They Left Me at the Canyon, So I Came Back for the Wedding novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Left at the Canyon
Joanna's car pulls out while Caleb takes pictures at the canyon, and Brett posts the proof. A ranger finds him at the locked gate and tells him nobody is looking for him.
At 4:52 on the last afternoon of our trip, my fiancee drove away from Hollow Rock Canyon without me.
I was on the ridge trail with my phone held out, trying to get the sunset over the red walls.
Joanna had sent me up there herself.
"Go get the shot," she'd said in the parking lot, smiling. "I'll bring the car round to the lower gate. Don't hurry, love."
Brett had winked at me over the roof of the Subaru.
"I've got her, man. Go be an artist."
Brett was my best friend since eighth grade and my groomsman.
He had joined the last leg of the trip to share the driving, and I had been glad of it.
I took forty pictures of the canyon.
When I came down to the lower gate, the lot was empty.
There was a square of dry dirt where our car had been.
I called Joanna and it rang out.
I called again and got her voicemail, her cheerful voice saying, "Hi, you've reached Joanna!"
I texted: Where are you? I'm at the gate.
Nothing came back.
My phone was at nine percent, because I had spent the afternoon on photos.
My wallet and the car keys were with Joanna.
She had taken them that morning at the trailhead.
"So they don't fall out on the ledges," she'd said, and zipped them into her purse.
I told myself she had gone to fill the tank.
I told myself the lower gate was the wrong gate, and walked to the upper one.
It was chained.
A sign on it said the park closed at six, and that flash flood warnings could be issued without notice.
The sky to the west had gone a flat dark gray.
I tried the trail loop again, looking for a way out that wasn't a locked fence.
Every path I took ended in the same red wall.
My phone buzzed.
It was a notification from Instagram, because Brett had tagged me.
I opened it with my thumb shaking.
It was a photo of the front seat of the Subaru.
Joanna was leaning across the console with her eyes closed.
Her mouth was on Brett's.
My engagement ring, my grandmother's ring, was on her left hand, on the back of his neck.
Behind them in the rear window, small and red, was the canyon ridge.
I could see a tiny figure on it holding a phone.
That figure was me.
The caption said: Honeymoon for three. The groom's busy, so you get the two of us. #lastpost #noregrets
It had been up for four minutes.
It already had two hundred likes.
My mother had liked it.
My mother had liked it because she believed it was a joke about me being the photographer.
I went down on one knee in the dirt.
Then I stood up, because the sun was nearly gone.
I called Joanna one more time, and listened to it ring.
Her last text to me was still on the screen, from that morning.
Love you. Today's the best day. Put your phone on low power, you'll want it for the sunset.
I had put it on low power.
I looked at the message for a long time.
Then I stopped calling.
I didn't want her to pick up and be kind.
I didn't want to hear Brett say, "Buddy, it's not what it looks like."
I put the phone in my pocket and decided to get myself out.
So I walked the fence line toward the road, and the light went.
A siren started somewhere below, long and rising.
It was the flood siren.
I didn't know the sound, and I knew it anyway.
I ran.
A flashlight beam swung across the rock and found my face.
"Hey! Stop right there. Don't go down the wash!"
A woman in a ranger jacket came up the slope fast, her braid swinging.
She grabbed my sleeve and pulled me back from the edge of the dry creek bed.
"You're a long way from the lot," she said. "There was only one car left at closing, and then it drove off. I figured everybody was out."
"My fiancee," I said. My voice cracked. "She drove off. I'm Caleb. I was taking pictures."
The ranger's name tag said HALVORSEN.
She looked at my face, and then at my phone, where the photo was still open.
She didn't say anything about it.
She took her jacket off and put it around my shoulders.
"Okay, Caleb. I'm Carrie. I need to tell you one thing, and then we're going to move."
"Tell me."
"A woman came to the gate booth at ten to five," Carrie said. "Blond, ponytail, a man driving. She told the guard her whole party was out and nobody was left on the trails."
She waited.
"She said it twice, so the guard wrote it down," she said. "Nobody's looking for you, Caleb. Except me."
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend