ROOMIES

Please enjoy the medium-sized story below. Not too short, not too long. Read it as often as you'd like. It will be here for a limited time, but have no fear. Another one will takes its place.

“Hi auntie Sapphire!”

“Hey, look who it is! My favorite 5-year-old, in the whole wide world!”

Sapphire squeezes her nephew, Darson, in a paralyzing hug, just before she picks him up and spins him around like a maniac on wheels. He screams out an honest belt of laughter, so excited to finally be with his favorite aunt.

“You guys are crazy!” Darson’s mom, Ivy, says through her happy chuckle. She snaps her fingers at them,

“Oki dokie fellas. Break up it up. We’d better get going! We’re already running late… thanks to all that stinking traffic that Darson and I were trapped in from San Diego.”

Sapphire puts Darson down, and heads for Ivy in a silly scary movie type of walk, 

“So, the traffic was pretty bad getting over here to Palm Springs, you say?!”

Sapphire goes in for a hug, and gives one tighter than anyone ever has.”

“Aah!” Ivy yelps, but knows she loves the extra dose of affection from her one and only seester.

After several seconds, Sapphire releases Ivy. Clapping her hands together, she asks, 

“Anybody ready to go to…”

Darson simultaneously joins in with her,

“JOSHUA TREE?!”

All three wave their hands in the air, as if to say, I’m ready!

Sapphire locks up her house, while Ivy and Darson pack her Jeep with the cooler full of snacks, waters, and small emergency kit backpacks. Buckling into Sapphire’s jeep, Ivy blasts the music, and they head off to their Joshua Tree adventure…

…Little do they know what awaits them ahead. Even if they did, they still wouldn’t have believed it happened.

…HOURS LATER, EXPLORING JOSHUA TREE…  

Darson begins acting fidgety. Ivy notices, and asks,

“What’s wrong, honey?”

Doing the pee-pee dance, he answers, “Gotta use the bathroom, Mommy. Where are the bathrooms around here?”

Ivy and Sapphire laugh. Ivy explains,

“The bathrooms are everywhere around here. In nature, you find a safe spot, watch for critters, then go.”

Darson looks worried because the park swarms with other humans, and he doesn’t want to expose himself by accident. Ivy feels the same, although Sapphire objects confidently,

“Just go right here! Who cares!”

Ivy glances at her sister and gives a slight shake of the head in disapproval. Sapphire widens her eyes and shuts her mouth from saying anything more when she sees that look. She knows that look all too well: the mom-look.

“Let’s just keep walking, son. We’ll find a boulder where there’s less people walking around. I actually have to use the bathroom, too.”

“Me, too, now that you mention it,” Sapphire concurs.

Ivy continues, “Well then, we can all take turns covering each other and handing each other the cleansing wipes for our hands afterwards.”

Sapphire gives a soldier salute to Ivy, “Ay ay, captain!”

Darson giggles at his funny auntie.

Ivy leads the way, on guard, cautiously stepping in front of her pack. She explains to keep careful watch of snakes, scorpions, spiders, and of-course, coyotes. Darson walks in the middle of his mom and aunt. Sapphire trails in the back of the pack, watching the beautiful sky change colors, not listening to a word Ivy says.

“Wow, the sky looks so amazing! Is it already almost time for the sun to set?” Sapphire asks.

“Uh oh, it is! You’re right. We’d better just stop here to use the bathroom. Perfect secluded spot, for sure! Then we can head to that last flat boulder I wanted to climb. As long as we don’t dilly-dally, we’ll make it back to the road before sunset.”

Darson and Sapphire reply together, “Ay ay captain!”

…MINUTES LATER…

Continuing their trek through the dirt and bushes, the three hear small rustling around them. They see all kinds of interesting cacti plants, and cool critters like beetles, spiders, wild rabbits, mice, road runners, and so on. Darson carefully checks off each creature in his Youth Ranger Book given to him at the park’s check-in station.

Of all the things catching their attention, though, the blue bird circling above them proves the most peculiar. It keeps making the strangest sounds as it dives into bushes next to them; then it shoots back into the air, and repeats. Darson and Sapphire think it’s neat, but Ivy thinks the bird is trying to warn them.

“I think he’s trying to tell us something guys. Maybe there’s a snake sneaking around us, and we don’t even know it. So, he’s trying to warn us. Don’t you think?”

“Sis, don’t be scared!”

“Yea, mom! I’ll protect you.”

Ivy doesn’t want to make them afraid, too. So, she stops pointing out the grim possibility that something seems strange.

“You guys are probably right. Let’s just get to where we’re going… Hey, speaking of which!” She points across the dirt trail.

