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Show THE ZEPHYR/FEBRUARY-MARCH “AN A EXCERPT NOVE L IN P ROGRESS BY JIM 2008 up...fifteen tops. If you aim for this juniper tree, the branches...are you listening?.. These branches will break your fall. I'd be amazed if you didn’t walk away from this with just a few scrapes and abrasions.” Bannion paused, then added with detached enthusiasm, “And what a great story to tell the grandkids someday.” Chad stared wildly at the ranger. Sweat poured so pn from his body that as he shook, Bannion stepped back to avoid the spray. “GODDAMNIT, Ranger! It’s your job to save me! Please fuckin’ help me!” The kid had a point. It was Bannion’s responsibility on occasions like this, to offer assistance to park visitors when they found themselves in situations that compromised FROM STILE S The Raven, more than anyone else, saw the humor in it all. Seven hundred feet above the scorched entrada towers and desicated junipers, his view was unlimited and eternal. He saw everything. The slightest movement captured his attention, from the rusty whiptail lizard that did blacklight pushups on the broken shelf of baked sandstone near the Upper Fiery Furnace to the fanatical black ants that swarmed over a disabled beetle in the datura at Sand Dune Arch. The Raven was omnipotent. Still he never took himself too seriously; he may have pretended to be soaring at times in the rarified high desert skies but he knew better than that. He was floating on hot air, Ranger Bannion tried to reason with the man. “Look you’re no more than twelve feet up...fifteen tops. If you aim for this juniper tree, the branches... are you listening? ee These branches will break your fall. riding the thermals, enjoying the art of doing nothing and letting that simple gesture be I'd be amazed if you didn’t walk away from this all that mattered. His legs dangled carelessly beneath him—reducing areodynamic drag failed to worry the black bird. He was content. The glints of light that speckled the desertscape, the metallic rumble that accompanied them, the harsh shrill sounds of entities he knew could not be a true part with just of the Natural their own ‘World failed to stir in the Raven any fear or dread either. He had grown accustomed to them. The shimmering ribbons that stretched in all directions and which seemed to convey these distractions produced a certain symmetry that the Raven almost a few scrapes and abrasions.” health and safety. Asa25 year veteran of the National Park Service, Jack knew _that he faced a dual and often conflicting mandate. He had never erred in his devotion _to “preserve and protect” his beloved Arches National Park and, in fact, there were those admired. who From his vantage point, they looked like distant flash floods. He had even been fooled once by the sight, when he was : thought his zeal might have gone beyond the bounds of reason and even the law at times. It was the other component very young and looking for some of thing to drink, but only once. Today, riding the heat near the Devils Garden, above the cluste of metal and noise that was now a permanent part of the view, the Raven tipped his wing and rotat ed his tail to descend for a closer look. A flash of otherworldly color | caught his attention near the old Magical Mystery Trail. A brightly | hued living entity seemed to be | hugging the hot sandstone and making hideous noises, more grotesque than one might expect, even from these odd creatures. Beneath ten wondered. And while no one -could | the bright flailing one, a cluster of | the same “My GOD!” the kid interrupted. not gonna make it, man!” Bannion shifted uneasily. “Just try to.calm down,” Jack pleaded. “We'll figure something out.” Chad's partner now took it | upon herself to hasten the rescue. this creain all dia- lects and the meaning of his cries | and pleas was clear. But the Raven could not grasp his dilemma. Why just stay there pathetically and bellow if you are so “Please? Please help him?” She leaned toward the ranger, her perfectly structured Really, thought the Raven...why doesn’t he just fly away? : | “Ranger Bannion?” she asked softly and Jack turned away from the cliff face. unhappy and so afraid? Why draw so much attention to yourself? The Chad | “Please shut up and save me! I’m ture spoke a universal language. Fear sounds young _ duty in half an..” cliff. One of them, dressed drably, in battleship grey and loden green, | appeared to be attempting some | kind of communication. Strange, thought the Raven. The from that to rig a rescue line for you? I’m off his ilk stood idly at the base of the noises emanating suggest was “enjoying” himself at this moment, wasn’t it his own foolishness, his lust for an extreme adrenalin fix, that put him here to _ begin with? “Would you at least consider a jump? Do you have any idea what kind of set-up is required if I have young face was just inches from his own. A tear rolled down the curve of her cheek. A lock of her surf blonde hair fell carelessly across one brilliantly clear azure blue eye (She had another eye, just as blue, on the other side). She buried her face in Bannion’s uniform shirt and sobbed quietly. “I don’t know what I’d do without him...please save him.” This is why I live alone, thought Bannion. Why do they still get to me? “Okay...Okay!” He lookedat the girl, shook hishead in defeat. Raven, more than anyone else, saw the humor in it all. é The glints of light that speckled the desertscape, the metallic rumble that accompanied them, web sae oy Cee Chad whimpered, almost panting, “Yeah...please dude, like help me.” the harsh shrill sounds of entities he knew “If you can hang on just a bit longer, I’m going back to the rescue cache. Ill get a rope could not be a true part of the Natural World failed to stir in the Raven any fear or dread. and i gear and then I'll climb ae “Oley aman He mutabled, above y you, set an anchor, and ot get you off the slickrock. Jack moved away from the shade of the juniper, fated toward the patrol cruiser and the girl called out, “It'll be fine now Chad. The nice ranger is going to take care of everything. And remember your blonde honey is waiting for you down here.” B es looked up ee instimetoce ae kid ce is ght on!” grinned Chad. Right on? : “Why don’t you just jump?” Seasonal ranger Jack Bannion had a problem. He was less than an hour from quitting time and the end of his work week and had every intention of being out of the park and on his way to the Blues and the high country and 4000 vertical feet above this oppres- Ranger Bannion stopped dead in the hot sand and turned. “What did you say? Did you just say ‘right on’?” “Huh?” Chad shrugged. “Did you just say, ‘right on.’? Three minutes ago you were screaming for your life. You were sobbing like a three year old, Chad. Now I’m off to gather fifty pounds of rescue gear---ropes, harnesses, anchor bolts, goddamn carabiners---so I can come back and rescue your sorry ass and now that the moment of crisis has passed, you've already moved ahead in your own vacant little mind to this evening’s romp with your gorgeous groupie here?...What’s your name again, sweet cheeks?” “Er... Heather,” she stammered. “You want me to work overtime, probably for free, delay my days off, and risk my life so you and Heather here can have a Big Grope this evening?” “Hey ranger,” flashed the girl, “You can’t talk to us like that.” sive heat by six, when this moron, the most recent in a long line, interrupted his best laid plans. The object of his disgust was just twelve feet away, straight up, pinned to the edge of a sandstone fin. The young man, Chad Harrington, a 23 year old native of some Los Angeles suburb and a “professional climber” according to his luscious sparsely clothed girlfriend, had taken one step too many. While trying to impress his date he had, as it always happened, suddenly discovered he could move neither up nor down nor sideways on the steeply pitched rock. The friction had made him over-confident. Now the angle of the rock and the edge of forever stopped him. He was, to use the vernacular, “rimrocked.” “Did you hear what I just said?” Jack called out. “Why don’t you just jump?” Chad was paralyzed with fear. “Are you nuts? Are you crazy? Get me down from here!” Ranger Bannion tried to reason with the man. “Look you’re no more than twelve feet 22 5 |