Many of the items they unloaded and stacked in the sand on the hillside. For the time being Sam laid the blanketed body of the woman’s father on the sand beside the stacked items. Sam noted a clear difference in the steadiness of the wagon once the load was rearranged. As they’d lowered the items still inside the wagon, they had deliberately loaded most of it onto the high side of the wagon floor, giving the wagon more resistance to tipping over. “This will have to do,” Sam said finally, standing back in the hot desert sun, seeing that the wagon still had a sharp lean to it. The woman stood beside him as he stooped and picked up the rope she had rummaged from inside the wagon. She watched him uncoil the rope and check its condition and judge its strength. “How will we do this?” she asked, following him as he took the end of the rope to the high side of the tilted wagon. “First,” Sam said, “I’m tying this to the wagon, up high.”