Straight ahead of them lies a gigantic rock formation of various flat boulders stacked on top of each other. Darson’s Ranger Book describes how the rocks got like that centuries ago by flooding. As they climb, they collect many rare looking rocks from the ground. Sapphire piles some in her backpack, while Darson and Ivy pile a hefty stack in theirs.

Once they climb to the steep top, they notice antiquated markings on the rocks. The mysterious artwork distracts Sapphire and Darson. Meanwhile, Ivy still can’t help but feel leery. Like someone is watching them.

She looks up at the dehydrated tree to the right and sees that same blue bird sitting there. Watching. Quiet. “That’s interesting that he’s quiet now,” she thinks. She hears Darson’s voice,

“Mom, come sit down with us.”

“Yea, sis, take a rest. Relax!”

Ivy sits down for just a moment before her instincts tell her to get up quickly and look down. When she does, what she sees leaves her breathless…

The biggest coyote stands boldly on the dirt trail below, only about 20 feet away. Bigger than a wolf! Grayish brown in color. Shaggy, sharp blades of fur raised up from its body. It looks determined, like it knows something Ivy doesn’t. Piercing eyes staring into Ivy’s soul.

She stares back. Motionless.

“Sapphire,” Ivy softly calls.

But Sapphire and Darson are having too much fun together to hear Ivy’s small voice.

“SAPPHIRE!”

Startled, Sapphire answers, “Yea, what’s up?”

Calmly but sternly, Ivy commands, “Get up. Pick up Darson. Give me your backpack of rocks. And climb down the backside of the rock. Head back to the car, now. There’s a coyote.”

Sapphire doesn’t hesitate. She immediately puts Darson on her back for a piggy-back ride, and calmly tells him to keep his eyes covered while holding on as tight as possible to her. She steps closer to the edge of the boulder where Ivy is, to hand her the backpack, and gets a glimpse of the menacing creature below.

She slowly hands Ivy the bag and whispers to her, “Dude, that’s the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen!”

Ivy repeats, “Go. Now!”

Sapphire books it down the backside of the boulder and begins briskly walking through the thorny bushes, with nephew solidly secured on her back. Once Ivy hears that they got away safely behind her, she begins stepping backwards in order to climb down and get away herself, too.

With her eyes still locked on the intense beast who stands as still as a majestic statue, Ivy raises the rock-filled backpack as a warning while she steps back. The giant coyote tilts his head to the other side in confusion. Unimpressed by her.

When her feet hit the ground, she hears the unseen animal kicking up dirt on the other side. She hurries through the thorny bushes, trailing Sapphire and Darson by a couple of yards. But keeps walking backwards swinging the heavier bag of rocks in front of her, just in case the coyote (and its pack) is following. All she thinks is,

“Come on! You wanna get crazy? Let’s get crazy! I might get eaten by you today, but I ain’t going down without a fight. And I ain't letting you get my seester and son!”

After several feet of realizing nobody is chasing her, she decides to turn around and run facing forward. She sees Sapphire and Darson waiting for her at the top of the hill, back on the trail. She runs to them and yells,

“GO! GO! GO!”

Sapphire puts Darson down so they can cross the patch of steppingstones. She holds his hands and keeps reassuring him, “We’re making it! You’re doing good nephew!”

Darson keeps asking, “Why are we going so fast? Just because the sun is going down?”

“Don’t worry about it, son! Just keep moving,” Ivy replies, still sporadically looking back and swinging the backpack when she does so.

As they approach the main road just ahead, Sapphire sees a vehicle parked. It looks like an ambulance.

“Look, Ivy! What are the odds? It’s like: if we did happen to need emergency medical assistance, it would’ve been right here for us.”

“Oh wow! That’s a flat-out sign, man. We got away just in time. Let’s go tell the drivers our escape story and thank them anyway for being available to help in emergencies.”

Tired, but still full of adrenaline, they get closer to the truck. Before they approach completely though, a man in an old tuxedo gets out of the driver’s seat and opens the passenger door. Out steps a woman in a knee-length, white lace, sheer dress and a hippie headband.

Ivy doesn’t understand what’s happening,

“What’s going on?”

Sapphire suddenly starts laughing. Darson does, too.

“Look at the truck, Ivy!”

Ivy looks, “OK. What?”

“Ivy - read the words on the truck!”

“I know. It says…” Ivy stops and consciously reads the words: JAMbulance. Not ambulance.

“It says JAM-bulance. Really?!” Ivy says monotoned, in disbelief. "Well, I'm glad we didn't need the help after all!"

All three of them start laughing so hard that they have to pee all over again before reaching the car.

“Nope,” Ivy declares, “We’ll hold it until we pass a store on the way home.”

…YEARS LATER…

And so goes the tale of the Joshua Tree adventure.

Based on a true story.

(All Rights 2023 Amber Renee'. Content not to be copied, reproduced, recorded or shared in any other printed or digital format without consent from the author.)