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"Empty? We're out of gas!" Raven cried.

"That's what empty means," Crystal said dryly. "Brooke?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think to look. In all the excitement . . ."

"No one's blaming you, Brooke," Crystal said sharply.

"Yeah, well what are we supposed to do, get out and hitchhike?" Raven cried.

The wagon rolled to a stop. No one spoke. "This is a road," I said finally "It has to lead to somewhere."

"So?" Raven asked.

"So we get out and walk, Raven."

"Walk?"

"We haven't exactly got a whole lot of choice now, do we?" I shot back at her.

"I'm thirsty," Butterfly reminded us.

"Maybe we should just stay in the car," Raven said, "and wait for someone to come along."

"No one's coming along this late, Raven," Crystal said. "And there could be someplace just down the road. Brooke's right. Let's get out and walk." "Fine," Raven said petulantly. She shoved open the door and got out. We did the same.

For a moment the four of us stood there in the darkness with only the stars above and pondered. There was enough light to outline the road before us like a long, winding dark blue ribbon snaking its way over the next hill

"We're in some sort of desert," Crystal declared. "Great. Maybe we'll all soon see a mirage,"

R

aven said. "It's cold, too." She hugged herself. "Let's take our stuff," Crystal said, referring to the pillowcases of clothing. "We can all put on something more and stay warm."

I opened the back and we sifted through our clothing, putting on extra shirts. Butterfly had her little pink jacket, so she would be the warmest of us all. Crystal suggested we leave everything else behind.

"I don't think we need to carry it with us," she said.

"Okay. Everyone ready?" I asked.

"Nature," Raven said, "my favorite place in which to get lost."

I started and they followed, Crystal and Butterfly right behind, Raven holding up the rear. The road was nothing more than gravel and dirt. Sagebrush and some small cactus were all we saw in the way of vegetation. The plateau seemed to go on forever, with the mountains very far in the distance. We went over one slope and then climbed another, plodding along. We spoke little. I realized it was very late, probably something like four in the morning. The only thing that warmed my heart was the sight of the sky. I never saw it so ablaze with stars--more stars than I'd ever seen before.

Crystal started to describe some of the constellations just to keep our minds occupied. Raven complained that she couldn't see them and thought that Crystal was making it up.

"You have to concentrate a little, Raven. They're not hard to distinguish," she told her.

"I see the Milky Way, too," Butterfly said, and that reminded her of a cold glass of milk and how thirsty she was.

We rounded a turn and discovered that the road went straight for what looked like miles and miles. There was a collection of boulders on our right just a few hundred yards away, but other than that, it looked like more desert, no homes, nothing.

"We could die out here," Raven said. "What a dumb move. We should have stayed in the car."

"I don't want to walk all the way back now," Butterfly said. "Do you, Crystal?"

"By the time we got there, it would probably be morning. We could rest here just as well," she said, indicating the rocks. I agreed.

Probably because they were under the hot sun all day, the rocks were actually warm to the touch. We found a small flat opening between two boulders and sat. Almost as soon as we settled in, something scurried across the top of the boulder on our right and Raven screamed.