All The Way

Chapter 21

The cool mountain air glided through the canyon as shadows stretched across the research camp. Eliot leaned against the cottonwood listening to the chorus of crickets along the moist riverbank and nervously adjusted his wide-brimmed Panama hat, rechecked his knapsack, and occasionally leaned out and checked the path. Why should he be nervous?

Julia looked in the mirror, carefully applying lipstick. Dropping the tube and mirror on her trunk she adjusted her belt and smoothed out her pants and blouse. Why was she feeling butterflies? Checking her watch she realized she had to hurry, she couldn't be late. Plus, she didn't want to chance encountering Denis Summerlin or worse, Richard.

The camp was crisscrossed in light and shadows as she opened the fly and stepped out. During her late night reconnaissance she had learned all the short cuts and slipped off for the area beyond the corral. Her heart danced in anticipation.

Again, Eliot nervously adjusted his knapsack and leaned out from the cottonwood. He checked the pipe in his shirt pocket and the matches in his pants pocket. Leaning out, his breathing paused as he caught a glimpse of her gracefully walking down the path. Moving closer, she flashed him a radiant smile and he felt his pulse quicken.

He was a man of many words and opinions and yet he was speechless as he stepped from the shadows of the cottonwood. Julia slowed, reaching inside her pants pocket and removing a note. Lips pulling into a coy smile she lowered her eyes and began to read a portion of the note.

"Please join me in experiencing the most beautiful sunset in the world, signed TE. I found this invitation in my tent. That's quite a promise and the best invitation I've had since I've arrived."

Eliot blushed and replied. "So I understand my invitation surpasses a discussion of blood chemistry, ancient climates and the history of maize?"

Julia smirked, gave a husky laugh and returned the note to her pocket.

The professor smiled boyishly, and continued. "I'm quite confident you won't be disappointed." He paused, glanced down at his shoes, before looking up and adding, "Leaving that note, rushing to eat and dress, secretly meet you here, I must confess I feel like an adolescent sneaking out after curfew."

Julia smiled mischievously and raised her chin in defiance. "Don't tell me, you of all people were a rebellious adolescent?"

Deep inside he wished he had had the luxury of a carefree, rebellious adolescence. In reality his early life had been anything but carefree. The death of his father had thrust him at an early age into the role of an adult, a breadwinner. However, the idea they were defying some foolish site protocol appealed to his sense of rebellion. After all, he considered himself an unconventional personality, his own man. But most of all, he couldn't help but feel flattered the attractive physician had left Richard Carter and Denis Summerlin behind to join him.

An impish smile spread across his face, admiring the spark in her eyes.

"Let's just say, I'm as rebellious as you my dear doctor."

Julia emitted a sultry laugh and used her tongue to moisten her lips giving him a seductive sidelong glance. "Yes, I suppose we are alike in that regard."

Eliot's heart raced with excitement and glanced up the path noting time was of the essence, the sun would be setting soon.

"We need to hurry." He said, extending his hand to her.

Without speaking she placed her hand in his and together they moved along the small river, their pace quickening. Walking briskly for another fifteen minutes they stopped at the base of the canyon wall. Again they laughed, realizing they were both breathless from their hurried escape. Eliot's fingers moved across the soft skin of her hand as he surveyed the trail on the geological formation. Her eyes followed his gaze along the narrow uneven path.

He sensed her apprehension as her fingers tighten around his. "The trail is narrow with several switch-backs. We will move along the cliff face away from the edge."

"I really don't enjoy heights, Eliot. Even psychologists have their phobias."

Stokes leaned to the side and captured her eyes with his. "Julia, do you trust me?"

Her lashes fluttered slightly before she nodded in affirmation.

"If you stay with me you will be safe, I promise."

She squeezed his hand and nodded.

The Anasazi had taken a natural wash, developed a trail following the natural contours of the feature along the cliff face through a ravine to the top of the plateau. Stokes and Osmund had explored the area well and used the trail each evening to make their radio contact.

