Educational Experience

Part II--Chapter 14

A major shift has arrived--or will, at the very end of this little installment. Our boy's world is shifting on its axis sooner than he expected, and in a way he couldn't possibly have expected. Will he be prepared? And more importantly, "What Will Wyatt Do?"

 Hugh handed me his IPhone and said, “I need a decision before I leave. But let’s...wait a bit...”

He was staring out over this hella deep canyon I wanted him to see before he left. Our property ends right at the ridge above it, so we have a really stupendous view. And it looks like the beginning of time to me.

Not all the spectacular reds and golds and ruby reds like the Grand one and the other little ones near us. Just rows of blue black and deep purple mesas, sunk ‘way down in the earth below.

They looked even darker and more ancient with the grey/white sheet of ghost-y looking clouds hanging over them. Even on clear days, it was sort of misty and dreamlike. I could imagine that a little kid might even be afraid of it, like there might be monsters or dragons or something down there.

But I could stare at it for hours. Days. It talks to me. All canyons do, but this one hypnotizes me more than any other.

So I’d had the hands saddle up Butch and his lady friend, Shadow, for Hugh to ride. Loves horses, that man. Started riding before he could walk almost. He’s ‘way less citified than people think.

His people own land ‘way out in the wild parts of England and Scotland. Kings and queens gave them these massive spreads that look like something out of a fairy tale. Rolling green hills, craggy looking cliffs with castles at the edge. One has a moat and a drawbridge, right? It was a fort, that one, where actual battles took place.

And he lives in them. I mean, literally and, like, spiritually.

JJ knew this, too, by the way. He envied us. He just couldn’t feel it. Okay, maybe a little bit. Sort of instinctively. Which was why he built that big ass house up in the mountains above Tucson to die in.

I remember him saying, “God is great,” when the sun was setting and the sky went all fiery red and gold above those mountains one time. It made me cry. Him, too. But not from sadness about leaving it. He was sort of telling me he was ready to go live with the God who made sunsets like that.

Hugh knew that God. So after he’d stared a long time, he leaned forward a little, to give Shadow a few neck rubs. And then he sat up tall, looked over at me and just said, “Yes...”

And I laughed and said, “I know, right?”

“It explains everything,” he said.

 And then he smiled and added, “She belongs here. Your Wyatt.”

“I thought so.”

“Yes, I do feel a wee bit of confusion there,” he said. “On her part.”

“She’s worried about Aisha.”

“Really? Why?”

“She thinks...well, a lot of people think Aisha and me are supposed to end up together.”

He nodded and looked back out over the canyon.

“I was one of them.”

“C’mon! Really?”

He smiled out into the mist and shrugged.

“You’re soulmates in the purest sense of the word, you and Aisha. And that’s what changed my mind over time. The purity. If you became lovers in the...mundane sense, it might wreak havoc with that.”