Summer Vacation

Elia Belluzzo ’26

There were roads stretching for miles, wheels on pavement spiraling over and over and over again until movement was lost in the motion of red rock racing by the windows. We drove on cruise control. We watched hues smudge in front of our eyes like paint dripping down a blank page. We let the engine lull us to sleep. There was Taco Bell takeout and pieces of lettuce all over, conversations that filled the gaps between the lane lines occasionally. We found unlucky flies smeared across the headlights. There was once a butterfly, too.

We wondered about beauty, we listened to the thunder growling in the distance like a hungry thing. There was a brutal crash, car and truck spilled everywhere, strangers comforting a woman crying for the black marks on the road that remain a memorial to this day and the one she could not save. We wondered why life is so short.

We touched the layers of Entrada and watched as history crumbled beneath our fingertips and escaped on the wind. We walked footstep over footstep, rhythm matching the cry of our hearts in our chests: Lord help us.

There was a balanced rock threatening to break loose, metaphor for the thread binding our wrists together, metaphor for the strengthening echo reverberating within us.

There were arches that let in the sky.

We took photos to capture precious memories we knew we wouldn’t remember.

We watched the landscape darken with clouds and shadow.

Then there were raindrops pelting our bare skin and soaking through our cotton t-shirts, heavy like the sorrow for yesterday, piercing like the longing for tomorrow.

There was the storm, bursting in the sky. It lit up the night so we could see the worry on each other’s lips.

We ran for shelter and watched the dirt melt into rivers of iron.

*Note: Entrada refers to the Entrada Sandstone formation.