Matt

I thought about how we'd planned this for weeks, how long it had been since I'd seen this many stars, how much it had meant to Miguel to get away from his apartment and its stale breakup atmosphere.

And stupidly, I thought about the old man in the gas station, and how leaving now would feel like admitting he'd been right.

Nah, I said.

We're out here.

We might as well enjoy it.

Let's just keep an eye out, yeah?

Ryan grinned.

See?

That's the spirit.

Couple of weird tracks aren't gonna ruin our weekend.

He raised his coffee mug in a mock toast.

To weird tracks and demon donkeys.

Miguel clinked his mug against ours.

And to not getting murdered by whatever left that handprint.

We laughed.

It didn't sound quite as genuine as the night before, but it did the job.

We decided to go exploring.

The plan for the day was to hike down the wash to where it intersected with what the map politely called a primitive road, basically two faint tire tracks cutting across the landscape, and then follow that toward a series of low sandstone outcrops.

Ryan thought they'd make good foreground subjects for his astrophotography later, and Miguel just wanted to see anything that wasn't his ex's couch.

We packed water, snacks, and a small daypack with essentials.