“He is so egocentric that at moments of climactic passion, he calls out his own name.”—Paul Clements
Sara and Matt seemed to have nothing in common. He was not yet 25, she was almost 40, the mother of two. And yet, here they were, thrown together by circumstances that had come as a surprise to them both.
The boarding school they worked for ran a six-week long service learning program for 12 of its top students out in the Four Corners area of the country. With just two weeks to go before the end of the program, Pete, the program’s lead faculty member, called the school in need of two additional chaperones. The locals he had been counting on to accompany the group on a three-day weekend expedition were suddenly unable to do the job, and there wasn’t time for background checks for replacements. The only solution, besides canceling both the hike to the bottom of Canyon de Chelly to plant apple trees with the Navajo, and the rafting trip in southern Colorado, was to send two people already vetted and on the staff at the school.
It was pretty obvious right at the onset who the two would be as Matt was slated to take over some of the leadership duties the coming year, and Sara had helped with the program in the past. It all happened very fast.
On Monday, they met with the Dean of Faculty to go over the schedule and travel itinerary. Matt and Sara had passed one another on campus over the course of the school year. She had noticed him. He was hard to miss being young and...well...very attractive. She doubted he had noticed her. He hadn’t.
It was an awkward first meeting as Sara’s heart was fluttering a bit. Ridiculous, she knew, married with two kids as she was, but it was the truth of the matter. She calculated that she was almost old enough to be Matt’s mother and tried to calm her nerves by remembering that detail. But, other thoughts kept bubbling up from her subconscious. Stop it! She scolded herself. The Dean handed them their flight information and then said he’d be right back, leaving them alone in the office. Neither one of them uttered a word in the Dean’s absence. Sara began to feel a bit overwarm.
When the Dean returned, he handed them each a packet with a school credit card and $100 in petty cash. There was also an Expense Report form, which he explained would need to be filled out and returned when they got back. They left, still having not actually spoken to one another.
On Wednesday, Sara’s school phone rang in the dorm where she lived. It was Matt. Her heart began instantly racing. She wondered what the heck was wrong with her. He said that he’d be happy to drive them to the airport in the morning. They were scheduled to leave at 8:40 AM on a flight out of LaGuardia, an almost two-hour drive from the school.
“I’ll pick you up at 5:30,” Matt said.
If Sara had had her wits about her, she would have suggested he come at 5:00 in order to not cut it too close. But, she didn’t have her wits about her. She was, again, she thought, being ridiculous.
Sara packed her bag, including her hiking boots, foul weather gear (rain was unlikely but the Colorado River could get sloppy), a warm jacket, hat, and gloves. April weather in northern Arizona was unpredictable.
Matt was a few minutes later than he’d said, which added to Sara’s nervousness. The heat was turned up to full blast in his older model Jeep Wrangler making conversation impossible over its roar. Sara was grateful, having no idea what to even talk about with this young guy. A crush of a kind she hadn’t experienced since middle school was surely the explanation.
“Could we please turn the heat down? I think it’s warm enough now,” Sara ventured.
“Oh, yeah, sure, sure,” Matt quickly responded.
With the temperature moderating, and the decibel level of the interior of the vehicle a bit lower, Sara let out an audible sigh. It was still dark outside as they rumbled along I-95 headed toward New York. She checked her watch. Good Lord, they’d only been in the car together for fifteen minutes.
Matt cleared his throat. “Mind if I turn on some music?”
“No, no, please, go right ahead.” She just hoped it wasn’t rap or new age jazz. Either of those forms of music set her teeth on edge.
Matt slid a CD into the player. It made a little whirring sound.
“Are You Out There,” the first track on folk artist Dar Williams’s End of Summer album began playing.
Sara sat up straighter and turned to Matt. “You know Dar Williams?”
Matt glanced over in surprise to see Sara staring at him expectantly. He cleared his throat again and said, “Uh, yeah, she’s great. I’ve been listening to her since I was a kid.”
Sara thought, you’re still a kid, but said, “Oh my gosh, she is my favorite. I can’t believe you put this CD in. End of Summer is such a great album.”
“It really is,” Matt replied. “Do you have a favorite song?”
