This is just another thing that tells me not to sweat the small stuff.
For weeks and weeks I’ve seen a “missing person notice” posted everywhere for one Rory D____, a fine-looking 25 year-old from New Jersey who moved to Taos in December, went to a Christmas party, then drove off in his brand-new black Lexus SUV and promptly disappeared. He was scheduled to work as a snowboard instructor in January. As is usually but not always the case, someone finally found him — what was left of the Lexus was lying at the bottom of 300-foot Rio Peublo gorge off State Road 570, and the cops identified the body from his clothes.
That particular road is known as the “old road to Carson.” A rockslide blocked it a few years ago, a big rockslide. Amazingly, the state determined there wasn’t enough money in the budget to bulldoze it open, thoroughly pissing off people in Carson who’ve been using a 30-mile detour ever since. The Rio Pueblo flows into the Rio Grande just past where the road is blocked. I don’t know why he was heading that way, given that it leads to nowhere. He was probably just lost and going fast, came up on the rockslide and tumbled into space. There are more places to fly your car around here than anyplace I’ve ever lived, and that stretch of State Road 570 is one of the best. We once considered renting a house out there. I was happy thinking of riding my mountain bike down to the river, until I saw the road!
A similar highway leading up to Mt. Lemmon near Tucson has always been a favored spot for senior citizen suicides, but Rory surely wasn’t trying to do himself in. Not with a strong 25-year-old body, a cool job, and a car that cost half as much as the house I sold to move us out here. Some of us only visit for a while. Me, I have to stay put after school until I do my homework.
He must have finished his.
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