It was supposed to be a three-hour tour. Bryson had gone
with his parents on a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon. Sure, the plane
was small, but Bryson wasn’t scared, or at least he thought if he pretended
like he wasn’t scared, then he wouldn’t be. His parents didn’t seem concerned
though, so he climbed aboard and buckled his seatbelt. Once the plane was in
the air he started to relax, plus the views below were amazing and helped distract
him from the loud whirring noise of the propellers. He had just spotted the rim of the Grand
Canyon looming in the distance when he realized the loud whirring noise had
stopped. He looked wildly around the cabin until he made eye contact with his
mother, and then the plane dropped out of the sky.
Bryson woke up still strapped in his seat, only the rest of
the airplane was gone. Instead he was surrounded by red desert and scrubby
hills. He unlatched his seatbelt and stood on shaky legs. He stumbled forward a
few steps, then called out for his mom, his dad, anyone, but the only reply was
from a hawk soaring overhead.
He had been stumbling through the desert for what felt like
hours in the hot afternoon sun when he finally found a cave who's shade beckoned him to rest until nightfall. When he woke up the sky outside had darkened, and an
impossible blanket of stars created a canopy overhead. He rubbed the sleep out
of his eyes and decided he had better get moving. He needed to find a town
soon, he’d never been so hungry and thirsty in his life. Through the darkness
he walked, towards the ever-retreating horizon. He tried to count the stars to
distract himself from his growling stomach.
The sky was just starting to turn pink when he found another
cave. Or at least he hoped it was another cave and he had not been walking in
circles all night. He could already feel the heat of the day begin to smother
the land and thought he had better hide out in the shade of the cave again. As
he approached the entrance, he swore he heard a tinkling noise, like water trickling
over rocks. Could it be? He hurried into the cave just as dawn broke, sending a
beam of light into it’s black mouth, and he was astounded by what he saw. A
pool of water sparkled crystal clear and cool, and next to it? A cooler filled
with Cheetos and Twinkies. He descended on the cooler, and just as he was about
to rip into a bag of chips, he heard his name being called.
“BRYSON!”
He woke with a start and was surprised to see the four walls
of his bedroom instead of a desert cave. Then his door flew open and his mother
burst in.
“Bryson, what are you doing in here, it smells like a Grateful
Dead concert!”
Shit, he thought, busted.
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