Meet Cecil and Mateo, the two saguaro cacti with a sense of adventure that’s, well, prickly at best. Cecil, the taller one, has aspirations of being a stand-up comedian, though his jokes tend to be a bit dry. Mateo, on the other hand, fancies himself an intellectual, pondering photosynthesis and the existential plight of being rooted in one spot for centuries.
Now, they’ve been toying with the daring idea of crossing Tortilla Flat before nightfall. They’ve even drawn a map in the sand with a fallen ocotillo branch. However, there are a few… ‘sticking points’, shall we say.
Firstly, Cecil is quite concerned about leaving behind his cherished rock collection. He’s quite convinced they’ve started to take on his personality, which mostly involves being hard and stationary. Mateo has spent the better part of the afternoon trying to calculate the logistics of their journey, but given that their top speed is zero miles per hour, the math is rather discouraging.
There’s also the matter of the wildlife. Cecil is deathly afraid of tarantulas, and he’s convinced he saw one don a tiny backpack this morning, indicating a possible mass arachnid exodus.
Lastly, as the sun dips below the horizon, Cecil and Mateo realize they’ll stand there, side by side, a pair of vegetative visionaries contemplating the desert before them, and decide that perhaps the greatest adventure of all is surviving another scorching day in the wilds of Arizona, living life on their own terms – stationary and stoic.
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