Salt Pillars

Chapter 1

Ryan

Susan's eyes began to wane as the day dissolved into the passing road. She massaged the muscles above her cheekbones to help her refocus, feeling the rough ridges of the wrinkles that had recently begun to dig their way into her skin and branch out like a tree setting roots. The deep lines portrayed the character of a tired woman, aged prematurely by stress and years of work, but despite these subtle changes, Karen's beauty remained striking.

She glanced over at Ryan who was seemingly immersed in whatever entertainment the palm-sized device, with the glowing LED screen, was providing him. She gave him a tender smile, almost apologetic, and scuffed his dusty blond hair with her hand, knocking the baseball cap off his head.

He turned away from her, and replaced the cap and the ear-buds. She stared at him for a moment, looking for some sign of acceptance, but got none. His face was still so young — she could see the little boy that used to love her so intensely inside — the little guy that would follow her everywhere and beg to be held, but now he was cold and distant. More and more, his face began to take on the characteristics of her ex-husband, Ryan's father, and this worried her.

"What are you doing over there that's so important?" she asked.

"Huh?" He responded and removed one ear-bud, releasing the faint sound of music to the rest of the vehicle.

"Why don't you come out from that little box for a moment and entertain me?" she pleaded tragically.

"No thanks."

"You little brat," she said with a playful smile.

Ryan was tempted for a moment to engage her with some joking banter, as was their way, but he remembered that it was all changing now and this caused him to recoil. It wasn't his intention to punish her, but his heart just wasn't in it. He gave her a humoring smile; it was the most he could muster through the weight of his sadness.

"Hey, things won't be so bad. I think we could both use a fresh start... don't you?" She pinched his shoulder to coax a response.

"Sure, whatever you want to hear," Ryan replied, turning his music up again.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," she said, pulling his headphones out. "Can you at least pretend to give a shit for two god damn seconds?"

"Fine, what?"

"I need you to promise that you're going to try and make the best out of this situation. That means no more fighting, not with Eric, and not with other boys at school or anyone else..."

Her demeanor changed and her voice began to break.

"I don't want you going down the same road as..." she paused to swallow her tears.

Ryan was afraid that she was going to bring up his dad again and break down completely, so he intervened.

"Mom... I get it, okay?" Ryan placed his hand on her shoulder, gazing sympathetically at her, "I'll try."

A smile began to break and, in response, she smiled too, wiping the tears from her eyes.

The landscape began to change again, this time from monstrous rocky red hills textured by spiky boulders and dried colorless shrubs peppered with cacti, to open green planes with fractured rivers and streams that dispersed into grey desert rocks. Signs of human life had become fleeting with the occasional abandoned ranch house that stands alone in the distance; broken down defiantly resisting the surrounding nature as it tried to reabsorb it into the earth.

Ryan's mind was lost in the openness. The contrast between this setting and the suburban city, that he was accustomed to, astounded him. It was eerily unsettling in a way, as though the cement clutter of his old life had become a source of security, bounding him from all directions, while out here there was nothing holding you in, as though he could drift off into the open sky and be lost in eternity. It filled him with unsettling panic that made the air in the car feel heavy as though he would suffocate if he didn't get out.