“Well, from this album, ‘What Do You Hear in These Sounds,’ for sure. But honestly, my true favorites are from some earlier work. ‘The Babysitter,’ cracks me up, and ‘February’ breaks my heart.”
The next 90 minutes flew by as they discovered several other shared interests, including bird watching, a love of nineteenth century British literature—Charles Dickens in particular—and orchids, of all things.
Matt said, “If you ever get a chance to visit Monteagle, in Tennessee, there’s a hike near the University of the South where the path is lined with Lady Slippers. May is a good month to go.”
Sara was, yet again, amazed, and said, “I’ve been. And I’ve seen them. They took my breath away.”
There was silence for a few moments because something extraordinary had just happened. They both felt it.
Matt became aware that they were very nearly to the airport. “Hey, could you help me read these signs to get to long term parking? I may have underestimated the time we needed to get here.”
Sara looked at the clock on the dash of the Jeep. It was a quarter to eight. “Yipes!” Their flight was less than an hour from now. Luckily, they already had their seat assignments, but still. This was cutting it way too close.
By the time they were parked, bags checked, and through security, the word “Boarding” was flashing on screens next to their flight number. They ended up running down the corridor to their gate. They heard their names announced over the airport speakers imploring them to get to their plane as it was nearly ready to depart.
Out of breath, and sweating from the exertion, Matt and Sara apologized to the gate manager for their tardiness. He scanned their boarding passes, and tight-lipped said, “Have a nice flight.”
No one else on the plane was aware of how late they were as many passengers were still getting settled. There were a few people still in the aisles struggling to get carry-on bags up into the overhead compartments. With sighs of relief, Matt and Sara took their seats next to one another. The door was shut, the on-board announcements and safety instructions were given, and a few minutes later, the plane taxied out on the runway.
The flight was scheduled to stop in Atlanta, but they would not need to change planes. Arrival in Albuquerque would be seven hours from now. From there, they would rent a car to make the nearly three-hour drive to the student program location in Window Rock, Arizona.
Sara was thankful that they had broken through the awkwardness of their first meeting. She watched Matt as he slept next to her, and tamped down the impulse to touch his hair. He is rather beautiful, she thought. She closed her own eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath. Had she just fallen in love? She shook her head in an effort to rid such a notion from her thoughts. Ridiculous. She dug around in her backpack and pulled a copy of H.G. Welles’s The Time Machine out. She brought a few shorter length paperbacks with her thinking that she may not have much time to read other than on the plane. She opened the book to the first page.
As the plane made its descent into Atlanta, Matt awoke and started to laugh. Sara turned to him and asked, “What’s so funny?” Matt leaned forward and pulled his backpack out. He pulled out a copy of The Time Machine. This cracked them both up.
Neither of them read during the second leg of the journey. They talked. He didn't ask about her husband and children, and she didn’t mention them. Instead, they talked about their childhoods, their parents, their siblings, friendships they’ve had, both long lasting and contentious. This is what intimacy is, Sara thought.
At the rental car counter, Sara stood quietly by as Matt gave the printed reservation to the representative. “Will there be two drivers?” he asked.
Matt said, “No, just one.” The rep asked for Matt’s driver’s license and insurance card, which he handed over.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you’re not old enough to rent a car.”
Sara jumped to attention, a little shocked to find that Matt was only 24 years old. She quickly pulled her own driver’s license and insurance card from her wallet and handed it to the rep. Matt stood quietly next to her. She did another quick calculation. She was 16 years older than he was. Kim was only 15 when she had that baby during their sophomore year of high school, she thought.
By 2:30, they were on their way to the Navajo Reservation. Things were quiet again for the first half hour. “Sorry about not being able to drive,” Matt said.
With a dismissive wave of her hand, Sara said, “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind driving.” She actually did mind. She hated driving on Interstates. Semi-trailers scared the shit out of her.
Conversation resumed as they took in the passing scenery and traded information about what they expected the weekend to be like. Matt told her that the school would be paying for him to attend NOLS this summer.
“That’s cool. I’ve done both Rocky Mountain Outdoor Educator and Wind River. Which program are you doing?” she asked.
“Rocky Mountain,” he said. He asked her questions about the programs and she regaled him with many stories of her experiences.
