In the distance, Flagstaff looked like a mirage of OZ with a few buildings jutting into the skyline. From here we’d take 89-A into Sedona. I was tired and had to pee, and Dolly was itching to get out of the car, but I was anxious to get to Eloise and Charlie’s ranch and there didn’t seem to be much of a reason to stop in Flagstaff. We exited onto the back desert highway to finish the last thirty miles of our incredibly long journey. I glanced down at the odometer, which I had reset in Richmond. We had driven over two thousand miles. 89-A was bumpy and pocked with holes and cracks in the pavement. It looked as though the extreme heat and lack of moisture had taken its toil.

The road twisted and turned through gorgeous canyons. It was otherworldly. Every few miles there was a roadside stand selling sage bundles and vortex maps. I’d never heard of a vortex map. I wondered what it was. Dolly was alert now. She had recognized the terrain was different. Any veering off the interstate meant stopping for a romp or arriving at a destination to her. I was glad it was the latter. I couldn’t wait to get there.

I found my notes on how to get to the ranch. Eloise had said I’d go through Devil Canyon, which was really more like a tunnel. After that I was to drive exactly eighteen miles. I’d notice a huge boulder and a row of cacti on the left and I’d see a little dirt road just beyond that on the right. There it was. Davenport was hand painted on a mailbox made out of an old piece of wormy chestnut. The top of the box was covered in petrified animal bones. That was just like El, so O’Keeffey. I turned in. I couldn’t see the house from the road. She had said it was about a mile in.

I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. It was like an adobe mansion: a beautiful mixture of rock and clay and wood. The driveway was not paved but once I got closer to the house, I heard the crunch of pebbles on the turnaround. Though it was not running, a geometric fountain was in the middle. It looked like something Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed. That was Charlie. The two of them made an interesting artistic team. Eloise leaned more toward organic earthy things and Charlie liked clean lines of steel and glass. I stopped the car and let Dolly out. She was a little timid at first and then she bounced around sniffing and investigating everything she saw. I sat on the fountain wall and sighed. What an amazing place! Just as I was thinking how quiet it was, a woman came around from the back. It was Lorraine. The fountain made a gurgling splurty noise and shot out a geyser that sprayed me with water.

“Ooops, sorry about that,” she said walking toward me.

“Oh, I needed it.” I wiped my face with my kerchief. “You’re Lorraine.”

“And you’re Clarissa. I recognize you from you picture. I came over to turn the water on for you. Eloise asked me to be here to greet you.”

“She called and told me. It’s very nice of you, though quite unnecessary.”

“I wanted to. Charlie and El talk about you all the time.”

“Yeah, same here, in regard to you. They certainly love it here. It’s so different from the East. The air even feels different, purer.”

“It is. I’ll show you around after you’ve had some time to freshen up and unpack. You’re staying the whole month aren’t you?”

“Probably. I don’t have any hard fast plans.”

“Best way to be. The phone’s off. I didn’t think you’d want it on.”

“No, I’d rather not.”

“I don’t even own one, so I understand.”

For a moment we just stood there looking at one another. It wasn’t awkward. In fact it felt comfortable and refreshing.

“I’ll come back around four. We can poke around here a bit and then go for an early dinner. I’m sure you must be tired from you long trip.”

“Thanks Lorraine.”

“My pleasure. There’s a sweet little café not far from here. They have the best corn salsa around and it’s quiet, good for conversation. We’ll go there. Can we take your car?”

“Sure, and the café sounds great.”

Dolly came running up.

“What a gorgeous creature?” said Lorraine.

“She’s my girl. Her name is Dolly.”

“Border Collie?”

“Completely! She’s got all the traits. She’ll stare you to death if you let her.”

“I love them. I saw them working with sheep when I was in Scotland a few years ago. I couldn’t believe their energy and focus.”

“She has some trouble moving around like she used to. Border Collies are prone to hip dysphasia Dolly’s almost ten now, so she’s calmed down some, but she’s still incredibly active.”

“She looks a lot younger, so graceful. Must be an East coast thing. You look young too. Out here the sun will turn your skin to leather.”

Dolly was resting her head on Lorraine’s leg. She wasn’t usually so friendly with strangers.

“There isn’t a key. No need to lock up around here. And you don’t have to worry about cars or anything like that for Dolly, but keep an eye out for snakes. I don’t imagine in Richmond you have to worry about that too much.”

I felt unnerved. “No, I can’t say I know anything about snakes.”

