Miriam studied the height, the ladder, and Ben. “For the challenge, I guess, and Sadie wants to go up so badly. It’s a challenge, I guess. It’s time I accepted a challenge.”

“We going to climb the ladder, Mama?”

“I think so.”

“Wait a minute,” Ben said. He pulled a large checkered bandanna from his back pocket, folded it, and tied it across Miriam’s forehead. “You can’t climb with your hair falling in your eyes.”

Amelia rummaged in her purse and found a rubber band. She tied Sadie’s hair in a ponytail, then, her heart racing, she watched Miriam place one foot after the other on the ladder and begin a slow ascent, with Ben bringing up the rear. Once she was safely inside the cave, Ben climbed back down and helped Sadie up.

They had not progressed more than five rungs when Sadie looked up and said, “I’m scared.”

“Don’t look down,” Ben said. “I’m right behind you. Don’t be scared. You can’t fall. I’m right here.”

One foot after the other, holding tight to the sides of the ladder, they climbed. Occasionally, Amelia heard Ben’s voice urging Sadie, “Don’t look down. Take a deep breath.” Then they reached the top and climbed safely into the cave to sit side by side on the rough earth, like a family, Amelia thought. They peered down and waved at her. She waved back, her heart in her throat, worried, now, about their climb back down.

Sitting next to Ben, Miriam felt on top of the world. Across the valley, cliff walls rose steeply to a tree-fringed plateau on which, the guidebooks said, a lost civilization had grown corn, sweet potatoes, and other crops.

“It’s hard to imagine families living way up here in a cave. Why didn’t they live below?” she asked.

“Perhaps they only slept here. I imagine they’d feel safer at night from attacks from men or animals. I know I would. Maybe they spent their day below under less permanent shelters that have long vanished.”

“I cannot imagine their carrying water up these ladders,” Miriam asked.

“They carried up water?” Sadie asked. “How would they do that?”

“If they did, it was probably in leather pouches,” Ben replied.

They sat for a while and watched the less adventurous wander among the kivas. “Look at me, Grandma,” Sadie called. “I am sitting on top of the whole world.”

Amelia looked up at the trio sitting happily at the edge of the cave. Miriam and Ben might fall in love and get married. Ben might take them away from her. She felt ashamed to begrudge Miriam happiness.

Amelia gave her attention to photography and completed the architecture assignment by shooting ancient ruins. Then she watched the dearest people in her life ease onto the ladder and slowly return to the valley floor.