***
Breakfast set the pace for the whole day. After shoveling it down and cleaning up in record time, we’d loaded onto a van that was literally pink and headed out into the desert. Each stop took less than thirty minutes and we got a whirlwind overview—Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin, Salt Creek, and others I didn’t remember but were all uniquely different from each other. Bumpy dirt mounds and a sea of white dust and peaks of rippledsand. This was not the way my artist eyes would’ve liked to see the area but it was nice for efficiency.
We were pumped full of water in between each location and by the time we were done with our five-hour tour and riding in the cramped van back to camp, I was ready to find a tumble weed on the side of the road to relieve myself behind.
“What’s wrong?” Paisley asked, pointing at my knees that were bouncing all around. She’d sat next to me the whole day.
“I have to pee,” I said.
“Me too! I think I drank three bottles of water because the guide kept scaring me so much about heatstroke.”
“Wait, did you ever find out yesterday at the visitors center why this place is called Death Valley?”
“The pioneers named it,” the guide said, obviously a complete eavesdropper. “Someone in their party died traveling through here.”
“Of heatstroke?” Paisley asked. “Like we almost died of today?”
“You were nowhere near dying.”
“Oh, interesting…” Paisley rolled her eyes at me and shook the empty water bottle she held. “I’m going to add this info to my report. Because I like to overachieve.”
We pulled up to our campsite and I muscled my way out of the car and took off running.
“Norah!” Mom yelled. “The keys.”
I turned and held out my hands. She tossed them to me and I caught them and ran the rest of the way to the RV.
When I came out, feeling much better, the three guys werecranking down the awnings, disconnecting the water and power and gathering the last of the trash.
“Did you almost have another peeing-your-pants incident, Nor?” Ezra said.
Skyler shot Ezra a dark look that surprised me.
Ezra obviously saw it, too, because he said, “What? That’s how brothers work. I will never let her live this down.”
“Next time I’ll pee in yourbed,” I said.
“Norah,” Mom scolded. “Not even a little funny.” After her slow start, Mom had seemed fine the rest of the day.
“I thought it was at least a little funny,” I said.
“Yeah, Mom,” Ezra agreed. “It was Norah funny.”
“You two.” Mom sighed. “Finish packing up if you want to see this ghost town.”