Georgia stepped forward. Coyote stopped dancing. They struck a deal. She would agree not to expose him as the scoundrel he was, keeping his desert secrets safe, if he promised to save bones for her- bleached bones. Stones-smooth black stones would also do. And so, for the price of secrecy, anonymity, and just plain fun-O'Keeffe and Coyote became friends. Good friends. Through the years, he brought her bones and stones and Georgia O'Keeffe kept her word. She never painted Coyote. Instead, she embodied him.

Eliot Porter knew O'Keeffe as Trickster. It is a well- known story. I heard it from the photographer himself at a dinner party in Salt Lake City.

Text from the book "An Unspoken Hunger: Stories From The Field" by Terry Tempest Williams,
© 1992 Terry Tempest Williams, published by Pantheon Books. Reprinted with permission of
Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc. - All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or redistribution of
this article is strictly prohibited.