The narrow path varied in width as they methodically made their way to the top. Julia's hand slipped from Eliot's to grip the back of his belt, her steps falling in synch with his. From time to time he would reach back to reassuringly touch her hand. Her eyes never left his back. In twenty minutes they crawled up a v-shaped trench to appear at the top of the plateau.

Julia followed Eliot along the table of rock and looked out at the massive vista. Behind them a blanket of grasses and mesquite spread in all directions to the higher elevations of the Abajo Mountains.

The sun hovered above the horizon on a vista so expansive and so awe-inspiring Julia stared in disbelief. Eliot's arms slipped protectively around her shoulders and pulled her near. He was pleased, it was truly a magnificent sight and together they would share the moment. Before them, lay canyons, mesas, buttes and multicolored bands of reds, oranges, rusts, grays, and sage greens for as far as the eye could see. Above the horizon a flawless, cloudless sky of cobalt blue covered them like a dome. It would be easy to believe they were the only two people on earth. The vastness and silence was difficult to imagine unless seen and experienced.

"Can you hear it?" Eliot whispered in her ear. He watched as Julia strained to listen. A slight breeze whispered by their ears. Julia couldn't believe the silence and searched Eliot's face for an answer.

"The sound of eternity." He whispered against her hair.

Sighing gently he continued. "The march of time is so evident here, like a giant ocean and yet our presence is no more significant than a grain of sand blowing at my feet, our existence a mere blink of an eye."

They were both silent, deep in contemplation.

"Our concept of time and space is so clouded with our human qualities we have difficulty grasping concepts like parallel time and the worm hole of Quentin's stairs."

Eliot paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts again. "I suppose adventure calls to me. In the hallowed walls of academia it becomes so easy to lose touch. When I lecture about ancient cultures, religions and civilizations, I need to remind myself that in places like this it's more than conjecture, it is real. For the people who lived in this village, their lives were more than a chapter in a book, living and surviving was a daily matter of life and death." The Mayan icon came to mind. "Yes, a daily matter of life and death."

Julia stared ahead, thinking of the little girls and their violent deaths. Yes, surviving here was a daily matter of life and death. She felt the comfort and warmth of his arm protectively encircling her shoulders. She slipped her arm around his waist and looked up at him. Was this man in the Panama hat and mustache really her professor? How different he seemed from the man she met so long ago in a smoking jacket, comfortably reading in the silence of his home. Beneath the brim of his hat his gray eyes burned with an intense fire, his skin the color of the golden sun, the smooth full lips now easily pulled into a smile. How handsome he looked and how much she enjoyed his company.

"Thank you for bringing me here."

Eliot felt euphoric. "The show is just beginning, "He cheerfully announced, looking back to the horizon.

The disk of the sun touched the horizon and like a kaleidoscope the colors began to change. Reds, yellows, oranges changed to grays, blues and grays. Shadows formed creating an ever-changing pattern of texture as geologic features moved in and out of light and shadow. The sinking orb would take only a few minutes to drop below the horizon.

She had never seen anything so dramatic, even in Collinwood where sunrise and sunset reigned over the supernatural, she had never seen it displayed so dramatically.

In silence they watched the remnants of the sun disappear, the afterglow illuminating the sky. Eliot slipped the knapsack from his shoulder and removed a lantern and blanket. Julia spread the blanket along a small ledge creating an almost couch-like seat and back in the rock outcrop. The lantern was lit and placed nearby. Taking the pipe from his pocket he ignited the packed tobacco, placed it to his lips, inhaling several times releasing white puffs of smoke. Julia sat on the blanket curling her arms around her bent knees watching him light the pipe, smelling the fragrant tobacco.

Eliot removed his hat and sat down beside her, comfortably draped his right arm along the ledge behind her, supporting his elbow on his left knee, and holding his pipe. Her eyes never left his face watching him bring the pipe to his lips and deeply inhaled, a red glow emanating from the bowl.

Julia moistened her lips craving the scent of the tobacco.

Eliot turned, their eyes met, feeling the intensity, the desire, his heart raced, the pipe stem slipped from his lips.

Slowly her hand moved to his pipe and without hesitation he handed it to her and watched her slip the stem between her lips and inhale. He could almost feel the softness of her lips and sensuously smooth tongue moving along the stem. Trailing along the front of her blouse his eyes watched the creamy white skin disappear in the shadows as the fabric rose and fell with each breath.

