The Family at Serpiente by Raymond Tolman

Author:Raymond Tolman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Indian mythology, Fiction
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Published: 2017-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

White Rock Canyon

That next evening we camped along a beach underneath a vertical wall of lava that soared straight up a couple of thousand feet. At the top of the cliffs was an entire town. The town of White Rock is the home of many scientists who work at Los Alamos Laboratories yet they were separated by the vast cliff. We could just as well have been a thousand miles apart. As our camp became enveloped in darkness we again extinguished all sources of light in order to consider the night sky. Discussions again centered upon the metaphysical.

Corey’s seemed determined to continue his earlier conversations. “The American Southwest is currently experiencing a rash of reports of strange lights at night, metaphysical locations, cattle mutilations, disappearances, and unidentified flying objects of every shape and description. We even get reports of crashed UFOs with dead occupants that the Air Force immediately whisks away, covers up, and denies; thus creating a media feeding frenzy along with the creation of assorted television shows devoted to the subject. Historically the Southwest has been famous for its unsolved mysteries, long before there were aliens to worry about. It seems to have been a center of unexplained occurrences that baffled the Native Americans, the Spanish, and is certainly perplexing to the peoples who live here now.”

Hidalgo grinned as Corey burned his hand on the coffee pot but that didn’t keep him from talking. “Phenomena will often occur leaving the observer in a quandary as to what it was, which upon later examination reveals itself. In fact, almost all supernormal phenomena can be explained enlisting the resources of universities, police, and laboratories throughout the world using modern scientific methods readily available to the public. There are, however, a tiny percent of real phenomena that cannot be explained by anyone, therefore the challenge of the mystery persist. Until the end of the millennium and well into the future, there will be an unending parade of disaster films, earthquakes, killer bees, volcanoes, asteroids and comets; and perhaps there are alien spacecraft, riding along on the comets, watching us. Many of these ideas manage to entertain us, but life rarely imitates art. Real environmental change is anything that has an effect upon us, whether positive or negative. When there is apparently nothing we can do about catastrophic change, most of us demonstrate a fatalistic attitude.”

I added, “A little like the gallant mouse that was last seen shaking a tiny defiant fist, just before the hawk snatches it up”.

Certainly that was the way Corey and I along with Hidalgo approached difficult rapids, especially with fully loaded canoes. It was also the way we approached our lives. We were all new to the science of river running, but we were learning fast. All three of us were experienced with the outdoors with years of experience with pack animals but canoeing was new to us. We knew that we were going for many swims. It was our fate. But running rapids was our choice.

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