Dana shifted her weight from one foot to the other, licking her lips. Alice had a head full of ideas, most of them bad ones, and this sounded like one more bad idea. She didn’t want to challenge Al’s assertion that she’d hiked the canyon lots of times but it had the ring of persuasion, not truth. As much as she bitched anytime Dana invited her to go running with her, she just couldn’t see Lenore Pieszecki’s daughter voluntarily hiking through the wilderness.

Dana shifted the pack on her back and the bedroll shifted in its straps, one came loose and the sleeping back goosed her in the *****. She jumped and stumbled forward, into Alice’s arms. Alice beamed at Dana’s consent, and planted a hot kiss full on her lips.

“Good, baby, now let’s go!” She wheeled to the left and headed for the narrow trail, a trail that reminded Dana of the Dimholt Road.

Dana sighed deeply, knelt and resecured the bedroll before running off to catch up to Alice who was taking the longest strides her short legs could handle, arms swinging confidently at her sides. She circled around Alice, turned to face her and, walking backwards, tried to change her lover’s mind. “Al, this is SO not a good idea. Shouldn’t we at least tell the others where we.”

“HA!” Alice yelled, her face getting redder as the trail took on a steep incline. “If we tell them, they’ll want to come along. Which defeats the purpose of taking off alone. We want to be alone, remember?”

Dana furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. “Butbut they’ll get worried. They’ll think something happened to us.”

“Something is GOING to happen to us,” Alice grinned. “We are going to celebrate our anniversary without an audience.”

“I still don’t think”

Alice took Dana by the shoulders, turned her around, and shoved her forward. “Now march!”

The steep trail got steeper, and it was littered with rocks. After 200 yards, even Dana was short of breath. She stopped, leaned over, put her hands on her knees, and tried to slow her breathing. Alice took advantage of Dana’s halt by sliding to the ground. “*****!” she yelled, lifted one cheek, and pulled out a sharp rock the size of her fist. She pitched it over her shoulder. It rolled downhill with a clatter, bumping into more rocks on the way down.

“Al!” Dana put her hands on her hips, “I came up here for a little private time, not to start an avalanche. Stop it!”

Alice poked out her lower lip and let her eyes darken and glare for a moment. Dana’s somber face was enough to bend her mood. She struggled to her feet, dusted her ***** off, and conceded “Yes, dear.”

Dana smiled grimly, turned and started up the trail again, her lean thighs straining. Another 100 yards, and the trail took a sharp left into a crevasse that narrowed the farther they got into it. Finally, they reached a point too narrow for them to walk side by side. Dana peered into the dimly lit space. “Alice, I think we need to turn back.”

“Aw, c’mon, Dana, it’ll be fine. There’s light up there, see?”

If she squinted hard enough, Dana could almost see what looked like a faint glow at the end of the crack in the stone. “So?”

“So? Just a little bit further, and we’ll be back out in wide open spaces again,” Alice was shoving Dana along deeper into the crevice.

“Yeah,” Dana grumbled, “but will there be anything under our feet in those wide open spaces.”

Alice scowled, then stumbled over another rock. “*****!” She yelled and pitched it over her shoulder.

“Alice, I.”

Now we all know that a rolling stone gathers no moss. But what it usually DOES gather is a lot of other rocks. And this one was picking up a lot of playmates on the way down, clattering like cans on a string.

“*****.” Alice bit her lip. “Good thing they’re small rocks.”

Normally, that would have been true. But for one small rock, not much bigger than Dana’s hand, that had been sitting in the same spot foroh well, who knows how long, decades? Centuries? A millennium or two? Quite possibly. Left to itself, it would have just joined the merriment and rolled downhill with the others. But it wasn’t alone.

Resting on said small rock the size of Dana’s hand was a rather large boulder, simply sitting there, peaceably, doing what boulders do in the Grand Canyon. Alice’s *****! Rock came bouncing down the hill and smacked square into a small pile of not so very big stones, much like a really really bad break with a cue ball, and stone chips flew everywhere. It wasn’t so much the mass as it was the momentum that tipped the balance, and the hand-sized rock slid. Not far. An inch or two. But that was enough. With a stony groan, the boulder shifted, and began to slide inexorably forward.

“O.H! FUCKKKKKK!” Alice felt all the air come out of her as the large boulder gained momentum knocking larger stones out of its way. Avalanche.
“What’s that?” Dana tried to turn around without getting her pack stuck on the rockface.

“Oh, nothing, just a little gravel. Go on, dear,” Alice tried to block Dana’s view and shoved her forward.

“Little gravel, my AS.” Dana’s jaw dropped as she saw the rocks beginning to pile up at the bottom of the hill. And blocking them in.

“*****, Alice!” She stamped her foot.

“Unhhhhh,” Alice ducked her head, feeling the heat rise to her face. “Well,” she shrugged, putting her best spin on it, “at least nobody can follow us. I have you all to myself,” she wriggled up to Dana and gave her a big kiss.

“Yeah, they can’t get in,” Dana shook her head, “and we can’t get out.”

“Oops.”