desert gorge

chapter three

Julio Sanchez arrived in Arizona on the same day Liz planned to go into the canyon, which was not ideal for her at all. It meant putting off her expedition until after picking her brother up from Flagstaff—the largest city in a three hour radius (except Phoenix, but it was always so busy from all the tourism that the traffic took longer than the drive over). By the time she got back, it'd be too dark to enter Antelope Canyon safely and be able to search for Aspen.

The drive from Desert Gorge to Flagstaff felt longer than normal, and Liz was lonely without the usual driving buddy that she found in her girlfriend. Before leaving she had connected to her phone and started up her favorite Spotify playlist, called quite aptly 'Sad Liz Hrs'. Aspen had picked the name after noticing that Liz played those specific songs repeatedly after a rough day, which wasn't often more recently.

On the way to the airport, Liz hummed along and thought over her plan for searching the gorge. It would have to begin in the early morning, just before the sun came up in order to sneak in under the cover of darkness. If any tour guides or employees saw her entering, the whole endeavor would be toast.

After entering the confines of Antelope's upper level, Liz would turn on her flashlight to the lowest level (to prevent catching attention) and methodically begin her search for anything out of the ordinary. She was a part-time worker at the cavern in the fall, during the height of tourist season when demand for canyon employees extended beyond the Native American reservation it was located on, which meant Liz knew her way around the upper level quite extensively and would notice right away if something was off.

If nothing was wrong throughout Antelope's upper canyon level, she would need to get lower, and that required a second trip. It would take too much time to get through the extensive canyon in one go, and would certainly attract attention if she was noticed by anyone, employee or otherwise.

Thorough planning had taken up so much time that Liz was dismayed to look at the GPS and realize that she was only ten minutes away from Flagstaff Pulliam Airport and she'd forgotten to send Julio a text about her arrival. Liz pulled up along the sidewalk lining the airport's entrance, and dug into her purse. When she finally rummaged up her phone, the first thing she noticed was a barrage of texts from her twin brother, mostly varied forms of 'where are you'. Liz rolled her eyes at Julio's tendency towards dramatics and replied.

liz: julio, i told you i would be here at 11

its only 10:45 bro

julio: r u kididng me liz

kidding*

i TOLD U to tell me when u r here

u clearly did not ?? we landed a half hr ago

ok wya im outside

liz: ugh

i hate u sm sometimes lol

i'm in the red mazda can't miss it

julio: u love me

i see u, coming over rn

After situating his luggage in the too-small trunk, Julio finally threw himself into Liz's car with a quick greeting and leaned into her squeeze.

"I missed you, hermano. ¿Cómo fue tu tiempo en Colorado?" Liz naturally slipped into Spanish around Julio; it was practically inevitable at this point to ask how he was doing in anything other than their mother tongue. She put the car back into gear and started the tedious drive back to their hometown with nothing more than a longing glance at the tall buildings the pair passed by.

Liz saw her brother smile from the side of her eye. "It was...good. I missed Desert Gorge though."

They fell into a comfortable silence as Liz turned her playlist back on, then focused on driving them back to Desert Gorge.