terrible things - ashton irwin

twenty six

We got off at the Alamosa stop and stuck out our thumbs, trying to look wholesome and innocent. When that didn't work, Ashton told me it was time for me to show some leg.

"You show it," I countered. "You're the one who always charms everyone." (Also, I hadn't shaved since we left home.)

"Except that cop," he said ruefully.

Eventually, a nice old man pulled up. We told him we were headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, and he nodded approvingly and drove us right up to the visitors' centre. He wouldn't even take ten bucks for gas.

Instead, he slipped me a twenty as I was pulling my backpack from underneath the seat. 

"Go out for dinner tonight," he urged. "Y'all need some meat on your bones."

For a moment he gazed wistfully at the sand dunes, gleaming golden at the base of blue, snow-capped mountains. 

"Take care of yourselves, all right?" He said looking sorrowful all of a sudden. He drove of leaving me trying to shake off the strange, sad feeling his good-bye had given me. I looked over at Ashton, who was waving at me from the edge of a creek that cut along the base of the dunes.

"It's like someone picked up apiece of the Sahara and put it down in Colorado," he said when I approached.

"It's amazing," I said, snapping a picture that I knew wouldn't do it justice.

"Why do people end up in towns like K-Falls when there are places like this in the world?"

"That's an excellent question," Ashton said. He flung his arms out wide, as if he could hug the whole huge vista. 

"We should probably never go back." He looked pretty pleased by that idea.

We began walking back to the top of the dunes. It was tough going, the sand was loose, and our feet sank deep into it. I could hear Robinson breathing hard behind me. As we neared the top, the wind picked up the sand and flung it, stinging against us.

"It's like full-body exfoliation," Ashton said, wiping the grit from his face. "There are people who pay good money for this."

"The glass is always half-full for you isn't it ?" I asked.

I would have smiled, but I'd have gotten sand in my teeth. Optimism was on of his best qualities.

Stinging sand aside, we arrived in a spot that was breathtakingly beautiful. On the nearby dunes we saw some people hiking up and others sliding back down on what looked like snow-boards. Their delighted shouts carried through the air, which was already shimmering with heat.

Ashton began to strum an imaginary guitar: "Here comes the sun...."  Then he looked at me somewhat sheepishly. "The Beatles."  

"I know," I told him. "My mum has that album." I squinted into the distance. Beyond the dunes, was acres filled with yellow wildflowers. I held my camera at arm's length and took a picture of us squinting and grinning, on top of the world.

We might have hiked back down then, but i turned and saw an old plastic sled half-buried in the sand. I pointed, and Ashton's eyes lit up.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked but i knew he was, so I didn't wait for an answer.

I climbed onto the front of the sled, and Ashton stood behind me, his hands on my back. He began to run, pushing me, and then he leapt in. He wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his head into my hair as we raced down the slope. The wind whipped the sand into my face but i didn't care, I screamed with delight.

At the bottom of the dune, we lay on the sand, breathless. 

"Wow," Ashton said.

"Who needs snow?" I yelled, flinging up arms up. "Want to go again?"

Of course he did.

We spend a giddy, thrilling hour  hiking up and then racing down, after which we were so hot and tired we could barely move. 

"I'm dying of thirst," Ashton said, collapsing at my feet.

"Also I think my nose is fried."

I tossed him a water bottle from the backpack, but it arced wide. He scrambled to get it, then opened the lid and drained the liquid in about two seconds.

"You're lucky I've got another one for myself," I chided. "Otherwise that would've been very greedy. Very scallywag-ish."

He snorted. "I know you. Of course you have an extra water. Now I'm going to close my eyes. Wake me up in ten." Then he fell asleep, just like that, at the bottom of a sand dune.

- 

We washed off the grit in a cold nearby creek, and we set up our tent at a nearby campground. After dinner, canned chili heated over the fire, we stored our food and packs in the metal bearproof box on the edge of the campsite.

Night came suddenly, as if someone had blown out the sun like a candle. And then the stars burst from the sky, more than I'd ever seen in my life. I stared up, dazzled, and by this point also too spent to speak.

Ashton looked up, too. 

"There's something I wanted to say to you that I never got a chance to," he said.

I knew not to get my hopes up now. "What's that?" I asked.

"Your cooking tastes like feet." he said, while flashing a cheesy grim and taking more hot chili onto his spoon.

"You are such a jerk," I said, laughing. I picked up the rinsed-out chili can and took aim.

"I'm kidding. Not all of it does anyway.." he said giggling.

I put the can back down. I was too exhausted to throw, anyway. Instead, I took a deep drink of water. And I looked at the long, lean shape of Ashton through the darkness, thinking that there were many different kinds of thirst.

- 

word count - 984