“They’re usually harmless, the Cottonmouths are the only ones to look out for. People think they rattle, but they really don’t. Dolly seems very gentle though. They probably won’t even bother her if she comes across one. I’ll see you in a little bit.” She began walking toward the back of the house.

“Where’s your car?”

“I don’t have one. I’ll tell you about it later.”

I watched her until she was a dot on the landscape. What an interesting woman. She wasn’t beautiful in the typical ways, but her tall lithe and dark tanned body and pale blue eyes gave her an intense sexual quality. She seemed to blend in with the desert elements, like she was born of them. I had never been fortunate enough to feel like I was actually a part of a place – connected to a bit of geography. Clearly, Lorraine was and always had been at home in Sedona. She had mentioned Scotland. That was odd. I couldn’t imagine her confined to a plane flying across the Atlantic. She seemed too down to earth to endure such a trip. El had been right. I was definitely intrigued.

I whistled for Dolly who had followed Lorraine a little before trotting back; she was panting from the heat. We walked into the house. It was sparsely decorated. That was nice to see. The adobe design continued inside giving the interior a cool rounded feel. The ceilings must have been at least thirty feet high. It was breezy and cavernous. Lorraine had turned on the huge palisade fans. The entire back wall of the house was made of pink tinted windows and blue steel framed patio doors. It felt like Red Rock Canyon was spilling into the house. The view was breathtaking. The formation was less than a quarter mile from their pool and the stretch of desert between was laden with blue fairy dusters and marigolds. I was transfixed. No wonder El and Charlie felt like they had found their spiritual home. I wandered around the house and took in the beautiful simplicity of everything. It was a mansion, but there was nothing particularly grand about, which I found soothing.

I unpacked the car and took a shower. I spent about half an hour picking out what I would wear on my “date” with Lorraine and decided on a light blue peasant dress. It was feminine, but not showy. Eloise and Charlie had about a hundred bottles of vintage wine. It was good to see some of their priorities were still in tact within all their newly found spiritual enlightenment. I poured myself a glass of Chilean Red and was relaxing by the pool when I saw Lorraine walking toward the house. I admired her graceful saunter, her earthy elegance. She stopped to pick some marigolds. By the time she reached me, a thin bead of sweat lined my forehead. It wasn’t from the heat. Well it was, but not the outside heat. It was an internal longing and attraction I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Whew, it’s warm,” she said handing me the wildflowers.

“Thanks. These are gorgeous. I didn’t know flowers could thrive so well in the desert.”

“Mostly, they’re cactus flowers. These are desert marigolds; a few more that can take the heat. They don’t bloom that long, not nearly as long as flowers in milder places, like where you’re from.”

“Have you ever lived anywhere else?”

I got up to put the flowers in a vase and Lorraine followed me into the kitchen. I poured her a glass of wine.

“I had the typical out of college stint; went to New York for about a year. It wasn’t the place for me, too zingy. I worked as an intern at a publishing house. It was fun work, but it didn’t pay very well.”

“I know what that’s like.”

“I’ve never cared that much about money. I would have stayed, but I don’t belong in a city. I need to feel nature around me. Actually, I need to be here.”

“Will you show me around? El said you had been a great tour guide for them.”

“Well, they were eager to know as much as they could. I was happy to see my ancestors’ land wind up with such caring stewards.”

“You mean your family owned all this land?”

“Over a thousand acres. Of course years ago, no one thought it was worth much; some people still don’t. But Charlie and El were drawn to this particular tract. I don’t think it was an accident. They bought about twenty acres, all the way back to where the canyon rises.”

“El mentioned something to me about a fountain of youth.”

“She did? We don’t call it that very much. We’re afraid it’ll make people flock here if word got out.”

“Well actually, I think I called it that. What’s it about.”

“I’d rather show you. If you’re not that hungry, we could go now. It’s a short walk to the canyon and then a short walk up the trail.”

“Sure,” I said. My mind wasn’t on food. I just wanted to be in her company. “Is it okay to take Dolly?”

“Sure. Does she like to swim?”

“She loves it.”

We made our way across the narrow swath of desert toward Red Rock Ridge. I was glad it was a short trek since it was so hot outside. A wall of rock sheared up and at the base by a big tuft of purple sage, a crevice was barely visible. We squeezed through it. I was excited; it was like entering a secret garden. The trail spiraled upwards like a corkscrew but there was a definite path and it was fairly wide. I never felt as though I was going to fall off. Dolly was way ahead. Lorraine stopped at an overhang.

“Better call Dolly. We go in here.”

