The next morning was already hot when we disembarked from the plane. Emmy had on her big sun hat and I’d convinced her to wear her super dark mountaineering glasses, but I could tell the beating sun was affecting her nonetheless.

“It is so hot!” she exclaimed as we walked across the tarmac to the terminal.

“Yeah, the pilot had announced it was ninety-two degrees,” I commented. “It’s supposed to hit a hundred and two today.”

“Will it be hot in the stadium?” Emmy asked.

“Well, no. I mean, yeah, it’ll probably be warm, but it’s enclosed, so there’ll be air conditioning,” I said as we entered the executive aviation terminal to wait for our bags.

“I am grateful for that,” Emmy said. “The heat is intense, but I could stand that. The sun, that is another matter. I would burn into a tiny cinder before too long.”

“Yeah, you and everybody else,” I said. “The sun here is no joke.”

“How much time do we have until we have to be at the stadium?” Emmy asked.

Glancing at my watch, I said, “Well, it’s almost nine now and the game starts at four, but we really should try to get there no later than three, so six hours?”

“That is enough time to see the museum Stephanie recommended,” Emmy announced.

“Actually, it’s enough time to see the museum and every single other thing worth seeing here in Phoenix,” I said, correcting her.

“You are mean,” Emmy said with her musical laugh that sounded like bells to me.

“I’m sure it’s a nice enough place to live,” I said. “It’s just kinda low on tourist attractions, that’s all.”

The steward handed us our overnight bags at about that time, so we collected the keys to our rental car and stepped back outside. The X5 was parked right there, but when I opened the door the heat inside was stifling, so we gave it a moment to air out before getting in. The leather seats were very hot and the steering wheel was way too hot to hold onto, so I let the A/C do its job for a few minutes before we shut the doors and took off.

“I have a hard time imagining how hot it must get here in the middle of summer,” Emmy remarked as we got on the freeway.

“You wouldn’t want to know,” I said. “It gets really hot. I mean, really, really hot.”

“Do you mean it gets really hot?” Emmy asked, laughter in her voice.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. I mean it gets really hot,” I said, playing along.

“How hot does it really get?”

“Really, really hot,” I answered.

By this point Emmy got distracted by the sight of downtown off to our right. “How big is Phoenix?” she asked, curious.

“I think it’s bigger than San Diego,” I said. “The sixth biggest city in the US?” I said, unsure. “Something like that.”

“Over four million people in the metropolitan area,” Emmy said, reading it off her phone. “That is a big city, by any standards. But it does not look like a big city.”

“What does it look like?” I asked.

“It looks like a medium sized city but spread out over a very large area.”

“I think that’s sorta what it is,” I agreed. “I mean, as far as cities go, it’s really new, right? And it only got big fairly recently, so pretty much everything you see was built within the last fifty years or so. And since they had plenty of room to expand in pretty much every direction, there was never any need to build with any kind of density.”

“That makes sense,” Emmy agreed, still looking out the car window. “Why is it so big now?”

“I don’t know if you ever met Carly, one of the girls on my team that graduated two years before me,” I said. “But she was from Phoenix, and she explained it to me with two letters.”

“What do you mean?” Emmy asked, turning to look at me with a frown of puzzlement on her face.

“A/C,” I said. “Before the invention of air conditioning, it took a particularly hardy soul to live here, but once air conditioning became cheap and pretty much universal it opened the floodgates and people moved here to get away from cold winters in the Midwest, cramped cities in the Northeast, high cost of living on the coast, you name it.”

“That… makes a lot of sense,” admitted Emmy.

“I don’t know what the population was here in, say, nineteen forty, but it wasn’t a very big town at all, and mostly existed because they grew cotton and oranges thanks to the river. Then somebody put air conditioning in, and boom- nearly instant big city,” I said.

“And that is why there are no tourist attractions here?” Emmy asked.

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

The museum of musical instruments was cool, and as expected, Emmy loved it a lot more than I did, but I was happy just seeing the look on Emmy’s face with each new exhibit. The place wasn’t really that big, but we wound up staying almost three hours anyway, what with Emmy having to check out every single thing. Of course, it didn’t help that other museum visitors asked Emmy for selfies at almost every turn, and she never turned them down.

After the museum, we had lunch at a nearby Mediterranean cafe. The food was… acceptable, to be generous. Far from great, but it did the job of sating our hunger, and as a bonus it didn’t make either of us sick, so I’ll call that a win.

We had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to be at the stadium and Emmy wanted to see more of the city (from the comfort of the air conditioned, tinted windowed car), so I aimed for the general direction of downtown. We drove around the downtown area and the older parts of town nearby. Emmy commented that the area by the basketball arena looked nice, and some of the houses that dated back a hundred years or more in the old neighborhoods had a lot of charm, and I really couldn’t disagree.

“Like I said, I’m sure Phoenix is a nice place to live, if you can get over the heat,” I told her when she pointed out the hip restaurant row we were passing.

