THIS IS THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE —
EL. 7,550 FT. (2,302 M.)

Jack parked the Volks on the soft shoulder and they got out. The cat got out with them. They were standing on the very spot where the waters divided: ahead of them, the water flowed toward the Pacific, behind them, toward the Atlantic.

The girl looked in her book. The author said that, once the emigrants had come to the celebrated divide, they were eager to find a waterway, because they were curious to know what the water that flowed toward the Pacific Ocean would taste like; he remembered that the people who had come this way included not only all those who had emigrated to Oregon and California, but also a great many explorers and celebrated guides, notably Robert Stuart in 1812, Jed Smith, Jim Clyman, Jim Bridget, Tom Fitzpatrick and others in 1824, Captain Bonneville in 1832, Doctor Whitman and his group in 1835; and he deplored the fact that a place as important as the continental divide was brought to tourists’ attention only by two modest blocks of stone that had been erected not by the government, but by “two private citizens at their own expense.”

“We have to do something,” said the girl.

“You’re right. What can we do?” asked Jack.

“Something special. It’s not every day that you cross the continental divide.”

“What can two private citizens like us do that’s special? Any ideas?”

“Yes. I’m starting to have an idea . . .”

Her voice was very odd and she had a sly expression.

“What’s the most private thing that two private citizens like us can do?” she asked.

“Oh!” said the man. “Is that what you were thinking about?”

“Yes.”

“Right now?”

“Why not?” said the girl, and took off her T-shirt: she was naked to the waist and she was about to unzip her jeans.

Jack looked all around.

“Do you see anybody?”

“N . . . no.”

“So there’s nobody around.”

“Nobody.”

“So do we do it or not?”

“You want to do it right now?”

“Yes!”

“Here?”

“YES! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, RIGHT ON THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE!”

The cat scurried away and hid under the Volks.

The girl took off her jeans and her hunting knife, and then she noticed that the man still had all his clothes on. She helped him pull off his shirt, shoes and jeans, then she asked him if everything was all right and, without giving him time to reply, made him lie down on the shoulder of the road and started to kiss and caress him. He tried to say something, but she lay on top of him and kissed him harder, and just as he was trying again to free his mouth so he could say something, the girl felt under her belly a couple of shudders and a little flood.

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but when I do it outside . . .”

“Yes?”

“ . . . I get too excited and it happens too fast.”