I must admit I was slightly appalled and greatly puzzled that Gilbert would want me to spend any time at all in a place like that.

Richard stopped the limousine, got out, and opened the gate. When he got back in, he drove through and continued on to the rear of the front building into a courtyard of dirt, broken glass, broken up pavement, odd and sundry sizes of pipes, aluminum and steel soda cans, Styrofoam coffee cups and a general representation of many decades worth of accumulated paper and plastic litter. Richard stopped, turned off the engine, stepped out of the vehicle and proceeded to open the door for me.

"Are we there?"

"Boss man wanted you to have a look around this place if there was gonna be enough time. I think there is. You aren't due 'til near sunset. `Course the sunset comes a little earlier because of that small rise there to the west, but not by much.” indicating with his thumb the Rocky Mountain range.

"Wander as you like," he continued. "It's old, but it ain't gonna fall down on ya. You got a hat?"

"No."

"Good thing I brought this extra bandanna huh? Yeah it's hot, but it ain't gonna be that long before the sun sets anyway."

"Even this kind of heat doesn't bother me that much, besides there seems to be plenty of shade next to the buildings."

"I'll honk the horn when it gets to be that time."

"You're not going to join me?"

"Nah, boss man wants you to experience this on your own."

"Strange."

"Yeah, I thought so too but what can ya say, he usually got a good reason for everything he do. Near as I can figure anyway. Maybe you can figure it out while yer wanderin."

"Yeah, maybe. Weird, he knows how little I care for this kind of neglect."

"Hmmmph!" Richard said rolling his eyes at the place. Then he returned his attention to a book which I hadn't noticed. He opened it to somewhere in the middle and left me to fend for myself.

There's not much to say about the hour and a half I spent looking around at the general despoliation which occurs at a strip mining site. The same kind of lack of care that was used to abrade the raw materials from the land was echoed in the neglect of the buildings. The whole time I spent there was the opposite of the previous experience; the wonder and joy I felt at seeing miles and miles of saguaro. I wouldn't say my day was wrecked by the ruination, but my attitude was definitely tempered by it. Slightly before sunset, I walked back with a ‘grounded’ heart. And neither the limousine nor Richard was to be found.

I looked around in a mild state of shock. I couldn't believe Richard would just leave me here. A couple moments passed before I calmed down enough to think clearly. That was when I found one of the doors to the main building standing open...they had all been closed when Richard and I arrived. Obviously I was supposed to enter.

My first step through was a complete change of expectations. The outer wall of the structure was nothing more than an extra wide cinder block facade that leapt up four stories to a roof that didn't exist. The interior surface of this wall was covered with a flowering vine in bloom. Pea green leaves with an occasional purple bloom grew from the floor to where the roof should have been. Surrounding me was a virtual forest of succulents along with a variety of green garden growth. The "jungle" appeared to fill the entire bottom floor of the building. I could see part of the far wall but my view was obscured by what was left of the second floor. It was almost as if what was left of the second level was floating on the surface of the "jungle," like nothing more than an, ivy covered, cinder block box with windows. Above this, the third and fourth floor no longer existed at all. A fine mist sprayed from a lattice work of pipes which were hung at about the mid-third floor level. Slightly cooler inside, it was like literally stepping out of the desert into a fantasy. From somewhere within the dense foliage, I could hear a waterfall.

top