Later, as we neared the stadium, she asked, “Why have they tried to make it look like a chicken?”

“I think that’s a cardinal, not a chicken head,” I said with a laugh. “But it does look kinda like a chicken.”

“A cardinal?” Emmy asked, puzzled.

“It’s a bird species native to North America, and the Phoenix team, um, mascot, or symbol, name, whatever.”

“The Phoenix Cardinals are going to play against the Los Angeles Rams? That is very… animalistic,” Emmy commented as we followed the traffic into the parking lot.

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I paid the attendant the extra money for a spot in the covered parking garage, and followed the signs in purple. It was worth an extra thirty bucks to come back to a car that wasn’t as hot as a blast furnace inside.

Walking to the stadium itself, I realized that Emmy and I had never been in such a huge crowd together, and certainly not since she’d become so famous. We were stopped many, many times for people who wanted selfies, or to tell Emmy they loved her music, or even just to ask why we’d come to Arizona for a football game.

“An old friend from high school is playing his first regular-season game today,” Emmy explained to one group wearing the red, black and gold of the home team.

“For the Cards?” Asked one of the guys.

“No, sorry, for the Rams,” Emmy said, apologetically. “I am afraid I must root-” Emmy said, and gave me a quick questioning glance to make sure she had the word right. I gave her a tiny nod, so she continued. “I am afraid I must root for the enemy team. I am sorry, but that is simply how it is,” Emmy said, shrugging.

“Fair enough,” said the heavyset guy. “Heck, I’d even root for the Seahawks if one of my high school friends signed for ‘em.”

“No, you wouldn’t!” Said one of his pals, giving his shoulder a shove.

“Naw, you’re right. I wouldn’t,” admitted heavyset guy.

Emmy laughed, in that bright, sparkling way of hers.

“What if I told you it was my old boyfriend?”

“Well, sure, if it was an old boyfriend of mine that signed for the Sea Chickens, that’s be a different matter,” heavyset guy said, earning a laugh from his friends. Turning to Emmy, he said, “It’s a bummer your old boyfriend’s first real NFL game is gonna be a loss, but that’s what happens when facing a vastly superior team.”

Emmy laughed and said, “He is strong. I am sure the pain and humiliation will not last too long!” This earned another laugh from the guys, and heavyset dude held his hand up and Emmy gave him a high five, amazing me once again with her ability to make friends in an instant.

After going through the checkpoint, I suggested we get some bottles of water, then find our seats.

“I would like to buy a souvenir,” Emmy said, pointing at one of the stalls selling NFL licensed gear.

“Let’s wait until after the game,” I suggested.

“Will they still have a good selection?” Emmy asked, concerned.

“I guarantee they won’t sell out of anything we might want,” I said. “I’m sure they have storerooms somewhere with tons of stuff.”

“Where are our seats?” Emmy asked as I checked the tickets.

“This way- lower level,” I said, and Emmy followed along.

I was pleased with the way she was dealing with the crowd- even though everybody we passed stared at her, Emmy didn’t even seem to notice that she was the center of a sort of bubble of attention as we walked to our seats.

“This place is huge!” Emmy said when we emerged from the tunnel into the open air of the stands. I say open air, because the stadium was so large and full of natural light that it felt like the outside, even through we were technically indoors, under a roof.

I showed our tickets to an usher, who let us by and into the lowest tier of seats.

“This is very close to the field," Emmy marveled, but then when I indicated we had seats on the very bottom row, right at the fifty-yard line, she asked, “How did you even get seats like this? These must be the best seats in the whole stadium!”

As I spread the folded up blanket across our two seats for extra padding, I said, “Well, I got ‘em online, and they were expensive, but worth it.”

“Yes! This is amazing! Thank you for this,” she said.

“I have one more thing,” I said, reaching into the bottom of my backpack. “Here you go.”

“What is it?” Emmy asked taking the bag from my hands. She opened it up and pulled the Rams jersey out and held it up. “This is for me to wear?”

“Before you put it on, look at the back.”

Emmy turned the mesh jersey over, and squealed with delight when she saw the name “Temple” in blocky white letters sewn across the shoulders.

Emmy threw her arms around me and gave me a giant hug. “I love it! This is the best!”

Settling back into our seats, Emmy pulled the oversized jersey on over her shirt.

The music from the PA system changed, and the announcer said, "Let’s welcome back our defending NFC West Champions, the Arizona Cardinals!”

The team emerged from the tunnel leading to the locker rooms in single file, running out with their arms held high through a shower of sparks and cloud of colored smoke. The announcer called their names as each player passed through the final inflatable archway and ran out onto the middle of the field. Eventually all the home team players took to their sidelines on the far side of the field.

When I’d bought the tickets I didn’t know which side would be the home team sideline, just hoped we’d get lucky. It seemed that things worked out for the best, since the Rams got the side we happened to be seated right next to.

