“I began CPR within ten seconds,” Reinhardt said. “He has a pulse, and he’s breathing on his own.”
“We’ve got it,” one of the EMTs said.
“I’m a doctor.”
“Congratulations,” the other EMT said, shouldering past Reinhardt so he could transfer the man to the stretcher.
Sophia looked around and stood on one of the chairs. “Ladies and gentlemen, could you all please step to the side? Maybe just right up against the walls?”
A tour guide wearing a Ranches, Relics, and Ruins T-shirt approached the EMTs with her arm around a frightened woman. She said, “This is that guy’s wife. You should take her with you. Mr. Kwon doesn’t speak any English. Do you?” she asked Mrs. Kwon, who nodded.
“Only a little,” she said. “Not so much.”
“They’re going to take you both to a hospital,” the tour guide said. The crowd parted, the EMTs left with the Kwons, and the space closed up behind.
One of the other people in a tour group T-shirt said, “Okay, everybody, let’s break into our small groups and carry on. Make sure you have enough water.”
Another tour group person said, “Don’t worry. Mr. Kwon will be just fine.”
People who were not part of the group milled around for a while, then disappeared. A third tour group person said, “Before we go, a round of applause for Dr. Kupfer. He’s the hero of the day.” The remaining people clapped and cheered. Reinhardt looked up surprised, and he waved off the applause. As the room continued to empty, Reinhardt sat in one of the scattered chairs, and he hung his head.
Eventually the only people left in the auditorium were Sophia and Reinhardt. As she shut down the projector and ejected her USB drive, she watched Reinhardt stand and walk around the place where Mr. Kwon had fallen. He took out a small bundle of sage tied in string. As he circled the area, he shook the bundle once in each of the four directions, then held the sage to his nose and breathed in deeply. He lowered his head and said a few words so quietly Sophia couldn’t hear them. When he was done, she said, “He’s probably going to be okay.”
“Cardiac arrest is very serious.”
“But you’re a doctor, right?”
“A dermatologist.”
“Oh,” Sophia said. “A doctor anyway. Nobody else knew what to do. I didn’t.”
“I better continue on to the next event,” he said.
“You’re on the tour?” Sophia asked.
“Yes. It is a very bad one. I made a mistake. Their website was misleading.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Everything they show us here is a cartoon. Bright colors. Strings of flags. Hot dogs with ketchup. I would rather see something quiet and real and true, not always a Schauspiel.” He paused for a second. “Not always a . . . pageant, you know?”
“It’s even hard for me to know what stories to tell, and I have an advanced degree,” Sophia said.
Reinhardt tapped his fist against his sternum. “The stories should come from here.”
Sophia did not agree with him on this point. The heart has a habit of falling in love with beautiful falsehoods, but this guy had just saved somebody’s life, so she gave him his moment. Instead of rebutting, she said, “Hey, there’s a lot of amazing stuff to see around here. Keep your eyes open.”
“Danke,” the man said, shouldering his backpack. As he was leaving, Thad returned.
“Oh, wow,” he said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay.”
“It’s not normally like this,” Thad said.
“How could it be?”
“They’re taking the Kwons to Cedar City. Regional is going to send you a link for an incident report, but you should sit down as soon as you can and take some notes. Details get slippery as you come down.”
Sophia wandered out of the lodge and walked through the pines to the edge of the amphitheater. As she took in the intricate expanse, her phone buzzed. It was a VIP email notification from Paul. She tapped the email and it opened.
Sophia, good news. I’ve got some days off this week that I have to take before the end of the fiscal year or I’ll lose them. I was wondering if I could interest you in an adventure. Do you remember that site we talked about when we were climbing a couple of weeks ago, a place called Swallow Valley? It’s the one that requires a technical approach. There’s a lot of scrambling and some pitches we’ll have to climb. Keeps most people out. Nothing too gnarly. I know you could do it. It would take two days to get there and back again. What do you think?
She closed her eyes and tried not to smile as tourists passed her on either side. So, it was true, he did have plans, along with the presence of mind to share them. Climbing with him was the best thing she’d done since she got here. She didn’t know how she would do outside the gym, but it turned out she was good at it, and Paul was like nobody else. A flutter expanded inside her chest, and she calmly tried to gather it back up, but it billowed like a parachute, which made her all the more aware of each breath.
She lifted her phone and wrote: Gnarly? Paul said corny things like that all the time, innocent, naïve, endearing things. He was one of the only men she’d ever met who seemed almost entirely without guile. She stared at the phone for a moment, thinking about what he’d do when he read her message, so she hit the delete key seven times and wrote:
I will answer your call to adventure, but only if you promise to never, ever use the G-word again in my presence. I am ready to climb again. The harness and shoes you loaned me were fantastic. Send me a packing list for everything else and remind me to tell you about how I gave some guy a heart attack today.
Day Four
All the world’s a stage : Ninety-five in the shade : Let’s hope today is bullet free : The cowboy variety show
Nick Scissors sat by himself in the breakfast room of his hotel. He had one of each kind of Danish separated on small Styrofoam plates: lemon, cherry, blueberry, and plain. He sipped his coffee and watched a Fox News story about the secretary of the interior saying he supported the president’s plans to help the United States become energy independent. While the story ran, he ate two of the Danishes, wiping his fingers with a paper napkin he took from a stack.
At the table next to him, a couple worked out the itinerary of their vacation. Next stop, Zion National Park, then a day in St. George and down to Phoenix. The man pushed the map away and looked at his wife. “This would be a hell of a lot easier if there was a bridge across the Grand Canyon,” he said.
In his mind, Scissors imagined a scene where he leaned over and said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but there are already a number of bridges across the Colorado River. One at Page. The other at Boulder City.” Next, he had the man saying, “I’m talking about a bridge that goes right across the middle.” Or maybe the man would say, “In 1969 we put a man on the moon. Ever since then, we’ve been okay with being number two.” And then the man’s wife would interrupt, saying, “I’d never drive across that bridge. Can you think what something crazy like that would cost us in taxes?”
And then the scene was over. The couple was eating in silence. Scissors looked back at Fox News, which had moved on to sports. He ate a third Danish and wrapped the fourth in a napkin and cleared his space. He rode the elevator to the third floor and let himself back into his room. The cardboard tube was on the bed and the maps were rolled out on top of each other and held down by two empty water glasses, the room’s travel iron, and a copy of the Gideon Bible.