I paused and looked back. "What?"
"Why are we going in that direction? Shouldn't we tip: to get back to where we were?"
I thought a moment and shrugged. "Can you remember the way back?"
"Yes." Robin said. "Or we could just follow our steps or look for something familiar,"
"You have to be kidding. Familiar?" Teal said. "It all looks the same."
"We'll look for our steps. We'll get back there to that place. I'm sure," Robin insisted. "And then we could follow whatever road they took, or hopefully whatever is left of the tire tracks."
"Okay," I said "Let's try."
We began to walk back. For a while we did see signs of our steps, but the wind had come up and the sand was beginning to flow like waves in the sea. Soon, it was as if we had dropped a tablespoon of water in the ocean and then tried to find it again. Teal was screaming and complaining constantly, but the wind took her voice off as well.
At a particularly large clump of bushes and near some cacti. I paused to give us a rest, then took a second swig of my canteen. We hovered around each other,
"Art you sure we're not going too far on the right?" Robin asked mt.
"No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything anymore."
"What does that mean?" Teal cried. "You don't know where you're going now?"
"I'm not your desert guide, you know. I'm no better at finding my way around here than you are."
"But you're leading us and we're following."
"So you lead," I said.
"I'm so tired." Teal replied instead of arguing. "Can we take a longer rest?"
"We're going to burn up out here," Robin reminded her. "Look at your legs. Look at mine."
I nodded and reached into Natani's healing bag to come out with the ointment he had once used on them. They recognized it immediately and began to smear it on their legs and arms and each other's neck, neither complaining about how it made them look now,
"Do your faces. too," I advised. I took some and put it on my own.
"Why are you doing that? Natani calls you daughter of the sun because you're black, doesn't he?" Teal asked, sounding jealous.
It made me smile. "Yes. I have an advantage out here, but black people do get sunburn and do get skin cancers. My daddy told me that and I never forgot it."
Teal looked skeptical.
"You know..." Robin said, looking around and watching the wind roll dried brush over the sand. It bounced and flew with such ease. "Maybe we should follow Natani's advice about traveling in the desert and wait until the sun goes down."
"What are you talking about?" Teal said sharply. "If we don't get back to the van, they might think we're lost and leave without us or something and then we'll really be lost."
"If they were really worrying about that. Teal, they wouldn't have left us out here like this." I said. "I doubt very much that they're sitting in some hot van waiting to see if we'll make it back. Robin's right. It's harder to travel in the desert now."
"Well, what are we going to do?"
"Have lunch." I said, "and then burrow under the sand and take a nap."
"What? I'm not burrowing under any sand. That's disgusting, and who knows what sort of things will be crawling all over us."
"Suit yourself." I opened one of the nutritional bars.
Robin did the same. Petulantly. Teal followed, She reached for her canteen again, and I held out my hand.