Upon arriving at their destination, they were welcomed by their school’s program leader, Pete, who showed them to their rooms in the dormitory that housed the 12 program participants. In the dorm’s kitchen, everyone had chipped in to prepare a spaghetti and meatball dinner with garlic bread and a big salad. Sara and Matt were pretty hungry. It had been a long day with nothing but airplane snacks to keep them going. They sat down on opposite sides of the very large picnic style table built to accommodate a group of 24 and dug in. The students seemed to all talk at once.
Pete leaned over and said, “After dinner, I’ll send the kids off to their rooms to study. Two people from the Navajo council are expected around eight when the five of us will go over the schedule for tomorrow’s trip to Canyon de Chelly.” Matt and Sara nodded their heads but continued to eat.
At a few minutes past eight, Sara, Matt, Pete, and the council’s medical adviser, Dr. Don, were seated at the dining table with printed agendas for the three-day service learning project. Huyana Begay, the fifth member of the leadership group rushed in apologizing about being late. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I’m five weeks away from a marathon and had to get a ten-mile in today.” She was obviously fresh out of a shower, her long straight dark hair was pulled back off her face with a turquoise headband, and cascaded down her back to her waist. She had chestnut brown eyes, long lashes, and beautifully arched eyebrows. Her full lips, just a few shades darker than her skin, formed a perfect bow. Her honey-toned skin contrasted against the white cotton of her halter top, which plunged in a V to reveal the top mounds of her breasts. She wore cutoff jeans. Her legs were long—made for running—and her toes were painted the matching shade of pink found on her long tapered fingernails. She was absolutely stunning. Matt was struck dumb by her fresh appearance.
The Native American beauty took a seat right next to Matt, whose heart was beating so fast he could actually hear the blood pumping through his veins. “Matt?” Pete said. “Matt?” he said again.
“Huh?” Matt finally realized that someone was talking to him. Pete asked him if he was okay with taking on making sure all the rafts were stowed properly at the end of the Colorado River rafting trip scheduled for the third day. “Yes, yes, I can do that, absolutely,” he said as he focused his attention back on the meeting. He then volunteered, “I can also do the set up for the campfire reading tomorrow night in Canyon de Chelly.”
Pete cleared his throat and repeated what he had said no less than 30 seconds earlier, which was that Sara was in charge of that. Sara looked down at her notes and took in a slow breath to steady herself.
Huyana jumped in to say, “I’ll be here with the Navajo students ready to go first thing in the morning. We can scramble them up with your kids so we have a good mix between the two vans.” Everyone at the table nodded their heads. She continued, “Once we get to the bottom of the canyon tomorrow, Lepita will take charge of everything in terms of splitting the kids up into groups, and assigning them the various tasks of loading the apple trees and water barrels in the vehicles. Our only job for the better part of the day will be as supervisors to make sure the students accomplish their tasks. After that, I’ll take over with organizing the meal, again, assigning tasks to the kids, and then Lepita and Jojo will gather everyone around the fire for the storytelling event.”
The meeting adjourned. Sara briefly conferred with Pete but she couldn’t help but take note of what was happening between Huyana and Matt. They remained at the dining table, heads nearly touching while they talked quietly. Sara called out, “Goodnight!” Pete wished her a goodnight but neither Huyana nor Matt seemed to hear her.
Sara laid awake in a twin bed in her tiny cell of a room. Most of the lights in the dorm were off but she could still hear the lowest of murmurings coming from the dining area. She clutched her sheet and blanket to her chest and stared up at the ceiling thinking again about how ridiculous she had been today. Had it really only been one day? She then heard footsteps heading toward the front door, which opened and then closed with the most careful of clicks. The house was completely silent. She strained to hear Matt moving around in his room but there was nothing. At some point she fell asleep.
Pete roused everyone before sunrise. The food and drinks needed for the next three days were ready to pack into coolers. A team of students was assigned to that task. The students were a well-oiled machine at this point in the program. They went about getting everything into the vans like drones in a hive. Matt showed up a bit late, but whether that was because he had trouble waking up, or he only just returned to the dorm, Sara couldn’t be sure. What she could be sure about was that Huyana appeared within moments. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and held in place with a Nike cap. She wore a sleeveless ivory tank top and the same cut-off shorts. Her hiking boots were well-worn, attesting to her experience. The 12 Navajo students walked in behind her like little chicks to immediately join the hive.
