In the distance, Flagstaff looked like a mirage of OZ with a few buildings jutting into the skyline. From here we’d take 89-A into Sedona. I was tired and had to pee, and Dolly was itching to get out of the car, but I was anxious to get to Eloise and Charlie’s ranch and there didn’t seem to be much of a reason to stop in Flagstaff. We exited onto the back desert highway to finish the last thirty miles of our incredibly long journey. I glanced down at the odometer, which I had reset in Richmond. We had driven over two thousand miles. 89-A was bumpy and pocked with holes and cracks in the pavement. It looked as though the extreme heat and lack of moisture had taken its toil.
The road twisted and turned through gorgeous canyons. It was otherworldly. Every few miles there was a roadside stand selling sage bundles and vortex maps. I’d never heard of a vortex map. I wondered what it was. Dolly was alert now. She had recognized the terrain was different. Any veering off the interstate meant stopping for a romp or arriving at a destination to her. I was glad it was the latter. I couldn’t wait to get there.
I found my notes on how to get to the ranch. Eloise had said I’d go through Devil Canyon, which was really more like a tunnel. After that I was to drive exactly eighteen miles. I’d notice a huge boulder and a row of cacti on the left and I’d see a little dirt road just beyond that on the right. There it was. Davenport was hand painted on a mailbox made out of an old piece of wormy chestnut. The top of the box was covered in petrified animal bones. That was just like El, so O’Keeffey. I turned in. I couldn’t see the house from the road. She had said it was about a mile in.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. It was like an adobe mansion: a beautiful mixture of rock and clay and wood. The driveway was not paved but once I got closer to the house, I heard the crunch of pebbles on the turnaround. Though it was not running, a geometric fountain was in the middle. It looked like something Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed. That was Charlie. The two of them made an interesting artistic team. Eloise leaned more toward organic earthy things and Charlie liked clean lines of steel and glass. I stopped the car and let Dolly out. She was a little timid at first and then she bounced around sniffing and investigating everything she saw. I sat on the fountain wall and sighed. What an amazing place! Just as I was thinking how quiet it was, a woman came around from the back. It was Lorraine. The fountain made a gurgling splurty noise and shot out a geyser that sprayed me with water.
“Ooops, sorry about that,” she said walking toward me.
“Oh, I needed it.” I wiped my face with my kerchief. “You’re Lorraine.”
“And you’re Clarissa. I recognize you from you picture. I came over to turn the water on for you. Eloise asked me to be here to greet you.”
“She called and told me. It’s very nice of you, though quite unnecessary.”
“I wanted to. Charlie and El talk about you all the time.”
“Yeah, same here, in regard to you. They certainly love it here. It’s so different from the East. The air even feels different, purer.”