The lizard didn't see him yet. It was basking, soaking up the last of the sun on a wide rock just
an arms lengths away.
“ANDY!”
He ignored his mother and made ready to pounce. The lizard had no idea. It was his. He sprung,
leaping though the bushes.
“YAA-”
The lizard slipped beneath a ledge, untouched. Andy on the other hand, had been grabbed by the
branches of a mesquite. They seemed to stick to him like Velcro as he thrashed around.
“ANDY!”
Moms. Always expecting you to run on their schedule. Andy disentangled himself from the
mesquite's fishhook-like barbs, and made his was back to the beach where the raft was pulled ashore.
He was on a rafting trip with his parents. Why anyone would want to spend four days on the San Juan
river was a mystery to Andy. Yet here he was. His perfectly good bed was sitting unused back home,
exchanged for a thin strip of foam some nut job had judged suitable for sleeping. He kicked the rolled
up pad as he walked back, covering everything with sand. That was the one thing he liked about
camping. His mom didn't expect him to keep everything clean.
That night he couldn't sleep. His Dad had gotten all excited about sleeping out under the stars
while they ate dinner. So in another stroke of brilliant parenting the tent remained tucked away on the
raft. While his parents slept soundly, Andy lay exposed and cold, shivering away on his thin pad. There
were things yipping out there too.
Finally the cold got to him and he slipped out of his cocoon to put on more cloths. Thats when
he saw the reflection.