Protective Love

Ch. 12 - Grand Canyon

New Updated Chapter. Re-read is recommended as the characters age and some things in the store have been edited and re-written. 

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We make our way towards the building which houses the ticketing booth. William approaches the older lady happily seated inside the shaded booth, oblivious to the scorching heat we are enduring a few feet away from her, waiting patiently as William gathers everything we need. The building has beautiful pictures of the Grand Canyon hanging on one side of the booth.

'A talented photographer obviously an adventurer.' I think to myself, noticing a particular picture that leaves me awe-struck.

It shows a soaring bald eagle over the openness of the canyon, searching for its next meal far below. I move away from Dean's detached gaze, too focused on Sam to even notice I have slipped out of his grasp and around the corner of the green shed-like ticket booth to marvel at the pictures. I move to the next photo, it shows the vast openness of the Grand Canyon, miles and miles of canyon and steep cliffs with bright orange, red, and yellow rock illuminating under a dark almost black sky as a thunderous storm approaches from the far side. I move away from the photo to realize that I have reached the end. Only two photos hung up on this side of the booth.

A few feet in front of me is a small building made of brown brick with a sign that hung in the front that says: 'Entrance to overlook the Grand Canyon.' A man is standing in front of the rotating doors taking tickets to let people in. I turn around and head back to my family, now enthralled by everything around me that I hardly notice the angry eyes that waited for me as I approached my little group waiting patiently in front of the booth.

I approach William and take his loosely hanging left hand in my little one. He, also, is focused on whatever Sam is telling them. Dean's eyes bore into mine, his frustration flowing out of him in waves that I chose to ignore at that moment. I tug at William's hand, trying my best to get his attention in a respectful way that doesn't involve interrupting them. Williams' eyes detaches from Sam and he slowly looks down at me, nodding his head slightly for Sam to continue his chat. I don't even know what he is saying, Sam's words flowing past me with no comprehension.

"Can we go now?" I point back to the brown brick building, my patience slowly running thin.

William nods his head at me and turns his attention back to Sam, who looks to be almost finishing up his little speech. I look back at the building in admiration, my innermost self trying to convince my 'goody-two-shoes' self to let go of William's hand and sneak in without them. Almost like he was reading my mind, William's grip on my hand tightens and he gently pulls me back towards him.

I stumbled a little, just now noticing I was slowly drifting away from them again. The conversation between my brothers seemed to end as we all started to disperse and head into the building. I become giddy with excitement and start to hop and skip in my walk next to William to the building.

He hands the man our tickets who tears it in half and hands the other pieces back to William, muttering something about a tour and to hand the other ticket in then. Entering the building, a large window, located directly across from the door, overlooks the vast canyon, some more photographs of the canyon and surrounding nature covered the wall directly to the left and right of the front door and another door in the same wall as the front door are the restrooms. My hand slips out of William's hand and I start to walk towards the window, almost hypnotized by the scenery, until somebody pulls me back by the collar of my shirt.

*MM-HHMM* I hear somebody grunt to try to get my attention. I turn abruptly, noticing the stern look on William's face.

"Viviana, we have a rule for you. Just one little rule for today." William speaks up, ignoring my stern look as I impatiently wait for him to let me explore. "If you run off on your own today, we are going to the car to wait for the others." William sends me a silent plea with his eyes to listen to him.