We had a list of photographs to take in New York City. We’d gotten the Statue of Liberty at Sunset. We’d gotten Times Square at night. Tonight was the city skyline from the top of Rockefeller Center. The plan was dead in the water. We found our way into the building and figured out which hallway led to the elevator. That’s when we saw the line. It wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t. We’d spent the entire day walking around the city. We were tired, and Dannie had blisters on both her heels. I’m willing to climb a mountain to take a good photograph, but not if there’s a line of people the whole way up, all waiting to get the…
“If you want the van to stop, just yell ‘ting’” Dannie said. I repeated it back to her, “Tin?” “No, ting.” “Ok, got it.” I didn’t have it at all. The van seemed to tilt as the driver barreled around another curve. One side of the road was littered with wet rocks and sand that had crumbled from the rusty red cliffs above us. The other side of the road, which I nervously noted we were on, overlooked an even steeper slope down to the sapphire blue water of Lugu Lake. Islands speckled the Lake far below and in the hills all around, farm animals were poking through the shrubs looking for something to eat. My eyes were on the…