Disposition of Remains by Laura T. Emery Page B

half tempted to just squat down in front of the lot of them. But modesty prevailed and I allowed Wilbur to escort me to a new pee zone.
    “Right over here should work,” Wilbur said, pointing to the base of a juniper tree.
    I tried to duck around the backside of the tree but there was too much shrubbery in the way. I envisioned myself acquiring a poison oak rash where the sun doesn’t shine. So I pulled my pants down to squat, only to discover that Wilbur’s pants were unzipped well. He was actually doing his business right next to me.
    “Now you’re not the only one with your pants down.”
    “Great. You’re like the hot big brother I never wanted,” I groaned.
    I was in the midst of laughing at my own bad joke when I spotted a pair of glowing orbs glowering down at me from the branches of the tree.
    “What the hell is that?! ” I exclaimed with more panic in my voice than I’d intended.
    “Wow! That would be a Cactus Ferruginous pygmy-owl—very unusual to see out here.”
    As Wilbur embarked upon a Discovery Channel diatribe on desert wildlife, I began to feel a bit woozy. Before long, his voice was replaced by a muffled warble. The last thing I remember him saying was, “Did you know that in some cultures, seeing an owl means imminent death?”
    That’s when the earth jumped up and whacked me in the face.
    “Umm…Stacia?” I heard Wilbur ask from what seemed like miles away.
    By the time I awakened, I was dangling in Wilbur’s arms with the blur of trees passing by in the night sky. When we arrived back at the camp, I was finally able to focus my gaze enough to notice the concerned look on Wilbur’s face.
    “What happened?” I croaked.
    “You fainted,” Wilbur explained as he laid me down by the flashlight “fire.”
    Misty and Paul rushed over to help.
    I shook my head in disbelief.
    “Jesus—I don’t know what happened. We were just looking at that owl…but wait…did I pass out before or after I pulled my pants back up?”
    “Uh…before.”
    I was mortified. Never before had anyone outside of my lovers and my gynecologist acquired such an intimate knowledge of my private parts.
    “You need to eat something, honey,” Misty prodded.
    “Yeah, that’s probably it,” I agreed, although I knew better.
    I think it was the “symbol of death” anecdote that had gotten to me. I wasn’t normally one to buy into the whole omen thing, but that blasted bird had me seriously spooked. It was possible that I had even less time than I’d imagined. Any one of the occasions that I fell asleep or fainted could spell the end for me. I couldn’t continue to count on the fact that I would always wake up. I could only hope that it would be less painful than it had been for my mother.
    While I recovered, the others prepared dinner. I was still feeling a bit queasy and dizzy, so I helped myself to a single piece of bread and some water despite Misty’s insistence that I needed something more substantial.
    “Is that all you’re gonna eat?” Misty asked. “You’re not in jail.”
    She was right. I wasn’t in jail…anymore. I had escaped the incarceration of my marriage, but I had become a prisoner of my failing body. Still, sadly enough, I preferred the latter.
    “Yup, bread and water it is.”
    “Okay, suit yourself. We’re gonna head out in the morning,” Misty announced. “I’m gonna check on my car, then hopefully, we’ll be back in Vegas by about two o’clock.”
    I wasn’t ready to go back to Vegas. In fact, I hadn’t even considered my next move. A sudden paralyzing fear that Evan would discover my location came crashing down upon me. I imagined him lurking in some dark corner, waiting to pounce on me like one of the horrible javelinas, just so he could let me know what a terrible disappointment I’d turned out to be.
    That was when I realized that Evan hadn’t called in days. For a moment I was filled with indignation that he’d given up on me so easily. Then it dawned on me that