God and Sex by Jon Raymond

Author:Jon Raymond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2025-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

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The last handful of miles were very slow going. The road I’d floated down only hours before was clogged with smoke, peppered with smoldering firebrands blown in from the main fire. When the road turned to dirt I had to inch along at blind-slug speed. I was feeling my way, catching glimpses of raw fire in the duff beyond the shoulder, hoping there was enough oxygen out there to keep the engine running.

Somehow, I burrowed my way back to the parking lot, which was now almost empty. The few remaining cars were so coated in ash they looked like they’d been abandoned years before. I cracked my door and climbed into the sludge, and it was then I first heard the fire. The sound was enormous, voracious, like a rumbling train in the not-so-far distance. The volume of trees being consumed on the mountain was insane.

On the edge of the lot, a van was idling, the headlights making pale yellow globes in the smoke. A few people were packing the cargo hold, while others were frantically dragging what they could from the cabins. One woman was standing perfectly still, consoling a younger woman who seemed to be hyperventilating. When a guy in a damp bandanna came lurching by, dragging a cart with a single piece of luggage in it, I stopped him. We had to yell over the ongoing detonation of the fire to hear each other.

“Hey!” I said. “I’m looking for Sarah Weber! Do you know her?”

“No!” he said.

“So she isn’t with your group?!”

“No!”

“Are there still people at the lodge?!”

“I don’t know!” he said. “I don’t think so! But good luck!”

And he pushed past me to the van, where he flung his luggage into the open cargo hold and climbed into the flapping doors. He was smart. He wasn’t waiting.

I made my way into the neighborhood of guest cabins, all of which appeared abandoned. I found Sarah’s cabin and opened the door to discover all her things still there. Her toiletry bag was on the narrow wall shelf and her clothes were strewn on the unmade bed. Her sandals were in the middle of the floor. She might have left it all in the rush to get out or she might have left everything for some other reason. There was no telling.

I walked out and spotted a group of people near the bathroom. One of them was her team leader, whatever his name was, and my heart leapt. He seemed to be shepherding the remainder of his flock to the waiting van, and although none of them were Sarah, my whole body flashed with hope. Her group, at least some remnant, was still here, terrified but intact.

“Hey!” I said. “I’m looking for Sarah Weber! Is she still with you guys?”

“Are you her husband?!” the team leader said.

“No!” I said. “But I need to find her! Do you know where she is?!”

“I don’t know!” he said. “We’ve been looking for her, too! She took a hike this morning!

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