As Andy’s number and name were called and he ran into the field, Emmy stood up and waved, calling out his name. There was no way he heard her, though, and he still had to go through the whole ritual until the entire team was assembled. Eventually, the Rams sat down on the benches near us and things quieted down for a moment.

Emmy took this opportunity to call out to Andy, since he was seated no more than thirty feet away from us. He didn’t hear us, but one of his teammates got his attention and pointed back over Andy’s shoulder.

Andy glanced over to see what was going on and spotted Emmy and me, waving from the rail. He waved back, got up and had a word with one of the coaches, then came over to say hello.

“I didn’t know you were going to come to watch! This is awesome!” Andy said, reaching up to grab our hands in greeting.

“Leah surprised me with the tickets!” Emmy said. “I had no idea we would be this close!”

“I just got lucky on that,” I admitted. “Originally I looked for seats up in the boxes,” I said, pointing up at the row of sky boxes above the upper deck.

“This is so much better,” Emmy said.

“Hey, I gotta go, but I’ll stop back over if I can,” Andy said, waving as he went back to the bench.

Once the game started, I did my best to field the almost unending stream of questions Emmy had about the game, but really, it just drove home how little I actually knew about football. Sure, I knew the basics of the game, but I had no idea what half the penalties were, or anything like that.

The absolute highlight of the game was in the third quarter, when Andy and another Ram pressured, then sacked the Cardinals quarterback and Andy recovered the fumble.

Andy held the ball up high over his head in celebration, then ran over and handed the football to Emmy. He’d jumped up on the low wall separating the field from the stands, and Emmy gave him a big hug, the railing in between the two.

Of course, the whole scene was immediately replayed on the Jumbotron screens at either end of the stadium. Emmy glanced up and saw the screen, then looked for the camera filming us. Once she saw which one it was, she held up her new souvenir and waved, a big smile on her face.

About a minute and a half later, I felt the phone in my pocket buzz with an incoming text. “I just saw you and Emmy on TV! You guys got great seats!” Stephanie texted.

“Yes we did”, I texted back. “Its hard to see a lot of the plays since we are so low, but other than that its fantastic”.

With the last possession of the game, the Rams ran out the clock for a narrow win. In all the commotion, Andy came over to where we were sitting.

“Hey, if it’s cool, I’d like to bring Jenna over to your place sometime this week? We talked about it, and we want to take you up on your offer of helping us find a place, Leah.”

“Is that the only reason?” I asked, teasing.

“No, of course not. Jenna and I both had a really nice time last week when we came over and we kinda wanted to try to make it a regular thing. Getting together, I mean,” Andy said.

Just then a handful of his teammates came over, and one guy said, “You know, I thought you were bullshittin’ when you said you knew Emmy Lascaux,” lightly slapping Andy on the back of the head. “But sure as shit, here she is, and here you are.”

“Jamaal, these are Emmy Lascaux and Leah Farmer. Leah, Emmy, this is Jamaal White,” Andy said, introducing us. “And this is Ben Burroughs, that’s André Howard, and that guy over there is Paul Street.”

We waved to the group, and they all waved back.

“Leah’s a friend from way back,” he said to his teammates. “Known her since third grade.”

“No shit?” André (I’m pretty sure it was André) said. “And you put up with this guy all that time?” he asked me.

“What can I say? Trust me- he grows on you,” I replied.

“Yeah, so does that fungus between my toes!” said Paul (I think).

This comedy session went on for a little longer, but then one of the assistant coaches came over to round the guys up and get them into the locker room.

“Wednesday?” Andy asked, before he was dragged off.

“Of course!” Emmy said, and that prompted another round of Andy’s teammates giving him a hard time.

On our way out of the stadium, quite a few other fans in the dark blue and gold of the Rams congratulated Emmy on getting the football, and talking about the Rams win. All in all, it was a really positive experience, but yeah, it did take a bit over five hours.

“I would like to come back and do some real sight-seeing,” Emmy said over dinner at an Italian restaurant I found via Yelp. “I am convinced that there are things to do and see here.”

“Honestly? There has to be. I just don’t know any off the top of my head,” I said, agreeing with her.

“When we come back, though? It must be later in the year, so it is not so very hot and sunny,” Emmy said.

“It’s always sunny here, even when it’s cold. That’s just the basic reality of the place,” I replied.

I could tell Emmy was getting tired, so when she fell asleep on the plane it didn’t surprise me a bit, even though it was only about an hour and a half flight time. The little nap really didn’t help her much, and she was really dragging on the way to the apartment from the airport. When we finally got in the door, Emmy just went straight to the bedroom without a word. I didn’t worry about unpacking or anything like that- I just left the bags on the bedroom floor, then helped Emmy out of her clothes and into bed. Within moments she was fast asleep, so I gave her a little goodnight kiss on the cheek, then took a nice, long shower, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed with my beautiful little Rams fan.