Finn stood up, her knees stained with red dust. “Fine. You try.” She shoved the recorder at Zadie.

“I’d rather just go back to camp.” They had been walking around the campground for only twenty minutes and Zadie was already bored.

“But we haven’t been that way yet.” Finn pointed to a paved road lined with gnarled conifers and a brown sign posted next to it that read: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

“Wait, we’re not supposed to go down…” But before Zadie had even finished her sentence, Finn was already running toward the road. Zadie groaned and followed her sister, dragging her feet as she went.

“Don’t forget to record!” Finn called over her shoulder. Zadie rolled her eyes theatrically and looked down at the recorder. It was still rolling. She lifted the microphone to her mouth and said in her best narrator voice, “On today’s episode of The Lizard Whisperer, Finn takes her show name literally and believes that lizards are actually whispering to her.”

Finn scowled. “What does literally mean?”

“Will she learn to commune with her reptile friends, or will she make a fool of herself on national TV? Tune in to find out!”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

Zadie gaped at her sister. “Wha’d you just say? You know I’m recording, right?”

“So?” Finn shrugged, trying to play it cool. “Asshole,” she said again, giggling to herself this time.

Zadie grinned and put an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Mom’s gonna be so proud of you when she hears this.”

The road they were on opened up into a sandy clearing where a couple of dozen RVs were parked in a horseshoe formation. By now the sun was almost completely behind the red rocks. Only the crowns of the buttes to the east glowed their postcard orange. The rest of the valley was bathed in a smoky shade of violet.

The camp was mostly deserted save for one person: a woman, sitting alone in a lawn chair, facing the rocks. As if she sensed them watching her, the woman turned around in her seat and held up a hand to wave at them. The girls waved back silently. Then the woman turned back around toward the sunset.

“Do you think she lives here?” Finn asked.

“Probably.”

“Where’s her family?”

“I don’t know.”

The girls stood for a few more minutes, watching the sky change color before their eyes. Zadie was about to suggest they head back when the woman turned around in her seat once again and pointed to the hills.

“What is she pointing at?” Zadie squinted but saw only mountain-shaped shadows.

Finn gasped. “Over there!” Zadie followed her sister’s index finger to a four-legged creature climbing over the rocks. “It’s a coyote. Hit record. Hurry up!”