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back. “I’d hate to see my cousin up there!”
    Bailey and Elizabeth took more pictures of the ancient dwellings.
    “What’s that?” Bailey pointed to a mountain area not far from the cliff dwellings.
    “That’s where some of the old turquoise mines used to be.” Elan shaded his eyes with his hand. “They’re not open anymore. They were closed when the drought hit, too.”
    “It’s sad what a lack of rain can do.” Elizabeth looked around again. “Very cool, Elan, but we’d better get back now.”
    Elan looked at his watch. “Yeah, we’ve been gone almost two hours. It will be time for supper when we get home.”
    “I’m already getting hungry from all this walking.” Bailey pulled out her bag of trail mix to munch on.
    “Hopefully it won’t take as long to get home as it did to get here,” Elan said. “We’ll try to stay on track this time.”
    “They should build roads to the cliff dwellings,” Elizabeth said.
    “They have, but they’re on the other side going toward Santa Fe. None of them lead back to the reservation.” Elan laughed. “I guess they figured Santa Fe tourists wouldn’t want to hike all the way out there.”
    “Probably a good guess. It was far enough coming from your house.” Bailey pulled her cotton candy flavored lip balm out of her pocket and smeared some on her parched lips. “Anyone else need some?”
    “I’ll take some.” Elizabeth applied the lip balm. “Mmm. This makes me think
food!”
    “Thanks for taking us to see the cliff dwellings, Elan,” Bailey said. “They’re really neat.”
    “Yeah, and I even got to meet a rattlesnake!” Elizabeth laughed. “Not that I want to ever do it again!”
    “I’m glad you got to see them.” Elan gulped down a drink. “I go there fairly often. It doesn’t seem that far to me, but I guess it is for people who don’t hike that much.”
    “If I were you, I wouldn’t take that hike alone, Elan,” Beth said.
    “What if something happened?” Bailey added. “You’d be stuck out there with no one to help.”
    Elan waved the mother hens off with his hand. “I’ve hiked alone plenty of times. I’ve even hiked up some of the cliff dwellings.”
    Bailey stopped and planted her hands on her hips. “Your mom would have a fit if she knew that.”
    “Well, she doesn’t, and if she finds out, I’ll know who to blame.”
    “Well, I hope you won’t do it again,” Elizabeth said. “That is totally dangerous.”
    Elan shook his head. “We’ll see about that.”

Disaster!
    “We need to leave!” Halona called to the others the next morning.
    “Where’s Elan?” Bailey asked as she climbed into the Suburban.
    “He’s not feeling well,” Halona explained. “He’s staying home to rest.”
    “Maybe that hike yesterday was harder on him than he thought,” Elizabeth said as she buckled her seat belt.
    When they arrived at Earth Works, Bailey took over Elan’s job of sweeping the front sidewalk while Elizabeth dusted the shelves and pottery inside. Before long Bailey heard the familiar voices of Paco and the other boys who teased Elan.
    “Oh, look!” Paco taunted. “Elan has a girl doing his work for him. Must have been too hard for him.”
    “It just so happens Elan is sick today.” Bailey was immediately sorry she had given them the satisfaction of an answer.
    “Aw. Isn’t that too bad.” Paco used his best baby voice. “Hope the delicate little thing gets better soon so we can pound him into the ground!” The baby voice morphed into a growl.
    The other boys laughed. Bailey shot poisonous darts from her eyes. She was steaming mad but didn’t say anything else. The boys rode off, still laughing.
    As soon as Bailey finished sweeping, she went back into the store and pulled Elizabeth into the back hallway. “I’m going to give that dorko a shocko if he’s not careful.”
    “Huh?” Elizabeth frowned.
    “That mean guy, Paco, came back on his bike while I was sweeping.”
    Elizabeth laughed.