Julia opened her eyes, contently looked at him, slipped the stem from her lips and gently moved the pipe toward him, placing the stem between his lips. Eliot's breathing ceased as the pipe stem moved between his lips. She leaned further and gently kissed his cheek.

The touch of her lips electrified him. My god, how he wanted her, to kiss those full lips and feel the soft warmth of her body pressed against his.

"Thank you," She whispered.

Eliot removed the pipe from his lips, leaned toward her, his arm moving to encircle her shoulders pulling her to him when he saw the movement in the shadows over her shoulder. An icy chill gripped him as he stared into the darkness beyond the lantern glow. For a moment contact was made and the coldness reached out from the darkness. Deep in the shadows their every move was being watched. Eliot heard a slight rustle of bramble over his pounding heart.

Suddenly, he felt Julia's fingers on his cheek. "Eliot, what's wrong?"

He didn't realize how abruptly he had stopped and stared. He leaned back, caught his breath, deciding whether they should leave at once, causing Julia to become suspicious and alarmed. Making a decision, he placed the pipe between his lips and searched in his pocket for the polished stones. Gently he took her hand and placed the two stones in her palm.

"Lightning stones." He announced. The physician's face showed fascination, closed her palm and moved the stones around feeling their softness.

"They're polished quartz. The Anasazi took stones polished by the river and used them in their rain ceremonies. The shamans would use stones like these to represent lightning. Now take them in your hand and press them together as you rub them against each other."

Julia moved the stones as instructed; not noticing her companion's attention lay in the shadows beyond. She watched a warm glow appear inside the stones, with a few bright streaks moving out from their centers.

"What is this, Eliot?"

"Are you familiar with piezoelectricity?"

Julia's brows knitted together in concentration. "So it's their crystalline structure that causes this."

He nodded and smiled, pleased at her mental gymnastics. The physician continued to move the stones through her fingers. Eliot tried to keep his tone relaxed and conversational while continuing to scrutinize the area around them.

Suddenly, Julia stopped and held the stones up in the light of the lantern.

"Is this a spiral carved on their sides?"

Eliot reached out and took one.

"Of course, these are reproductions. A common practice in our profession is to replicate the techniques of ancient peoples. A greater understanding is derived from the actual making of various artifacts. I made these myself. The spiral in Anasazi culture represents the harmony of natural events." Eliot pointed to the spiral on the stone. "Notice the clockwise rotation representing the rising and setting of the sun."

Julia's face became expressionless as she stared at the stone in her hand, when copying Richard's notes she had copied several spirals. Her tone betrayed her concern. "Eliot, what does it mean if the spiral is in reverse, what if the spiral is counterclockwise?"

The professor tried not to reveal his surprise and concern and laughed softly, "Where did you see a counterclockwise spiral?"

"What makes you think I've seen one, Eliot? You know how I am, always asking questions?"

Eliot's eyes narrowed as he searched her face, his lips pursed together. "I also know you don't ask questions without a reason." His tone revealed his growing annoyance and leaned closer, only inches from her face as not to be overheard. "I also know you are the most secretive woman I've ever known, and certainly the most stubborn."

Julia smiled sweetly. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

He took her chin between his fingers forcing her to look directly in his eyes, "Please, trust me."

She blinked nervously while his fingers gently caressed the soft skin of her chin, he whispered tenderly. "I don't share my pipe with just anyone."

Julia felt her eyes growing moist as she tried to look away.

With quiet urgency he continued. "Julia, this is serious. You have no idea what this could mean. A counterclockwise circle represents a perversion of nature. It represents the dark forces, the dark side. You and I know those dark forces only too well."

Eliot could see the fear in her eyes and leaned closer so she might whisper in his ear.

The physician's lips were quivering, barely able to speak, she whispered, "Early tomorrow morning, come to the research tent and I'll show you."

Eliot heard a snap in the mesquite, felt the chill, turning, he stared defiantly into the darkness.

"Let's head back," He whispered.

~~~tbc~~~