we agreed we needed to stay a few days and see what was really out there.....We decided to run into Winslow and buy a few things we forgot.....That night, we talked around our fire, wondered at all of the lives who might have lived here..their stories etched in canyon stone walls....the tour guide comes with his vacationers and explains their lives away....they take their pictures...and go on their way...next tour begins at 2:30 the sign says.....if the World goes on and on and some soul finds his way into our secret cove....he will never know what happened here.  The rocks stand a silent vigil over what time has wrought......We agreed to leave in the Morning to go on to to other places and things.............