Page 17 of Beneath the Desert Bloom
She swallowed. Words stuck in her throat.
He nodded at the map. “You heading somewhere specific?”
“I was just going to… follow the map.” She almost laughed at how ridiculous it sounded. She didn’t care.
“That where the red string trails off into the hills?”
Nora stared. “You’ve seen the map before?”
He straightened, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Your grandfather showed me some of it. Said there were places out there that didn’t stay put.”
He gestured toward the map. “That won’t get you there.”
Nora raised an eyebrow, unsure if he was serious.
“The path isn’t fixed. You don’t follow it. You interpret it. Out here, a straight line’ll loop back on you if you’re not paying attention.”
Nora glanced down at the map, the red line suddenly looking less like a guide and more like a test.
“People get turned around,” he said. “Even locals. Some don’t come back.”
Her voice was thin. “What happens to them?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes the desert keeps what it wants.”
She looked past him, out to the hills. “Do you believe that?”
“I’ve seen enough to know it doesn’t matter if I do,” he said. “It believes in itself.”
He tapped the battery. “Try it now.”
She slid into the driver’s seat, pulse hammering at her throat. She turned the key and the engine roared to life like nothing had ever been wrong.
She looked up at him. “Thank you.”
He nodded once. “Your grandfather left you that map because the desert knew you were coming back. It doesn’t waste time on the wrong people.”
He met her eyes. “And it doesn’t give them back, either.”
She wanted to ask what he meant, a million questions flooding her brain. But when she turned to speak, the road wasempty. No footsteps. No dust trail. Just heatwaves on pavement and the sound of the engine purring like it had never stopped.
She stared at the empty place where he’d stood. Then down at the stone in her hand.
“Classic desert hospitality… mystical park rangers and unsolicited prophecies. Don’t really know what to make of that,” she muttered, shaking her head.
She shifted into drive and pulled away without looking back.
***
The diner was closed when she got to town.
A paper sign hung crooked on the glass:
GONE TO THE WELL. BACK LATER. MAYBE.
Nora stared at it, blinking once, twice.Of course. Perfect.She didn’t even bother knocking.
Next door, a storefront she could’ve sworn hadn’t been there yesterday caught her eye.
