"A Visit to Saguaro Country" (Mary Lou Chapter 8)

..... The group spent another day in Taos followed by another in Old Towne Alburquerque (yes, that added 'r' is right for antiquity). ..They did everything they could think of to come up with some new ideas: they ate in most of the restaurants, went to the movies, and then ate at the remaining restaurants - but all was to no avail except for a good dose of heartburn from all the methylated glucosides they had eaten. ..So early the next morning they jumped onto southbound I-25 and then westward on I-10 back into Arizona to see the homelands of the saguaro, hoping the stumble on some sort of insight. ..While out wandering around, they ran into a pretty sophomore college girl who introduced herself as Maria Victorio. ..Maria was scouting a research project for her next year's thesis. ..She, too, was interested in the saguaro since these were in her tribal homeland. .."Say," she piped up, "how would you like to come to my home and have dinner with my family? ..I'm sure that my family can point you in the direction of all the right trails."

..... Having cell-phoned ahead that company was coming, it was nevertheless a surprise to these easterners when they were shown in the front door by Maria and introduced to her father, who was all decked out in traditional native Apache attire. ..He looked stern and hauty as his "squaw" introduced him: .."My husband, I present to you some of our daughter's newfound science friends." ..He bowed slowly, and winked at Maria, who burst into laughter. ..Then Mother continued: .."To our guests, I present to you Victor Victorio, chief of the Apaches." ..Now the chief put aside his aloofness, winked at his guests and then rushed up in friendly greeting - fervent handshakes all around, and offering everyone places to sit out on their deck that surrounded a very nice swimming pool.

..... Wilbie, always the young scientist, asked Chief Victorio how it was that there were so many saguaro around here and yet none growing naturally back around Barstow and Las Vegas. .."Ah, Wilbie, my son, that is what defines these two deserts. ..The Mojave has lots of cholla and Joshua trees, but no saguaro, and here in the Sonoran Desert we have the saguaro instead. ..Come, my son; come with me over to the railing and look out over the great expanses. See across this vast valley. ..Tell me, my son, what do you observe?" ..Wilbie knew he had a wise friend who used the right word! .."Sir, I 'observe' upon the far side of the valley that the vegetation changes as one goes higher, but it is too far away to see just what is changing."

..... In minutes, the whole group was peering through binoculars. They observed that cholla and creosote bush were low on the slopes, and higher up the cholla gave way to something like Joshua but with no trunks, and then they gave way to saguaro all the way to the arid rocky peaks.

..... The next morning while Wilbie and Prof. Bengston wandered high up the slopes to inspect the lushest of the saguaro, Mary Lou found herself with heart pounding trekking along alone with Jimmy, who for some happy reason seemed to like her company and even offered a hand to help her climb over some of the rocks. ..Meanwhile Maria, Cheryl and Jason decided that trying to determine the reason for the lower boundary of saguaro territory would give each of them clues for their two respective projects. ..Suddenly it was Cheryl who grabbed Jason by the hand, excitedly turned him around to look at what she was looking at. ..Quickly Jason sadly had to put aside any notion that she was being anything more than just friendly with him, and what he saw on the nearest saguaro were the measles on the sunny side and no measles on the shady side. ..And as they moved lower on the slope, the measles side grew further and further around and soon covered the whole of the trunk all the way around, and the saguaros were so stunted and sickly that they became hardly recognizable. ..But higher on the slope - up where Wilbie and Prof B were meandering, the saguaro had no measles at all.

..... During lunch back at the Victorio ranch, Cheryl excused herself and made a phone call to Harjot at Los Alamos, and two days later a fax was picked up at the Tucson Kinko's. ..She had data acquired using her cholla model system:

.....Harjot also had run a hybridization reaction using virionic RNA with both the DNA from virus-free cholla, and with cholla in which MMV seemed to be dormant.

.....Cheryl and Jason got all excited and jumped around. ..Cheryl even gave Jason a hug that left him with a cracked smile on his face - something that Wilbie noticed and would never thereafter let Jason forget! ..What were the two so excited about? ..Construct a model of what must be happening, AND then suggest a subsequent experiment to test it.

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