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“Ready for our hike?” Tanya asked.

“Do pigs fly?” Sue said with a laugh.

“The sooner we do our hike, the sooner we can get on the road to Santa Fe,” Ellen pointed out. “Just think, in five hours, we could be shopping in the plaza.”

“Is that supposed to motivate me? That’s just what I’m looking forward to, more walking.”

“Oh, come on, Sue,” Tanya said. “This will be more of a stroll than a hike. I promise.”

Ellen and her friends put on their walking shoes and then took the trail beside their cabin into the canyon.

Ellen breathed in the cool, morning air. The beauty of the canyon elevated her mood. Some of the stone formations were thick and striated, while other rocks formed mounds of crushed granite. In the distance was a tall formation that reminded Ellen of the sphinx.

“Watch your step,” Tanya said from up front as she stepped over a large rock.

“This feels so good,” Ellen said from where she took up the rear. “I feel like we’re one with nature.”

“And nature is so majestic, isn’t it?” Tanya said. “Doesn’t that big rock look like the tower of a magical castle?”

“I thought it looked more like the sphinx,” Ellen said.

Sue shook her head. “You see a castle and Ellen sees a sphinx. What does it say about me that I see a penis?”

Tanya scoffed. “You know what it says about you.”

“Don’t tell Tom,” Sue warned. “He’ll say my mind is in the gutter.”

“Isn’t it?” Ellen asked.

“Yes, but there’s no need for Tom to know that.”

The three friends chuckled. Ellen realized that if someone had overheard Sue, they might think she was a promiscuous woman who hid her extramarital interests from her husband, but her friends knew she just liked to make people laugh.

Tanya asked, “You think there’s any truth to what that psychic said about there being a shade in Santa Fe? What if there is? What if he confronts us?”

“Oh, Tanya,” Sue said, “you know as well as we do that there are ghosts everywhere. I’m sure there’s more than one shade in Santa Fe.”

“But why would the psychic warn us?” Tanya wanted to know.

“If anyone can handle a confrontation with a ghost, it’s us,” Sue said. “Don’t let fear get in your way of having a good time.”

Ellen heard a shriek as Tanya stopped short.

“Tanya? What are you screaming about?” Ellen asked from the rear.

“That wasn’t me,” Tanya said, backing up. “It was that tarantula. See it?”

On the trail two feet in front of Tanya, a hairy tarantula stood on its hind legs shrieking like a small child. The spider was as big as Ellen’s hand.

“Turn back” Sue said, as she pushed Ellen in the direction from which they’d come. “I’ve had enough of nature for one day.”

“So much for not letting fear get in the way of having a good time,” Ellen teased.

“I can handle just about anything but a hairy spider,” Sue said. “Especially one that screams.”