Chapter 2.6 part 1

This time when a gust came it was strong enough to shake the whole RAV and knock RaeAnn’s head against the door-post. She couldn’t estimate the wind’s current speed, only that it was stronger than her only previous whiteout on the playa. That had been an experience she thought she’d never repeat though here she was now, eight months older and wondering what in the blue hell had possessed her to come back to the Black Rock. The dust-storm raging around their little group’s vehicles made her homesick for Oakland until she reminded herself that every day for the last few months there she’d been afraid of turning on the tap only to find the water shut off as it already had been in many parts of the city and most of neighboring San Leandro.

“Make it stop,” Daisy said listlessly in the seat beside her. “This is stupid. I want to be at the springs.”

RaeAnn assured her they all did, that they’d head there soon as it cleared outside; not even Peaches was foolhardy enough to try navigating the twelve miles from camp to Double Hot through high winds bearing countless particles of fine alkali silt that reduced visibility to near zero and made the steering wheel jump and shiver alarmingly in one’s hands. Her statement, she knew, was misleading given there were still a number of tasks needing done before they could leave — including collapsing Peaches’ shade structure erected just that morning, presuming the wind didn’t deconstruct it first — but she didn’t expect Daisy to be cognizant of that. She dwelt, RaeAnn had observed, almost exclusively in the present when she was there at all.