“Well, that’s a lot.”
“Yeah, it’s, great, isn’t it?” Gus says, so visibly excited I’m worried he’ll explode.
“This still doesn’t get us… anywhere though, right? Unless I’m misreading something somewhere?”
“Well, it gets us to Sedona, I think, or at least, it seems like that’s a decent theory. Have you heard back from anyone?”
“Shit. I haven’t even bothered to call Alexis or Richard back.”
“That’s okay, I’ve kind of been…” Gus trails off, he suddenly looks as shy as teen boy trying to ask out a girl for the first time. “I’ve kind of been thinking about taking a few days off, letting Miles run the place, and heading to… Sedona to investigate. Is that stupid?”
“Gus, I’ve already taken the next week off to do just that.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Want to carpool?”
Gus and I decide to leave for the 12 hour drive to Flagstaff early the next morning. We’ll start there, then work our way down to Sedona. I call Richard, the journalist back, and he agrees to chat with me on his lunch break at the paper when we’re in town, though he assures me he doesn’t have much information to pass on. Nobody seems to have that much information, I tell him, but we’re curious nonetheless.
When I call Alexis back I get her answering machine, with an odd outgoing message, “You’ve reached Alexis, I’m currently unavailable, and will be off line, behind the veil, for the next week, and may not get back to you at all, let alone within a timely manner.”
That’s not the message I expected from a museum coordinator. But I suppose we can always drop into the museum to chat with her if we need to. Despite an expectation of negligence, I leave a message letting her know I’ll be in town and would love to pop into the museum to chat.
Then, I map out the rest of my day through a series of to-do lists. I need to buy some type of luggage or a duffle bag or something. I don’t travel much and aside from a small backpack I use for day-hikes, I don’t have anything to pack a week’s worth of clothes into. Which, I also need to go to the laundromat to clean, as I only own about a week’s worth of clothes to begin with. I need to go to the bank to withdraw money for the trip, and I need to call hotels in both Flagstaff and Sedona. Gus and I agreed on separate rooms, which will cost more, but considering both of us are very solitary people, I imagine we’ll just be more comfortable this way. I should also go get some road snacks for the drive, and maybe a couple of those massive water jugs with the little spout on them.
If it’s not clear, when I get anxious, I plan. And replan. It’s an avoidance tactic, I think, but it gives me a sense of control. Over the last couple days I’ve been fumbling towards, whatever this is, and haven’t spent much time thinking about why I’m doing any of it. It’s been nice. Like, I’ve shut my brain down by giving it purpose. But that can only work for so long, and here I am again, back to my usual fretting self.
This is all so ridiculous. It’s stupid. Why are we even doing this? This is pointless and we’re not going to find anything. Even if we do find something what exactly are we going to do? Call the police? Call the museum? Who even cares about any of this?
I stop myself to take a deep breath, grab my to-do list, and get to it.
