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arguing the point with her mother back then, telling Iona passionately exactly how wrong she was.
    “These are the sixties,” Diana had said with the absolute conviction of a know-it-all twenty-one-year-old. “Women are moving into their own now, Mother. Everything is possible, you’ll see.”
    Iona Dade Cooper had died a few months later without seeing anything of the kind. And Diana, now several years older than her mother had lived to be, was forced to acknowledge that Iona’s assessment was one hundred percent accurate.
    Mom, you were right, after all, Diana Cooper Ladd Walker admitted to herself. You really can’t have it all .

 
    2
    Now in that long ago time the earth—jeweth—was not yet firm and still as it is today. It was shaking and quivering all the time. That made it hard for the four to travel. So Earth Medicine Man—Jeweth Mahkai—threw himself down and stopped the shaking of the earth. And that was the first land.
    But the land was floating around in separate pieces. So Earth Medicine Man called to the Spider Men. Totkihhud O’othham came out of the floating ground and went all over the world spinning their webs and tying the pieces of earth together. And that is how we have it today—land and water.
    Then I’itoi wanted to find the center of the earth. So he sent Coyote toward the south and Big Black Beetle to the north. He said they must go as fast and as far as they could and then return to him.
    Bitokoi —Big Black Beetle—was back quite a while before Ban —Coyote—returned. In this way I’itoi knew that he had not yet found the center of the earth.
    Then Spirit of Goodness took Bitokoi and Ban a little farther south and sent them off once more. Again Big Black Beetle came back before Coyote, so I’itoi moved still farther toward the south.
    On the fourth try Bitokoi and Coyote came back to I’itoi at exactly the same time. In that way Elder Brother knew he was exactly in the center of the world. Because the Spirit of Goodness should be the center of all things, this was where I’itoi wished to be.
    And this center of all things where Elder Brother lives is called Tohono O’othham Jeweth, which means Land of the Desert People.
    Mitch Johnson waited on the hill, watching and sketching, until Brandon Walker went inside around ten-thirty. By then he had several interesting thumbnail drawings—color studies—that he’d be able to produce if anyone ever questioned his reason for being there.
    “You see, Mitch,” Andy had told him years ago, “you always have to have some logical and defensible reason for being where you are and for doing whatever it is that you’re supposedly doing. It’s a kind of protective coloration, and it works the same way that the patterns on a rattlesnake’s back allow it to blend into the rocks and shadows of the land it inhabits.
    “The mask that allowed me to do that was writing. Writing takes research, you see. Calling something research gave me a ticket into places most people never have an opportunity to go. Drawing can do the same for you. You’re lucky in that you have some innate ability, although, if I were you, I’d use some of the excess time we both seem to have at the moment to improve on those skills. You’ll be surprised how doing so will stand you in good stead.”
    That was advice Mitch Johnson had been happy to follow, and he had carried it far beyond the scope of Andy’s somewhat limited vision. Claiming to be an artist had made it possible to park his RV—a cumbersome and nearly new Bounder—on a patch of desert just off Coleman Road within miles of where Andrew Carlisle had estimated it would most likely be needed. The rancher he had made arrangements with had been more than happy to have six months’ rent in advance and in cash, with the only stipulation being that Mitch keep the gate closed and locked.
    “No problem,” Mitch had told the guy. “I’m looking for privacy. Keeping the gate locked will be as much of a