I spent last Sunday fearing that the contractor would arrive the next morning and tearing up the desert near to my favorite spot. Sure enough they arrived the next morning, parking in the little stub of road across from the back entrance to the shopping center. They spent the day using the Cat earth mover to big a hole. They were extending the water main from the street into the undeveloped property.
They spent the day installing this small extension, then at the end of the day, they covered up the hole and left. The next day they retrieved the earth movers and left a pipe sticking up out of the ground. They had tested the water flow, as evidenced by a big muddy puddle they left behind. They also left behind.about a dozen large PVC pipes on the ground nearby.
And that was it. That is all they did all week. So far my favorite spots are left undisturbed. Of course that could all change tomorrow. But for now all is peaceful again. They did not use the Cat to smash through the dry wash again.
Yet it was a strange week. Weird things happened almost every day.
On Tuesday, I went out to inspect the remnants of their work and found that they have furthered desecrated the secret of the Ironwood, flinging part of it onto the muddy ground by the road. I took it and placed it under a bush. I did not take it back to the Ironwood, because I figured it was not my place to do that. Someone else had placed it there, and tended it, even replacing it and restoring it in the past when teenagers had desecrated it.
I waited for that unknown person, to whom I feel connected, to come back and restore it perhaps, but I don't think they will do so, because it is evident that the City does not want it there for now, because of this project they are undertaking of developing the parcel.
So in placing the remnants of the Secret below the bush, so it would not be noticed by passers-by, I had become the tender of the Secret, I suppose.
The nature of the Secret is one that brings people from all over the world, as I have learned, to seek out the Ironwood. That probably tells you a lot about it. There was even a visitor log. After I had placed the remnant under a bush by the road, and become the tender of the Secret, I noticed that part of the visitory log had fallen into the mud. I picked it up and examined it. The last visitor's entry was visible in the little plastic over. The date was the date of my last birthday, and the signature was "LuckyOne80".
Later, it walking back past the spot, I was startled to see the road runner hopping over the spot where the workers had buried the water main. It is rare to see the road runner there. I paused in the bushes, barely noticed by the bird, and watched it in silence until it forgot about me, and scampered away, running with the swift motion of the legs that gives the bird its distinct nature, and is almost comical to watch.
Perhaps the crew will come back tomorrow in the new week, but for now, all has been peaceful. When they go back, I am hoping they will install those PVC pipes along the road, and down around the corner to the place where they will build the lake, as they call it. If so, they will stay quite a ways away from the Ironwood and the Sandy Bottom, and the Animal Crossing and the Rocky Ford, and all the other secret places I have given my own names to, that are a treasure to have access to.
But for now, all is good. Maybe eventually I will replace the Secret back at the Ironwood, and even restore the visitor log. I'll give a chance to the unknown person to restore it themselves. But it seems a theme lately in my life, of stepping into a role, when no one else will do someone.
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