Each van could hold 16 passengers. Sara rode shotgun in Pete’s van with Dr. Don, six Navajo students, and six program students; Matt rode shotgun in the van driven by Huyana. Their van held 12 students as well.
The trip to Canyon de Chelly was less than two hours. Pete left everyone off at the top of the cliff overlooking the canyon, and then drove all the supplies around to the tourist entrance, which was another two hours away. It took the students, Matt, Sara, Huyana, and Dr. Don, the same amount of time to traverse the trail. They all used the old Navajo trail, etched over centuries into the stone surface of the cliff face by the feet of the native dwellers. It was treacherous and challenging, but they were all up for the task. Part of the experience for the students was this climb. It would be important for them to have this memory when it came time for tonight’s storytelling.
Sara did not see Matt nor Huyana once they reached the bottom and got their planting assignments. She didn’t see them again until that night at the fire when Lepita and Jojo shared their stories about growing up as Navajo during a time when the U.S. government did everything possible to strip them of their language and their history. The stories were powerful, and sad. The students would leave with a sense that they had at least tried in the smallest way to restore faith and trust and make retribution for the sins of the past.
That night in her sleeping bag, Sara imagined that Matt and Huyana were sharing a tent tonight. She was right. They were.
The next morning, breakfast was quickly fixed on the same improvised stove top as was used for last night’s dinner—a tailgate from a 1961 Chevrolet truck. It was placed over a roaring campfire and glowed with heat. Eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, and cut up fruit was a feast to behold. Matt and Huyana sat off to the side with their food plates. Sara sat by herself watching them from afar.
The group hiked out of Canyon de Chelly and got back into their assigned vehicles. The drive to the put in point for the rafting trip on the Colorado River was nearly three hours away. By the time they arrived, the sun was kissing the tops of the bluffs surrounding their camp site. They pitched the site in record time. The dinner team got started with the promise of food by sunset—about 90 minutes in the future. Matt offered to take a small group on a hike. When Pete warned about how soon it would be dark, Matt said, “We’ll be back in time.” But they weren’t.
Dinner was ready but Matt and the five students who had gone with him were still missing. Pete was more than worried, he was pissed. At the point when Pete had put together a search team, which included Sara, Matt and the students walked out of the darkness and into the campsite. Pete immediately directed the students toward the food but pulled Matt aside and commanded, “Take a walk with me.”
Huyana busied herself with fixing herself a plate and sat down among a segmented group of Navajo students. Sara tried to pretend she wasn’t noticing that Matt was clearly getting chewed out by Pete. She noted that Matt was standing with his head bowed and arms crossed against his chest. Pete, on the other hand, had his hands on his hips and sporadically thrust an arm out pointing in random directions. Abruptly, Pete turned away from Matt and stomped back to join the rest of the group. Matt followed him, got himself a plate, and filled it with food. He then joined Huyana and the students with whom she was seated. Sara thought she observed a definite chill in the eyes of the dark-haired beauty, and felt pleasure coursing through her veins. She tried to resist the temptation to smirk, but felt it on her face just the same.
The rafting trip went off without a hitch, except for when Dr. Don saw an opportunity to topple Pete into the water. It was all in good fun. The only casualty was Pete’s Maui Jim’s sunglasses. “A sacrifice to the river god,” Dr. Don teased.
At the pull out spot, Matt diligently took on his assigned task to rinse, deflate, and stow the four rafts. When he started working on the third one, Sara was about to take pity on him as he seemed to be on Pete’s shit list and was all alone. But before she could make her move, she saw Huyana move in that direction. When Matt saw her, his face lit up. Apparently Huyana had decided to bestow some mercy on him in his misery.
It was a quiet ride back to the dorm that night. The two vans made one quick stop at a roadside Navajo Taco stand about an hour from Window Rock to have dinner. Sara could see that Matt and Huyana were clearly smitten with one another. She pushed on his shoulder at one point, he wrinkled his nose at her and bumped her hip with his. They both laughed. Sara took the last bite of her taco and sniffed back something resembling jealousy. She chastised herself again for letting herself feel something for this boy. For that, afterall, was what he was—a boy—even if he did like Dar Williams as much as she did.
