Vanished

Allison stood at the railing that went around the look-out’s edge. The sunset was several hours away, and the sun blazed down from the afternoon sky above the awe-inspiring, rock formations. She gazed out passed the statues filling the valley and searched the distance for something ominous that was waiting and silently calling from just beyond her sight. Something waiting to add to her loss and grief.

The valley looked more detailed and intricate with the tall, uneven, spirals and small, rock steps along the rocky faces than before. Yet, the joy and excitement from last year’s visit was missing. The light disappeared from her eyes, and no candle wick stayed burning within her heart. No matter how hard she tried to push the though of her fiancé, Bruce, being absent from her mind, it always creeped back in and ruined her reminiscences. It never failed to remind her that he was gone.

She thought she was at the wrong look-out. There were a few more along the historical route, she was following. From the one she was at, the valley looked too barren, too desolate, and too uninhabitable. It was a miracle that the Navajo had once lived and thrived here. No, that was not right. This was the exact look-out she had been at with Bruce. She recognized the spider woman shaped monument from where she stood. It had been her first sight, all those months ago.

It was the wrong time of day. The sun had been painting the sky with pinks, lavenders, and yellows, when they had stopped to take photographs, a year ago. The radiating sun, although placing spectacular highlights all over the rock formations, was too intense. It washed out the landscape, making it look too pale and colorless.

When a mini van parked at the look-out, she stepped away from her spot at the railing and went to sit on a stone bench. A large family exited the van, gathered at her earlier location, and looked out into the valley. The husband and wife were smiling, kissing, and taking turns being in photos with the children. She saw herself and Bruce in them, in their happiness and bright future. They had been similar while together, her and Bruce, before he had disappeared from her life, four months ago.

Rumor was that he had run off with another woman. She did not believe this, though. She would not be able to continue onward if he had left her for someone else. It would destroy her from the inside out. She had put as much time into the relationship they had had as it took for the weather to design the monuments in the valley. It was better to think him dead. It kept her sad and mourning what would never be rather than angry and volitile. She had received a large payout from an insurance policy and began to follow a dream discarded for love. A dream with cigarette smoking, liquor drinking, and dying to live a life with more peace and solitude, while traveling the world.

When the family left in their van, an hour later, Allison returned to the place with a view of the large, rock art, reaching toward the sky. She shivered as the long, eery, distorted shadows extended across the valley floor. It was as if they were moving closer to grasping and suffocating her. It was not the right season. This is why the shadows reached out for her. She had been here with Bruce during the springtime. It was autumn, now.

She ached to be whole again, and tears dropped onto her shirt. She stayed until the sun set, and countless stars shone in the vast nighttime sky. The full moon was half-hidden by one of the rocky spires, and coyotes yelped and cried from some place down in the valley. It was not any use. The magical moments she had had with Bruce while on their way to Vegas to get married were gone. Not even a shard from the shattered dream stayed behind. A star fell out from the universe and shot into the nighttime before it vanished. She did not have a wish, plea, or prayer in her for the rare sight.