In The House of Stone and Light
 By Kelly Green
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 You, foolhardy as always, decide to river raft
 down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
 by yourself. (OK - you're not foolhardy - you're a
 candidate for "natural selection".) But hey - you
 brought your cell phone just in case. (Which still
 makes you a candidate for "natural selection").

 On your fifth day out, you beach your raft for the
 evening and set up camp. The sun sets, casting
 ribbons of light and shadow across the towering
 vermilion walls that surround you. The cries of
 the night birds echo. The moon rises. 

 From the side canyon behind you, a stream
 trickles. You follow the stream up into the little
 canyon, whose sandstone reflects the light of the
 moon. Just beyond a stand of desert willow and
 mesquite, a natural spring bubbles down through
 the rock into a little pool.  You dip your feet
 into the water. It is much warmer that the cold
 Colorado, so you peel off all of your clothes,
 rinse them off, and lay them on the still-warm
 sandstone rocks to dry, wishing they were truly
 clean.

 You soak in the shallow spring and moonlight,
 surrounded by the silence and majesty of the Grand
 Canyon, your place in the universe becoming
 abundantly clear.
 
 Suddenly you hear the crunch, crunch, crunching of
 feet as they walk up the sandy wash. My god - what
 rotten luck to land on a beach with a park ranger!
 On the other hand....what rotten luck to land on a
 beach with a park ranger!!! All alone in the
 wilderness...

 As he approaches through the little stand of
 desert willows you find that it's not a park
 ranger after all. It's Nunkies! And he's brought
 clean clothes and a bar of real biodegradable soap
 and a big soft towel that he drys you off with.

 And when you get back to camp, there are fresh
 trout roasting over the fire, and a chilled bottle
 of chardonay waiting for you. But best of all,
 that annoying leak in your double sized air
 mattress has been fixed.

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