When he woke up, Rex was shivering. He couldn’t see his mother, but he knew she was there. She wrapped him in a giant fur blanket that was so warm it seemed to have its own heat source. She had him drink water from a broken tip of one of the agave plants. He was so cold. Rex kept falling in and out of consciousness. Whenever he woke, his mother was there with more water and berries to eat. The blood on his face had long since crusted over, and he felt like he had leaves plastered to his face. The shivering was unrelenting, but his mother was always there with that fur blanket to keep him warm. Water, berries, and fur—that was all he could remember of his mother helping him. After a while, the shivering started to subside, and the bouts of unconsciousness started to wane.
Then one day he woke up to his mother sponging his face clean. Rex had to squint his eyes to open them because the brightness of the day was reflecting off the rocks. As he slowly became more awake, he realized that it wasn’t his mother that was sponging his face. Instead, it was a dog licking him. As Rex started to move, the puppy became excited and let out a triumphant bark. Rex recognized the dog immediately. His mother had saved him after all. She had saved them both.
When Rex managed to stand up the sun was warm against his skin. In the distance he could hear the familiar sounds of cars and humans. He walked toward those sounds, and the dog followed at his footsteps.
“I know what I’m gonna call you, boy,” Rex said as he walked. “His voice was dry and cracked and it felt like he hadn’t spoken in forever. I’m gonna call you Miracle.”
When Rex got to town with his dog things got very weird. At first, a woman came running out to him and she immediately called 911. The police arrived shortly after along with an ambulance and the fire department. Rex was flooded with questions that he had no answers for. He ended up in the hospital, and the police chief promised that he would look after Miracle until Rex was better.
As it turned out, Rex had been missing for six months. How he had survived in the desert for that long with just his dog no one could understand. When Rex explained that his mother had taken care of him, Police Chief McQueen explained that his parents had been missing since the night he had disappeared. All three of them had been presumed dead.
Three of them.
“Wait,” Rex said. “Three of us. Teddy! What about Teddy?”
“We found your brother,” Chief McQueen smiled softly. “He survived out there for two days by himself. You McMasters kids are resilient it would seem. He told us what Mr. Hollowell did, but without any evidence we had nothing to bring charges against the man. I’ve had men out every day searching the desert for the bodies. When we find your parents, that man will pay for his crimes. I promise you.”
“Can I see Teddy?”
“Well, son, I didn’t think it was safe for your brother here,” the chief explained. “And he was traumatized by what happened out there. I arranged for him to bunk up with a friend of mine in Texas, another law man I know. I reached out to him when I heard you were gonna be okay, but I haven’t heard back from him yet.”
Days went by and no word came from Teddy. Those days turned into weeks, then months. The law man that Teddy had been sent to had been shot in the line of duty, and Rex’s brother had somehow slipped through the cracks of the system in Texas. Rex had lost everything, and no one believed him that his mother had saved him. No one believed his story.
Except one man.
His name was John Stormwind, and he offered to take Rex in. When Rex told him how his mother had saved him, John Stormwind never doubted or questioned his belief.
“The desert chose to protect you, and your mother is a part of the desert now,” John would always say. “I knew your mother as a child. We called her Morning Glory because she brightened everyone’s day with her presence. I have no doubt she saved you boy. No doubt at all.”
John Stormwind took Rex in and taught him how to commune with nature in all the same ways his mother had known. Rex grew into a strong young man, tending fences and livestock with John Stormwind, and he became a star athlete as well. When it became known that Rex could throw with both arms, he was recruited to play baseball for the high school team. He became so good at baseball that he got himself a scholarship to play at Arizona State University. Rex quickly became a campus phenomenon. They called him Ambidextrous Rex and had t-shirts printed with his likeness on a Tyrannosaurus Rex wearing an Arizona State baseball hat. He majored in psychology, and he found peace in doing research with autistic young adults and juvenile delinquents. Rex had a way of understanding the people he talked to, and he had the patience to listen.
He took to wearing fur vests on chilly desert evenings until eventually it became his signature look. At 18 he received his tribal tattoo sleeves, finally marking his ascendance to manhood, though to this day some still speculate whether they are real tattoos or literal sleeves.
One summer he worked an internship at a marketing firm in Phoenix. The head of the firm always told him the key to successful marketing was “persistent subtlety.” Rex wasn’t sure that he’d ever need to use that in the future, but he always remembered those words.
On the day of his graduation from college, Rex received a visit from a familiar face, one that looked just like his own. Teddy had found him. He was wearing rugged blue jeans and a black cowboy hat, green shirt with a beige vest, and suspenders that hugged his shoulders in the back. Rex was shocked with a joyful reunion.
“I thought we’d lost each other forever,” Rex said. “No one could find you.”
“Well, that’s partially my fault, I’m afraid,” Teddy said. “I thought for sure you were dead when I saw you go over that cliff, and mom and dad too. It was just, it was just hard you know. And then Officer Devon got shot, things started spiraling again. I had my name officially changed, so if you were looking for Theodore, you wouldn’t have found me.”
“Why would you change your name, Teddy?”
“Well, I did it to honor my best friend who I thought I had lost, you see,” Teddy brushed a tear from his eye. “I failed him. I wasn’t fast enough to grab you. It was all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault, Teddy. It never was. There was nothing you could’ve done. I was always meant to slip like that.”
“Anyway,” Theodore continued as he wiped his eyes dry with a laugh. “I started hearing about this star pitcher in Arizona with this kickass nickname, and then I saw your picture in Sports Illustrated! I couldn’t believe it. I’m so glad to see you, brother.”
“Me too, Teddy,” Rex smiled as they hugged and shared tears. “Me too. Wait, I’m sorry. You’re not Teddy anymore. What do I call you?”
“You can still call me whatever you want, bro,” Teddy said. “But now I go by Tex.”
“Tex McMasters,” Rex tried the name on for size.
“Sounds an awful lot like my hero,” Tex smiled. “Speaking of which, I hear you’re going to be drafted in the first round. Big time, big league pitcher! I sure am proud of you.”
Rex winced. “Yeah, coach said I’m easily a top five pick, but the team that is the most interested in me is the St. Louis Cardinals.”
“Ew, gross,” Tex grimaced. “I’m sorry, bro.”
“Yeah, I just can’t do it. It’s not that important to me,” Rex shrugged. “I’m going to pull myself out of the draft and focus on grad school. I think that’s what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted.”
Tex nodded slowly. “No way Mom would’ve wanted you playing for the Cardinals. That’s for sure. I’m gonna be behind you whatever you decide. Always.”
“Thanks, Tex,” Rex tried his brother’s new name on for size. It fit him like a glove.
The brothers met again two years later for a funeral for Miracle, who had been Rex’s companion for a lot longer than anyone thought possible.
“What are you doing now?” Rex asked as they sat around an evening fire.
“I’m a part of a special task force consisting of military special forces, Texas rangers, and FBI investigators,” Tex explained. “We’re tracking poachers all over the world. It feels good to take some evil out of this world, even if it only is a small piece at a time. What about you? What are you going to do now?”
“I’m planning on heading east,” Rex said, his eyes taking on a distant look.
“What’s out east?”
“I’m not sure,” Rex said. “But I just get this feeling there are people that need me there right now. My path is as clear as my head.”
“Cheers to you, Rex. I’ll drink to that.”
“Cheers to you, Tex. Cheers to you.”