True-Life Adventure

him out. The Lazy C did have some female wranglers, it seemed, but that wasn’t the kind Rachel’s husband was fooling around with. According to Sardis, Rachel said if it had been a woman, she would have kept him around without too many hard feelings. But she didn’t like having her cowboy illusions shattered.
    Anyway, she looked like the kind of woman who could run a dude ranch and raise a kid alone. She had great shoulders.
    “Sardis, darlin’!” She came outside in her blue fleece robe and enfolded Sardis. “I’m sorry, honey. Lindsay was real firm on the subject of not lettin’ anyone know where she was. Real firm. You just never know what Jacob might do and I thought maybe… I mean, I just didn’t know. I’m real sorry, honey.”
    “Thank God,” said Sardis. “She’s here, then?”
    “Why, no. No, she isn’t.”

CHAPTER 22
    “Goddammit. Fuck!” I looked around for Ishi, thinking to kick him to let off steam, and as you know, I’m a sucker for animals.
    “Who’s your friend?” said Rachel.
    Sardis blushed. “He’s not too bad when you get to know him. I mean, he doesn’t spit or fart or anything. Once he even opened a door for me.”
    I felt like an ass. “Sorry, Rachel. I’m just feeling kind of frustrated. My name’s Paul Mcdonald.”
    “You’re kidding. Paul Mcdonald, the writer?”
    Good lord! A fan. Susanna was the first one I’d ever met and now here was another. It was too good to be real.
    And it wasn’t. I was busy pinching myself while Rachel had the bad manners to explain: She’d seen my story about Jacob.
    I liked her anyhow. She fed Sardis and me a ranch-style breakfast of pancakes and sausage while she told us about Lindsay. It seems we’d guessed exactly right. Lindsay was using the Lazy C as a home base, but she was traveling around a lot with Terry. Terry seemed quite well and Lindsay wanted her to have a good time while she still could. So they were gone most of the time. So far they’d been to Disneyland and Yellowstone and now they were at the Grand Canyon.
    Or more specifically, they were aboard a raft on the Colorado River. They’d left two weeks ago, and there was no way to get in touch with them for another week. “No way in hell,” as Rachel put it.
    “You’re sure?”
    “No question, honey. I know because of Terry. Lindsay was real worried she’d get sick on the river, but she decided to go ahead and take the chance.”
    “How about helicopters? Maybe we could hire one to lower us down.”
    “Honey, I don’t see how. I mean, if the raft’s movin’ along with the river, how’s it gon’ hold still long enough for that?”
    There had to be a way. I was trying to think of it while Sardis asked Rachel if she could make a phone call and then went off to do it.
    She came back looking all tense, as if a lot depended on something or other. “Rachel. What day did Lindsay and Terry actually get on the raft?”
    “About a week ago, I think. They were gonna drive around and do a lot of sightseein’ the first week.”
    “The raft must have left from Lee’s Ferry.”
    “It was Lee’s Ferry. I remember specially because Lindsay had to look real hard to find a raftin’ company that would take a kid that young. Finally found one there.”
    Sardis spoke with infinite patience. “Do you remember the day the raft trip started?”
    “Well, let’s see. They left… well, it was about a week and a half ago, actually on a Monday. They had a week before the raft trip. Today’s Thursday, so that means…”
    “Last Monday. Did they leave Monday?”
    “I do b’lieve they did.” Rachel looked puzzled. “What difference does it make?”
    Sardis’s tense face relaxed. She went positively radiant with relief. “I think we can catch them.”
    She was too much, that Sardis.
    “I just called the Grand Canyon Visitors’ Center. They said we can flag them down when they pass Phantom Ranch.”
    “No!”
    “It takes six days to get there from Lee’s Ferry, so that gives us till day after tomorrow.”
    “That should be plenty of time.”
    “It’s barely enough. It means we have to get there today. Because it takes a whole day to get down to the ranch.” Rachel sighed deeply. “Y’all can’t make it.”
    “Why not?”
    “You got to get from here to someplace with an airport— nearest place is probably San Francisco. Then you gotta fly to Flagstaff and then get from there to the place to start hikin’ in. And it’ll take you all day just to