WILO Wednesdays

I'm working feverishly on revisions and polishes for SUPERSTITIONS. In my latest comb-through (as opposed to the dreaded comb-over), I left off with Ellie and Alexander making their first trek into the Superstitions Mountains in search of the Lost Dutchman Mine.

           It was morning, and the sun already baked the desert sand at the Siphon Draw trailhead. I stared out at the Flatiron as the eastern light brought the endless sea of saguaros and creosote bush and the broken-looking cliffs of the Superstition Mountains into view.

            I waited as Alexander dug through his grungy backpack, which looked as though it had seen its fair share of days in the Supes, as well as on dusty floors and linoleum caked with citified grime.

            “Shouldn’t we get going?” I asked, adjusting my own backpack, moving the hose of my Camelbak to a more accessible location.

            Alexander pulled out a large tube of sunscreen, squeezing a glob of it into his palm. He slathered it over his face and neck and extended the bottle toward me like it was a canteen to quench days of dehydration.

            “I’m good.”

            “You can never be too safe with ultraviolet rays,” he said while lifting his eyes skyward.

            “The ultraviolet rays and I are fine,” I reassured him while securing my ponytail.

            He pushed the sunscreen back into his bag.

            “Are we ready?” I asked.

            “Almost.”

            Alexander took out another bottle, pinching a large bead of blue on his finger, then proceeded to smear it down the line of his nose. I studied him as though he were some abstraction by that De Kooning guy.

            “That looks ridiculous,” I said, enunciating every word.

            “What? So you don’t think I look attractive?”

            He caught me off guard. Because, in fact, he was attractive. But what was I supposed to say? I couldn’t let him know I thought he was nice to look at. Instead, I felt heat rise to my cheeks. Alexander noticed and, smiling, averted his eyes. When he looked at me again, he extended the bottle of colored sunscreen.

I shook my head.

“All right, but if you burn, you’re the one who’s going to look ridiculous.”