The head wrangler continued his talk as Max asked, “You’ve never ridden mules, have you?”
“No, but I guess the principle’s the same, isn’t it?”
“The gait’s a bit different. And since they’re sterile, they’re more docile.”
Karinne knew mules were the product of a male donkey and a female horse. Owners claimed mules were more intelligent than either donkeys or horses. Even the ancient Romans and Greeks had bred and valued them for transport, while Old Mexico preferred mules to horses for cavalry soldiers.
“Mules can see all four feet. Horses can’t. That’s why the early miners used them,” Max explained.
“I just thought the mules would be…larger. These seem…small.”
“Not that small,” Max contradicted, “but the park mules are deliberately bred from the smaller quarter-horse mares. Anything larger wouldn’t be able to handle the narrowness of the trail,” he said.
Just then, the second park ranger, a woman, asked, “Anyone here afraid of heights?”
Karinne and Max ignored the wranglers’ sharp appraisal of the crowd. She’d never been afraid of heights or horses. She doubted she’d be afraid on a mule.
“If you are, now’s the time to admit it. There’s no shame in being honest, people, and no place for rider panic attacks. There’s only one stopping point on the way down—the Tonto formation,” the male ranger said.
There was some murmuring in the crowd, but no one spoke up.
“We’ll be on the trail nonstop around four hours before lunch,” he went on, “and we’ll reach Phantom Ranch a couple hours later.” The ranger tipped back his hat and studied the cloudy sky for a moment. “You need to remember two things.”
“Drink lots of water,” Max mouthed to Karinne.
“One, keep hydrated. It may seem cool right now, but the deeper we descend, the higher the temperatures. There’s a twenty-degree difference between the rim and the bottom, even in winter. Use your hats, sunglasses, sunblock, and drink often. This is July, our hottest month. In clear weather it can be more than one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit on the canyon floor.”
The other mule wrangler, an attractive woman with long braided hair, spoke next. “That creates another problem. Our mules don’t—can’t—stop. There are no bathroom facilities for a long time. In ten minutes we mount up. Last chance for you all to make a pit stop. Remember your mule assignment.”
“It’s single file for humans and mules,” the other ranger said. “Mules have the right of way over hikers.”
“The trail’s that narrow?” Karinne exclaimed.
“Yep.”
“Good thing they can see all four feet.”
More than a few in the group rushed off to the restrooms as Karinne turned to Max.
“Phantom Ranch—that’s the stables, right?”
“And the overnight lodgings for riders. We’ll meet Cory and Anita there, get our supplies and head downriver tomorrow.”
Karinne nodded. She shrugged out of her pack and left it with Max. “Watch this for me? Be back in a minute.”
Except it took a lot longer. Karinne ruefully wondered if she should’ve taken the helicopter, after all, when she saw the line for the ladies’ room. The men’s room line was no shorter.
Oh, well. Better safe than squirming in the saddle.
When they’d all returned to their mules, the wrangler had everyone mount. She explained that she’d take the point position, and the park ranger would follow in the rear. “Let the mules form their own line after I lead out,” she said. “They have their own particular order.”
A few minutes of turmoil went by as determined mules took their usual spots. Karinne and Max’s mules preferred the end of the trail, with Max’s mount positioned directly in front of Karinne’s. She adjusted her baseball cap and gave Max a thumbs-up when he turned in his seat to check on her. Then silence set in as the mules took awestruck riders down into the vast colors of the Grand Canyon.
For the first hour Karinne drank in the sights, grateful for the respite from screaming, yelling, drunken crowds that were her work setting day after day. She’d never heard such quiet on the job. And sounds, when she registered them, were soothing, natural. The clop of shod hoofs on packed ground was broken by the occasional screech of a hunting red-tailed hawk—a cry that carried and echoed through the pure air. No trucks or cars or buildings marred the openness—nothing except rock spires and wildlife. Best of all, from Karinne’s point of view, this place had Max.
And he’d once offered to give it up for her. How could she allow him to do that? If only she had the courage to quit her own job, but since she couldn’t leave her father, it made no sense to leave Phoenix or gainful employment.
After Max graduated from college, he’d discussed his future plans with her. They were a real couple by then, though Karinne was still in school, and Max had reluctantly offered to give up his hopes of a canyon raft concession and continue to do geological work with the city of Phoenix. He’d been hired on, but wasn’t happy.
Karinne refused his offer. “No, Max. I’ll join you up north when I graduate. I’m sure I can find work in Flagstaff.”
After her graduation, they’d been reunited in a Grand Canyon topside hotel. For one happy week the two shared their love, planned their lives together, and Max proposed.
“I wanted to wait until you graduated before making it official,” he said, slipping a diamond ring on her finger.
“We’ll set a date as soon as I find a job,” she promised.
But that promise was derailed when, with Jeff’s help, a headhunter tracked her down at the hotel to offer her a media photographer’s dream job. She could have refused—would have if Max had objected—but he was silent. So, with hesitation, she accepted.
“I’ve just finished with classes, and this is a chance of a lifetime,” she explained, feeling a little guilty. “I’d like to get some experience for my résumé. Then I’ll move up here and we’ll get married. It’ll only be for a short time.”
“As long as it’s short,” Max replied. In her excitement, Karinne missed hearing the strangeness in his tone.
“It will be. Oh, Dad will be so proud!”
“And so will I,” Max said, never reproaching her. Still, the “short time” had turned into months, then years. Her career was so challenging, and then Jeff’s heart problems had worsened. There was no sense quitting if she had to stay in Phoenix with her father. Plus she knew Max loved her. He would always be there, and after all, they were still young.
There was another reason Karinne stalled, a secret reason. If Karinne were honest with herself, she was hoping for Margot to reappear. After all, there had never been a body. If she and Jeff moved, how could Margot trace them?
It was wishful thinking, she knew. Foolish, wishful thinking. But all the same, Karinne stayed at home and Max paid the price. He was getting tired of waiting for the family they’d once planned. Karinne would have to harden her heart and do what her father’s doctors recommended. That wouldn’t be easy. Because selling the family home meant giving up her last hope of finding her mother.
Still… Karinne sighed deeply, a sigh tinged with pleasure that carried clearly in the pristine air. For now, she could shove aside the tedium of constant noise, and even the mystery of a pink sweatshirt and a note signed “Mom.”
Max swiveled around in his saddle immediately.
“You okay?” he asked.
Karinne