Convert

By Elaine Jarvik


We drove down Parleys in the dark, eating the last of the cookies my mother had baked us 2,000 miles to the east. The canyon, the names, the number of stars — nothing was familiar. We took an exit called “State,” drove past a large bowling pin, found a cheap motel, climbed under thin sheets. In the morning, I stood in the parking lot and looked across the Salt Lake Valley, counting all the people and trees that were missing. But let this be a cautionary tale. There will be an impossible blueness to the sky. One day there will be baby quail dancing across your yard, and the comforting grid of numbered streets, and the sharp silhouette of the Oquirrhs in fading December light.


Elaine Jarvik is a veteran Salt Lake City journalist and playwright. Her short play “Dead Right” was produced at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theater of Louisville, and subsequently in nine states, as well as Canada, Mexico and Australia. Her full-length plays have been produced at the Salt Lake Acting Company and the Plan-B and Pygmalion theater companies.