THE GHOST LIGHTS OF MARFA

Chapter Two

Kristy drove past a row of small adobe houses, and then spotted a looming wall with an old army barracks rising above it. “See that, Cody? Soldiers lived there a long time ago. Now they keep famous art in it.”

“I want to go there.” Cody bounced on the backseat.

She turned the corner and parked the car in the lot. They jumped out and rushed toward the twenty-foot-tall horseshoe.

Her gaze scanned the rough, dark brown surface and locked on the huge, bent nail stuck through the shoe. Kristy understood how the nail felt.

“It’s so big, Mommy.” Cody’s eyes grew wide and his face beamed. “What kind of horse would that fit?”

She laughed aloud. It had been days since she’d done that. “A pretty big horse.” What would she do without Cody? He was the one bright light in her life. She had to find a way to support him.

“I’ve never seen a giant horse.” Cody wobbled his head.

“No, but you‘ve seen a giant horseshoe.”

“Yeah, I have. Wait ‘til I tell the kids at school.” He reached his tiny hand out and touched the end of the horseshoe where it rested on its aluminum stand.

“Come, let’s see the rest.” Kristy grabbed his hand and they skipped toward the field scattered with huge concrete cubes.

She hadn’t explained that he couldn’t go back to his old school, that they couldn’t go back to their old house. She couldn’t bear for him to be afraid or worried. He didn’t know anything was wrong and she was going to do her best to keep it that way as long as she could. Though time was running out. Right now she only had the car and the belongings in the trunk, nothing else.

 “Mommy, they’re big boxes.”

“Yes . . . art.”

As Cody ran in and out of the square sculptures, brandishing his pirate sword, Kristy waded through knee-high grass, past a stand of green, prickly-pear cactus. Her eyes drank in the panorama of the mountains, sloping against ribbons of pink and amber, rippling across the vast sky. She tilted her head back, gazing at the sinking sun. As she breathed in the fresh desert air, the weight of a thousand tons pressed against the pit of her stomach, then vanished, leaving her refreshed and hopeful. Surely if there was any place where her luck could turn around, it was this tiny, enchanting town.

She glanced at Cody, sword-fighting with a cluster of juniper trees. “Look at the sunset, punkin.”

The glowing orb floated over the gentle curve of the distant tanzanite-tinted mountains. “I wish this day would last forever.” The clouds changed from white to bright pink, like clumps of cotton candy. “I love you, Cody.”

“I love you too, Mommy.”

“It's dark enough now. Let’s go see those lights. I’ll race you.”

He reached the car first. She was still panting as she buckled him in, then she drove toward the observation deck.

* * * * *

On the way to the observation deck, her son sang an original Cody tune. “We’re going to the lights. We’re going to see the lights. We’re going to see the magic lights, the magic lights of Marfa.”

She rubbed her teeth against her lower lip as she glanced at the gauge, so close to empty. Kristy hoped she’d make it to the observation deck and back into town. Getting stranded on Highway 90 could ruin this vacation or what she called a vacation. But as the road stretched out before her, the observation deck seemed farther away than she anticipated.

“Mommy, where are the lights? I don’t see them. Are they coming? I want to see the lights.”

“I promise you, Cody, you’ll see them. Bright, glowing lights in the sky. Like magic.”

Kristy’s body hummed with excitement. An orange light, the size of a basketball, appeared out of the darkness, then as if animated, the sphere zipped and zagged across the sky. “Cody, look.” Suddenly, another light popped up. It blinked away as quickly as it appeared.

"Mommy, the lights turned on!”

"Yes they did, Cody. They sure did.” Out of nowhere, multi-colored flashes of red, white, green, and yellow rollicked in the sky. “I don’t have to drive to the observation deck. We can see them right here.”

The glowing balls drew her like a lodestone. Kristy longed to be closer to them, to leap and dance in the night sky. She pulled the car to the side of the road. With her fingers flying against the buckle, she tore out of her seatbelt. Cody rushed out as well.

“Stay on this side of the car, punkin. It’s dark and someone might run over you if you get out on that road.”

“Mommy, look.” His eyes grew wide with wonder as he pointed at the glowing lights, changing color and size. “Hello light, hello.” Cody leapt up and down. “Look, Mommy, I can jump high enough to touch the lights.” He stretched his arms over his head, reaching up with his fingers splayed, and bounced like a yo-yo.

“This is weird.” Kristy watched the lights line up like a strand of beads and then scatter across the sky, as if they burst loose from a broken necklace. A beam of green popped off, then suddenly flashed back on. A blinking red orb whizzed back and forth across the fudge-colored sky.

Cody spread his skinny arms and spun like an airplane propeller. “Look, Mommy, the lights and I are dancing together, them in the sky and me on the ground.”

"Yes, I see. Look at you dance, just like the ghost lights.” Kristy twirled like Cody, until she grew dizzy and stumbled.

“I used to do this as a little girl. I’d forgotten how much fun it is.” Bubbling warmth filed her as she bounced and whirled, playing with Cody, dancing with the lights. As she gazed at a red light, it grew brighter and changed to yellow. One of the green lights split into two. “How do they do that?”

“Mommy, I don’t want to leave. Can’t we stay with the lights forever?”

“They have to go back to where they came from. It’s late, it’ll be morning soon.”

A brilliant orange light captured her gaze, expanding as it stalked toward them, looming closer and closer. She realized now, not a single car had driven past them.

“We need to head back. I’ll let you leave the seatbelt off, just this once, so you can look out the rear window and watch the lights.”

“No, I want to stay with the lights.”

“You’re tired. It’s been a long day. You need to go to bed, punkin.” She held the door to the back seat open as he protested, scuffing his feet against the dirt.

Finally, Cody climbed in. Kristy turned the key in the ignition, shifted the old clunker into drive. She originally planned to camp out in the car at the observation deck since they had restrooms there, but now she realized they’d never make it on the gas she had left, so she decided to go back to town and find a good place to park for the night. She made a U-turn, but the eerie, orange light shadowed them.