Reno groaned a little as if he wasn’t sure about all of this. Lou gave him a strange look. “Hey, Mr. Skeptic, you’re the least likely one in this bunch to feel any doubt. After all, if you came from the past – which you and Journey truly believe is the truth – you had to come through a passageway of some kind.”
“A passageway that isn’t there anymore.” Reno stood and slammed his hat on his head. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
Lou was ready. “Excellent. Are you coming?” she asked Journey.
Journey looked to Reno to see if he wanted her to come.
“I’ll run ahead and saddle three horses,” he offered. “You might want to change clothes, Lou.”
Lou looked down at her white linen pantsuit. “You’re right. This isn’t the best choice, is it?”
“We’ll wait for you outside,” Journey told her, wanting a moment alone with Reno. On the way out, she called the dogs for a quick bathroom break. While Cleo and Dudley were tending to business and chasing butterflies, she and Reno went to the barn to saddle the horses. As they worked, she tried to give Reno a bit of hope. “Don’t be discouraged. She’s really smart. Unless this was just a pure miracle with no basis in science, Lou is your best chance at figuring out an answer. She’s trained for this. Physics is as far over my heads as the clouds are, but there are ongoing studies in this field. Serious people are looking at this subject in a serious way. And she’s not only one of them, she can contact the others for help if need be.”
“Yea, but won’t that make me a bug under a microscope?”
“Lou won’t expose you. I’ll make damn sure and certain of that.”
Reno gave her a quick kiss of gratitude. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
“Of course.” She wrinkled her nose in thought as she led one of the horses out into the open. “There are microscopes in your time?”
“They’re rare, but one of my friends, Dr. Domino O’Neill, has a microscope. He’s let me look it in a time or two. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure of what I was looking at, but it sure was interesting.”
About that time the kitchen door slammed. “I’m ready,” Lou announced as she rolled up the sleeves of her blue chambray shirt.
“Dudley! Cleo!” Journey hurriedly put the dogs into the house while the other two saddled up. Once she joined them, they left through the fence gate and headed out into the park.
The scenery, while beautiful, was something Journey was used to. Reno, also, had traversed this territory often, in both the present and the past. Lou, however, was seeing the magnificent sight with new eyes. “Oh, my,” she breathed out the words in awe. “This is truly beautiful.” She stopped her horse to scan the horizon. “It’s pretty awesome from the road, but you can’t really fathom the magnitude of the mountain until you’re standing in its shadow.”
Journey couldn’t help but feel proprietorial toward this land she loved. “And just think, the batholith is twelve miles by twenty miles on the surface, but it also reaches twenty-four miles beneath our feet.”
“And it’s all made of granite…” Lou whispered right before she slapped her knee so hard that her horse bolted.
Reno reached out to grab the horse’s reins. “Whoa, girl. Whoa.”
Just as soon as the animal was calm once more, Lou pointed to the mountain. “Is the canyon made of granite also?”
“Everything is made of granite out here.” Journey’s observation was matter of fact, but the way Lou repeated the words was anything but.
“Everything is granite out here!”
Reno watched as the blond scientist took off at a fast clip.
“Wait!” Journey called. “You don’t know exactly where you’re going!”
“Well, catch up with me!” Lou called back.
After exchanging an amused glance, they did just that. ‘Hold up!” Reno called. “This ground is rocky. Your horse might lose its footing.”
Lou pulled back on the reins to slow the mare to a trot. “Are we close?”
“About a mile ahead. The canyon will open up to your right.” Reno took the lead.
The closer they drew, the rougher the terrain became. High rocks, steep canyons, and what Lou had called boulder fields.
“Why did you react so wildly to the fact that the mountain is granite?” Journey asked as they drew nearer the canyon.
Lou surveyed the area with assessing eyes. “Because I haven’t been looking at this whole thing from the right perspective.” She slowed her horse down even more. “There are places in this world known to be energy hotspots.”
“Right. Yesterday at lunch, my new friend, Skye, mentioned that Enchanted Rock sits on a ley line,” Journey offered. “Is that what you mean?”
“We might as well wait until they’re gone.” Reno asked as he noticed a couple of hikers straight ahead. “What’s a ley line?”
Lou checked her phone to see if she had a signal. “Two bars. Dammit. I wanted to look something up.” She shook her cell to see if she could coax a better signal as she answered Reno, “Many in the metaphysical community think a ley line is a straight alignment connecting various ancient structures or places of power. There are many ley lines, of course, and they connect locations like Stonehenge, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and even Enchanted Rock. The belief is that these sacred structures were built at places of great energy to be a tangible source of that energy. When the locations of those sites are examined on a map, it becomes clear they could’ve been laid out on a grid. In addition, all those structures I named, including this mountain before us,
