Like a Best Friend | ✓

chapter eighteen

Mather Point stretches out into the Grand Canyon, making it the perfect place to watch as the sun rises in the east. We're far from the only people to have the same idea. It's one of the most popular spots in the entire park and there's a decent crowd of us filling the railed-off area waiting for one of the most iconic experiences, a Grand Canyon must-see: sunrise over the gorge. The sun has spoiled us the last couple days with a wealth of beautiful skies showing off every color imaginable.

"We're really fucking lucky, aren't we?" I say to Kitty, leaning against the railing next to her. Several people are doing the same and I can't help but wonder how much weight the railing can take before it snaps and we all tumble headfirst into the canyon.

"Ridiculously fucking lucky," Kitty agrees.

"So many people in this country will never get to see this," Leila says. Today her hair is tamed into a low ponytail and she's wearing a sturdier pair of glasses with thick plastic frames. "That seems unfair. Views like this should be a human right."

"I feel bad that I've barely left Massachusetts in the last twenty-eight years and all this time, places like this have just been sitting here waiting to be seen," I muse. Despite the early hour, I am finally feeling awake and alive and alert after sleeping for almost nine solid hours last night, stretched out in my own double bed with the air conditioning on high.

"We should make a pact," Kitty says. "Every anniversary we'll make an effort to visit another national park."

"You should come to Washington!" Leila says excitedly. "We have three and I live, like, three and a half to four hours from all of them. You could spend a week in Amber Creek and knock another three off your list."

Except, as much as I like Leila, we can't see her once this trip is over because all the lies we've built up will crumble around us and I could break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.

"What happens when we run out of parks?" I ask.

Kitty sighs heavily and says, "I guess we have to get divorced."

"We probably shouldn't visit three a year, then," I say to Leila. "We've only got sixty left to see and I want to be married to Kitty for a lot longer than twenty years."

"Aww!" Leila swoons. "If it's not super patronizing to say, especially 'cause I'm five years younger than you, you two are actually the cutest."

"Hear that? We have the Gen Z approval!" Kitty crows. As though, as '95 babies, we're not cuspers ourselves.

We stay there until the day is fully upon us with the promise of clear skies and sixty-eight degrees, the perfect weather to explore the canyon. This is our longest stop by a long shot, the crown jewel of this trip: we have until lunchtime to make the most of our time here, however we see fit, which means of course Sofia and Max have already set off on a challenging hike that'll occupy them for the next five or six hours. Kitty, Leila and I have a much less strenuous plan for the day. A flat one hour there-and-back hike to a quiet spot that isn't listed on the trail map with almost three hundred sixty degree views of the canyon, and then we'll see where the day takes us.

It isn't until we're halfway to Shoshone Point after Dylan dropped us off at the trailhead, and we're walking along a forest path through the ponderosa pines after a big breakfast to fuel ourselves for the day, that Kitty says, "I took the liberty of planning a surprise."

I turn to her in shock. I'm the one with the surprises. She didn't even know we were coming here until a couple days ago. "What kind of surprise?" I ask.

"A risky one," she says. My interest is piqued. I stop walking. She and Leila stop too.

My voice lowers. "How risky are we talking?"