nowhere

So, what'd you find out?

Fucking nothin, nothin at all. Just some cave drawings, thas all there was to it.

Cave drawings? Yeah, well, it looked like it was moving to me. That face.

Yeah, and you're getting old and can't see for shit too. An now Bill thinks the Vikings were here, says they sailed up the Rio Grand when there was a flood plain clear out ta here at the Tanks.

Whaat?

That's what he thinks, ask him.

I will, I will just as soon as he gets over here.

My father walked towards Pablo and Orville carrying an eyeful of uncertainty with him. The sun was already high, and there was a quiet wind pushing across the valley floor that made the rising heat shimmer. My father appeared to be walking inches above the ground as he came toward them. As he walked toward them he slowly descended to the ground with each advancing step.

Whew! Gettin hot, gettin hot already!

Yeah, whats this about Vikings and floods and whatever? Pablo says you think that's a Viking painted up there on that wall.

Don't think it, know it. Ever seen a blond haired, red bearded Indian? Don't think so.

Could be a Spaniard.

Yeah could be, except for them glasses.

What glasses?

The glasses he has on his face, that's what glasses.

What glasses?

I took a picture, here, look, those fucking glasses alright! See 'em, those!

What?

Those are glasses, ok, look, there's no glass in them, but they are sun goggles, probably made of bone, with a slit in them, and tied around the head they'll keep the glare away. And you know who makes glasses like those?

Vikings?

No. Inuit, Greenlanders.

So?

So, the Vikings were known to have settled Greenland, and that's where they would have learned about making glasses, or goggles, like these. From the Inuit. And they would have come in handy out here in the desert.

So you think Vikings were here.

I am fairly certain, yes.

See, I told you he thought that Vikings were here.

Yeah, that's right, they were.

Ok, so how'd they get here?

They sailed, just like they got everywhere else. And I think when they came, the Rio Grande was deeper, and, maybe, they came in the spring, and maybe what with the snow pack melting further north for all we know at that time the whole valley was a wide flood plain just like the Mississippi. Look we know that this whole area was once under a sea.

Yeah but that was millions of years ago.

Maybe, but who knows for sure, even Pablo wasn't around back then. What if there was water here not nearly as long ago as we think?

So what?

Well if it was here not that long ago, then maybe it's disappeared faster than we thought?

So what if it has?

I don't know. I don't know what it means.

Means its fucking hot is what it means. And it means this conversation is going nowhere.

They looked up, startled by the scream of a hawk that pulled out of a dive just above their heads. It must have decided at the last moment that the little monkey Guzelda was too big to carry off, so it veered away. The three men stood in silence.