“I don’t know.”
“Maybe there was a rusty nail in the road—like something from an old wagon!”
“I don’t know.”
Landon tightens the lug nuts one by one, slowly releases the jack…and then he curses.
“Mom says you’re not supposed to say that,” Caleb so helpfully announces.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, scooting Caleb back before Landon completely loses it.
Landon lies back on the hard, rocky ground. His arm is flung over his eyes. “Your spare’s flat.”
“How is that possible?” I demand. “It’s just been on the back of the Jeep. I haven’t used it even once.”
“It happens. You have to check them when you check the rest of your tires.”
I’m about to tell him that I don’t check any of my tires, but then I realize that’s probably what got us in this predicament to begin with, and I decide it’s best to keep my mouth shut.
“Now what?” I ask.
He flings his arm aside so he can look at me. “Now we hike to the top of the road and see if we can still get cell signal up there.
Hike up the canyon.
It’s going to take us hours. We haven’t had nearly enough sleep for this.
But we don’t have a choice.
We grab the rest of the water out of the Jeep, and each of us shoves a few energy bars in our pockets. George hops out of the back, and up the road we go.
Caleb, who’s just as tired and crabby as we are, loses wind after the first fifteen minutes.
“Are we near the top?” he asks.
“No,” Landon answers.
“When will we reach the top?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can I wait in the Jeep?”
“No,” Landon and I say together.
He pouts and whines until Landon reminds him it’s his fault we’re out here in the first place. After that, he’s pretty quiet.
George trots back and forth, staying close. Every few minutes, we look at our phones.
Pass a boulder…no signal.
Pass a prickly weed growing in the middle of the road…no signal.
Round a bend…no signal.
We stop for water often, and we eat another bar at midday. It wouldn’t really be that bad of a hike if we’d just gotten some sleep last night. But in this condition, it might as well be Everest.
Finally, near the top, Landon lets out a happy groan. “Two bars,” he says triumphantly as he raises his phone into the air.
