You know?” He trailed the bitten end of a strawberry across Crystal's belly and licked off the juice. “Look at them buzzards,” Crystal whispered when the afternoon grew long and wavering in the heat. They moored themselves for the afternoon and fed each other strawberries dipped in powdered sugar. He remembered how he and Crystal Novack stole Tom Landon's paddle boat and went out to the middle of Small Lake, where a patch of mossy dirt rose out of it like an island. Tiny and undefined like toys, Dan closed one eye, squeezing each between forefinger and thumb. To the center and right, sprawling drift fences keeping in place fatted brown cattle. To the left was an engorged lake, so cleverly named Small Lake, as so many things were in the backwoods. Dan leaned into the warm July air and cupped his eyes against the blistering sun. The rot in the planks was obvious and easy to work around as he took the three flights of stairs to the top of Eagle's Nest. He'd forgotten how the rural places in between jet setting destinations were like molasses: slow, easy, and sweet. The tumultuous style of urban living sucked away time, spent it as rashly as an addict in a casino. The throbbing city clutched onto his spine too tightly. Quite on accident, decades slipped by Dan since he traveled to this part of the country. He was sinfully seventeen again, but his joints crackled as he lifted his legs over the yellow tape barring the steps to Eagle's Nest. Black exhaust puffed out the exhaust pipe and it was gone in the bend of the hill. Sweat prickled at his hairline and he paused, waiting for a clunking word truck to scoot on down the steep road.

A zipping brown shadow of a road runner caught his eye for a brief moment. Dan pulled the emergency break then trudged with crunching footsteps to the base of the old structure. Together they laid across the rough planks of wood and explored each other with sloppy gropes.Īll around the lookout were dark shrubs and wild cactus, reaching out their giant squid tendrils. Her short hair was licked up on one side and crisp from a day swimming in Big Lake and he twirled a thumb around it, like he was preparing to pull the winning part of a wishbone. He remembered the summer night he and Crystal Novack watched the sun dip low behind the distant escarpments. Dan parked his pale blue Mazda beneath the structure's shadow and stared up into the dark windows of the third level deck. Plastic KEEP OUT signs crinkled in the shallow summer air. Eagle's Nest, old and anemic, leaned above a rich and diverse canopy like a rotten tooth.

The Night Begins by Abigail F Taylor