I whistled for her. When I saw she had turned around, I walked through the opening. I noticed deep etchings in the stone. They were beautiful stick figure scenes in muted blues, oranges, and reds.

“These were carved back in the early 1800s,” Lorraine said. “This cave was called The Passage to Nectar by my people. Hardly anyone knows about it anymore. Most of the tribal elders have passed on. My Great Great Grandfather who died three years ago entrusted me with the secret. I hadn’t told anyone until I brought Eloise and Charlie here after they bought the property. I wanted them to know about it.”

“Why are you telling me?”

Dolly trotted in and lay down at my feet. She seemed a bit afraid of this strange new world.

“I had had visions of you before I met you. Before Charlie and El told me about you and before I brought them here. It always happened in the pool of nectar. I would see your face while I was traveling – that’s what I call swimming. Then I saw your photograph and your beautiful paintings.”

“That’s amazing. I had or at least I thought I had a vision of you too. I thought I saw your face.”

“Where?”

“In the rocks off A-17, near Winslow.”

Lorraine smiled and walked toward me and extended her hand.

“I didn’t know you were a real person,” she said. “I thought you would always exist only in my imagination. C’mon, I’ll take you through.”

As we walked deeper and away from the thin shaft of light, the cave became incredibly narrow. I wasn’t claustrophobic, but Dolly was very nervous.

“It’s okay girl,” I said and petted her reassuringly. “How much further Lorraine? Dolly’s shaking.”

“Just a few feet.”

We came upon an opening like a foyer. Dolly immediately relaxed. She walked over to a small pool near the back wall and started drinking water.

“That’s it,” said Lorraine pointing to where Dolly was. “That’s the nectar.”

“It looks so small, not much larger than a well,” I said.

“Clarissa, you have to trust me.”

She put her arms around me and brought my face to her lips. She kissed me deeply, parting my lips with her tongue. Her mouth felt hot. I closed my eyes but a kaleidoscope of colors swirled around me and lifted me up into a whirlwind of ecstasy.

“Keep your eyes closed,” Lorraine instructed. “Now part your lips just a little – I want you to breathe my breath.”

She held me tighter than I have ever been held and breathed into my mouth. I was close to orgasm. When she realized this, she held me closer and tighter and began licking my lips with the tip of her tongue while resuscitating me. A white-hot light moved through my body and I shuddered with the most intense orgasm I have ever had. When I calmed, Lorraine kissed me softly and tenderly and I fell limp in her embrace. Neither of us spoke. We didn’t need to. We were communicating heart to heart and soul to soul.

Lorraine stripped, revealing her strong muscular frame. Her clit was so large it resembled a cock. I stared in astonishment. This seemed to excite her and her clit got bigger like an erection, like a cock getting a hard on. I slowly removed my clothes while Lorraine watched. The soft paleness of my body was a striking contrast to her deeply tanned chiseled features. She gently laid me down on the cave floor and got on top of me. She fucked my mouth going in and out while I sucked her tongue. I was so turned on by this I came again, but she did not stop. She moved down my neck to my breasts, which she sucked hungrily making my nipples as hard as pearls. She rose up in an arch above me. Her light blue eyes had turned dark green like the lushness of a forest.

“Spread your legs. Spread them further.”

I felt her hardness on my slippery clit. I wanted to suck her into my pussy.

“Ahhh, that’s right.”

She put her clit inside me, and started fucking me.

“Oh Baby, you feel so good,” she said.

It wasn’t like being with a man. But Lorraine was not like any woman I’d ever been with either, certainly nothing at like Emily. Her desire seemed laser focused. My pussy felt filled with her. She entered and fucked me with wild abandon, without any reservation. She revealed herself to me completely and demanded I do the same. I felt the moist coolness of the cave floor on my back and the burning fire of her passion on top of me. It was as if we melded together into one exotic display of carnal want. She moaned and began to move faster. The sigh of her orgasm echoed in the cave and cradled me in its reverberation. We were both still and silent.

I had been so caught up in our beautiful lovemaking, I had forgotten all about Dolly. I sat up alarmed.

“It’s okay,” said Lorraine. “I think I know where she is. Do you swim?”

“A little. I can’t go terribly far.”

“You don’t need clothes. Come on, I’ll show you where I live.”

She walked over toward the pool.

“Take a deep breath and follow me.”

We dove in. Once I hit the water, the current caught me and pulled me ahead like a tender magnet, gliding me into another dimension. Lorraine floated beside me and took my hand. I saw the rippled rays of sunlight as we ascended to the surface.