Chapter 12 Summary

It is four o'clock and Mattie and Taylor hear thunder, as they are getting ready to close shop. Mattie flips the open sign around, gathers Taylor, Esteban and Esperanza into the cab of her truck, and heads into the dessert. Mattie is mum on where she is taking them; just that she wants them to smell "this." Taylor feels as though they are on a "blind date with destiny." Mattie tells them as they are driving that today would be New Year's Day for the Indians who lived in the dessert before the white men came. Taylor does not understand what is so special about July the twelfth, today's date. Mattie replies that it is not the date, but the fact that it is the first rainstorm of the summer.

Mattie pulls up to a spot where the entire Tucson Valley was visible...