RED CLOUDS OF CROWS

Melody now looked at the rocks in the distance, thinking of why she had come to join John a few weeks ago. They had planned a short trip in the Sierras to celebrate their reunion. John had spent a year in France with her, and now it was her turn to come spend time in the US with him. Hoping to celebrate her birthday in some secret place with John and keep a cherished remembrance of the event that she wanted to remain personal she pressed him to find a location known only of him in the deepest canyon as she somehow naively defined it. They traveled around two hundred and eighty miles to their secret place without telling anyone where they had decided to stay. Their most intimate friends only knew that they had left for a remote location. They had arrived yesterday fresh and happy. It took less than one afternoon for a series of malicious and weird troubles to poison their stay. First John’s car, a renovated Cadillac El Dorado, gave them mechanical troubles that ended with a dead battery or alternator. John spent hours trying to repair the battery without success. They were stranded instead of hidden from the world. Melody lost her patience and began to sob. John comforted her by saying that he was going to call a mechanic. To make things worse, the phone fell silent when he tried to place the call. There was Melody’s birthday party in the toilet. A party that was to be the best birthday of her life. But who had thought they would be sitting in…