Protective Love

Chapter 10. The Ruins

     I woke up in my bed remembering what had happened down at the pool last night and smiled to myself, laughing a little bit at the new memory. I rolled out of bed and made my way to my backpack to grab my traveling journal. I always write down my adventures when they are fresh in my mind, I write down how I felt at that moment, what was going on around my environment and around me, how the people around me reacted and also any funny things that made me smile and laugh. I make my way to the bed and start to write, sitting criss-cross and laughing at some points of my personal story. When I was done writing, the bedroom door slowly opened revealing Cody.
"Sissy? You're awake! Hey, uhm... Can we talk? I need to talk with you before we head out, is that okay?"
    I nod my head, he seems nervous as I watch Cody fidgeting with his fingers and refuse to look me in the eye. I pat the spot next to me so that he can sit down. Cody slowly inches forward, and when he finally sits down next to me he grabs my hands in his and looks me straight in the eyes.
"Look, what I did today was childish, and I am so sorry. I should have realized you were sick and I guess I forgot about that. I should have acted as your brother and not as some pouty seven year old looking for attention. Can you forgive me?"
    I stare at him for a while. I hadn't expected this out of my twin! Yea, we get into fights a lot and sure we argue with our other brothers, but I didn't think everybody would take my health this seriously. Am I really, REALLY as sick as they're putting it out to be?
"Cody, you're my twin, we get into fights and then we hug it out. Today was just an example of twins not getting along. I admit, I did push your buttons today, but that's nothing to apologize about. Of course I forgive you!"
    The next thing I know, Cody has me in a bone-crushing hug, repeatedly saying "Thank you". We both walk out of the room and everyone turns towards us. Since the bedroom is in between the t.v. and the coach, we kind of disturbed their movie. William saw how Cody had his arm around me protectively and nodded towards him, as if saying, "Good job Cody. I'm proud of you" and Cody just smiles. We sat down next to each other on the couch next to Damon.
"Well, now that sleeping beauty is up, can we do something fun before dinner?" Damon says
Sam turns the t.v. off and we all just sit there, in a weird, awkward silence. "uhmm..what about golf? Or maybe, OH I KNOW!! WILLIAM! A MUSEUM!!! PLEASE!" I yell out.
"I guess a museum is okay, does everybody else agree?" William replies.
    Everybody nods their head in agreement. I get up to change while everyone else grabs their things and discusses amongst themselves. Once we have made our way to the car and to the museum, we make the short five minute walk to the entrance. The museum is based on the history of the Grand Canyon and it also has some Historic Ruins we can explore with a guide. After Dean pays for our tickets, we all split into our own little groups to go exploring before the tour. We then agreed to eat around six o'clock at a restaurant nearby. Since the tour only had enough room for three more people, Damon, Cody, and I decided to take that one and the rest of my brothers decided to take the one that leaves a little bit later. I look up at Damon and yelp with excitement and start jumping up and down. Damon picks me up, laughing at my silly behavior and we wait in line. Cody is staring at the cases filled with ancient tools that were used to build the ruins.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name in Rosy, I will be your tour guide today. We will visit the ruins that were built here long ago by people that we aren't very familiar with today."

    We started walking out the building and down a long pathway that led further and further into the canyon's valley. On the left I saw the huge canyon walls of the opposite side of us and a long valley with the river running below us. A hawk flew overhead and swooped down into the valley at a sharp angle, the river below had rushing water that you could hear from where we were at far above it. There were metal railings to keep us from falling down into the deep canyon valley. On the right side was the wall of the canyon itself, bright orange and brown colors and the pigmentation of the rock hiding secrets of years past. Damon had set me down to walk the moment we started the tour, but he kept a tight grip on my hand. I kept leaning over the railing to look below us, trying to spot that hawk that disappeared below. Damon pulled my arm gently to indicate that we are walking now. It was a long walk down from the museum until finally we reached an area in the canyon's walls to our right where doors and windows carved out of the canyon itself started to appear before us. It looked like houses and villages carved from the canyon where people once lived.
"We don't know who the people are who created the village, some scientists think they are of some type of ancient Native American colony that resided in the Grand Canyon for a short amount of time. There is also a suspicion that people traveled far from South America, Central American, even maybe Asia when the continents were connected to find a better place to live due to their villages drowning or their food and water sources running low." Rosy explained.
    We reached the village made of stone and our small group gathered around Rosy who was standing next to a glass case filled with ancient artifacts. Cody was so fascinated with everything, we were both studying the houses with our eyes. I am imagining trying to live in a home made of stone with no electricity or running water. What made these people live so far away from the running water below? Maybe it gave them some protection from the blazing desert sun? Did the Grand Canyon even resemble what it is now back then?
"They built their homes with axes and tools such as these.." Rosy shows us the case and beacons us forward. We walk around the case filled with tools. "These tools are made out of the environment, they used the sand, rocks and trees as resources."
Rosy talked more about the men working hard to build the village while we continued to walk down the rocky pathway, the canyon valley on our left and the village on our right. At the end of the pathway we exited to a balcony where we could see the ruins close up.
"We are approximately twenty feet away from the ruins. As you can see, there was no electricity back in those days, so people relied on the light of the moon to get around at night. They built deep walls and entrances to their homes to keep away from danger such as wild animals, or even criminals, who were thrown out of their villages and roamed the deserts alone or in small groups together. These criminals would go around and molest women and children, steel their food and priceless artifacts. Women were required to watch over the children and collect water and food from the small gardens they planted while the men went out and hunt for meat and animal skins to keep their families warm during the harsh winter nights.."