Category Archives: 09. Water and Power
Missing
Armen slouched on the stool at the register, watching a man gas up his RV. The man walked in and showed Armen his credit card. A compact car drove up as the RV man walked out. The compact’s driver walked in and laid a ten on the glass counter. He had a stack of letter-sized [...]
Manzanar
Armen walked out to the pumps and pulled a bag out of the nearest trash can. A car pulled up to a pump, and an Asian man stepped out. Armen put the full bag into the big can and wheeled it back to the garage while the man walked into the mini mart. Armen followed [...]
Cottonwood
Armen woke to silence. The moon shone high above the desert, and everything around him shined white, but there was no snow. There was just a white dust on everything around him, himself included. He looked for his bike. It was gone. Armen came across another creek that night. He could see the creek’s alluvial [...]
Olancha
Early the next morning, Armen caught breakfast and made a small fire for cooking. He was hungry, and the small fish seemed to take more trouble than it had meat on its bones. After daybreak, he loaded up his bike, and walked it northward above the shore of the reservoir. After he ran out of [...]
Haiwee
Armen felt recharged by dawn, so he got an early start. He stuck to the highway, so there were enough places to stop for food and water. Just past the Dunmovin outpost, the buried aqueducts crossed the highway. Armen decided to resume following the pipelines. The map showed lakes coming up east of the highway, [...]
Red Rock
On the third day, the aqueduct road began to descend, as the Range encroached upon the straight line it had been following to the Owens River. Armen decided to avoid the winding path of the aqueduct, and he dropped down to the Midland Trail to try a paved highway for a change. It was a [...]
The Valley of Gold
In the morning, Armen continued over the pass. The Range loomed in the distance over Antelope Valley. The valley itself displayed the slight color of desert wildflowers in bloom. Armen stood with his bike leaning between his legs, soaking in the landscape. There was something about this that he needed. He sped down the road [...]
The Water Trail
Soundtrack: America, Ventura Highway One day in late April, Armen quit his job, bought some saddle bags and a second daypack to wear on his chest, and pedaled west on Ventura Boulevard with grander ambitions. This time he continued into the mountains. He pedaled under the Golden State Freeway, and then under the Antelope Valley [...]
The Plumbing
Armen stood gazing at the dry concrete channel of the LA River. A foul smell overcame him as he heard a voice behind him say “beautiful, isn’t she?” Armen twisted around to see an old homeless man in a fedora. “Yes. I guess.” Armen’s answer encouraged the old man, who elaborated. “That is the City [...]
The Seeker
Soundtrack: The Who, The Seeker (Edit) Armen began to notice something peculiar about Los Angeles. There were plants everywhere—beautiful plants in a myriad varieties. He soon took to exploring that botanical variety, and he even took to collecting samples. There were lawns everywhere, and all kinds of flowers, shrubs, and trees. Everywhere he went, he [...]