Back at the dorm, one team emptied the coolers and put the leftover food back in the refrigerator, and another team took care of putting away the camping equipment. Huyana loaded up the Navajo students and drove off leaving Matt behind staring doe-eyed after her. The program students tucked into their laptops to work remotely on their school work. Sara, Dr. Don, Pete, and Matt sat down at the dining table to do a recap and make some notes that would be included in a final report about the weekend activities and accomplishments.
Dr. Don asked, “What time do you have to head back to Albuquerque for your flights?” Matt looked at Sara for the answer. He had no clue.
“We’ll need to get going by nine o’clock,” Sara said using her mom-voice.
“Well, have a safe trip back. It’s been great working with you this weekend and getting to know you. I look forward to seeing you again next year, Matt,” Dr. Don said. Pete pursed his lips in obvious contempt for the person who would be taking on some of the program duties the following year.
Giving them each a hug, Dr. Don said, “I’ve got to head home. I’m on the schedule at the hospital tomorrow. Goodnight.”
Soon after Dr. Don’s departure, Sara, too, said goodnight. She was absolutely exhausted.
While eating breakfast before leaving the next morning, Sara and Matt heard the sound of a truck outside the dorm. Huyana came striding in through the front door. She was in full make-up with her hair curled and sprayed into place. Large gold hoop earrings hung from her ears. She wore a gold necklace with a large turquoise pendant that nestled comfortably on her sternum. Her blouse was of white chiffon. The scooped neck was embellished with a ruffle. Her tailored tan slacks tapered down over suede ankle boots trimmed in matching fringe with four-inch spike heels.
Matt exclaimed, “Wow!” But it wasn’t because she was so beautiful, which she was. It was because she was practically unrecognizable as the outdoorsy woman who had come along with them on the weekend trip. As one might have to do with a child, Sara prodded Matt to get his things in the car. They needed to leave. Matt couldn’t take his eyes off Huyana. She posed prettily for him as she ostensibly looked for a bag she thought she left behind yesterday. Matt gathered his things but his head was on constant swivel as he kept her in his line of sight.
“What did it look like?” Sara asked
Huyana lifted up a pillow on the couch and muttered, “Hmmm?”
“What did the bag look like?” Sara repeated.
“Oh, just a plain black leather zippered bag. Small,” she said without looking at Sara. Huyana lifted up another pillow. “Eli is going to kill me if I don’t find it.”
Matt’s head perked up. “Who is Eli?” he asked.
“My fiance,” she answered matter of factly. Sara’s eyes immediately darted to Huyana’s hands and, sure enough, along with several other rings on various fingers, she wore a half-carat diamond solitaire on the ring finger of her left hand.
Pete came in from outside where he had been enjoying his coffee watching the sun come up over a nearby butte. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Well, Huyana, I hope you find it, but we really have to leave,” Sara said. At that moment she thought Huyana to be very cruel. Sara and Matt got in the car. As they pulled out to leave, Pete waved, but Huyana remained in the house looking for the bag.
Matt moped in the passenger seat. He looked out the window watching the scenery pass by for a while but then placed his head against the door frame and closed his eyes. The silence was as it had been when Matt had picked her up just four days ago. She occasionally looked over at the young man next her—the scenes of the last few days playing through her memory banks. Did she feel sorry for him? He had fallen in love, Sara was sure of it. It was a lonely drive for Sara. She let Matt sleep.
Their flight back to New York was at 2:15. They situated themselves on the airplane. Matt still had not had much to say. Sara respected his need to quietly process his experience. Soon after the plane took off, Matt turned to Sara and said, “I can’t believe she looked so different.”
“She really did,” Sara gently responded.
“I thought she was...someone else,” he almost whispered.
Sara nodded her head and said, “Hmmm, yes. Well, it happens that way sometimes, I guess.”
They wouldn’t land at LaGuardia until after 10:00. Matt would drive them back to campus, and they would listen to another CD by Dar Williams.
Copyright DJ Anderson, 2021
