A Voice in the Wilderness
There are actually several voices crying out in this wilderness. While Margaret Earle starts out physically lost in the story, and is again physically lost toward the end, several people along the way are lost psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. One of these is Lance Gardley, who saves Margaret twice in the actual wilderness while she saves him in the wilderness of his own consciousness. As the new first year teacher in an Arizona school she has the challenge of dealing with ignorant and subversive youth, but wins them over quickly by getting to know them and their individual needs while making learning fun. The one girl she fails to reach is ensconced in the losing quicksand of arrogance, jealousy, greed, and wrath, a genuine cocktail of evil which has life and death consequences for Margaret and her horse. Margaret believes her hands are tied in dealing with Rosa because technically she hasn't broken any overt "school rules", but in truth Margaret has tied her own hands because she forgets that Rosa is in fact breaking tacit ethical rules and that these offenses can and should be dealt with just like any others. Being manipulative, condescending, patronizing, insulting, and disrespectful is unacceptable and ought not to be tolerated. With more experience and presence of mind Margaret might have realized this and performed her job as a teacher more effectively. The depth of Rosa's diabolicalness is so extensive, however, that the best efforts by anyone probably would have failed with her. What Rosa learns the hard way, if at all, is that the person hurt most by one's evil is oneself. Everyone else, who knows Margaret and is touched by her, finds a joy and goodness that lights up their lives, transforming and sustaining them for many, many years to come.