Considerations.
Feeling as though I’m hovering over sand, I consider many things. The distance of the red rock arches, set far back on the horizon line. The sun is setting. Everything is luminescent, glowing red.
Am I in Hell?
No, can’t be.
It’s just an illusion.
None of this is real.
The still-hot sun burns my shoulders, back and the top of my head. This, I thought – was why Mexicans wear sombreros. To beat the heat. So that the skin on the skull does not shrivel like a raisin. On my face though, I feel a breeze. Dry, hot air; but a breeze, nonetheless. It makes me pause, but only for a moment. Must…keep…moving.
My surroundings were surreal. The landscape aglow, I moved on as the lonely traveler, hovering over the expanse of the red desert.
My feet began to dig into the sand as my legs grew tired and increasingly heavy.
Fucking wreckage.
I turned slowly, facing East. There it was, about 400 yards away. It sat, bellowing thick tendrils of smoke. I had smashed it, and watched it burn. My only options lie straight ahead –
Walk.
Or die.
And I hadn’t yet felt like dying, so I chose the latter option.
The sharp jagged red-rock-horizon had almost entirely consumed the sun. As the desert wind whistled though, it picked up a few loose strands of hair and tickled my neck with them. Chills. A crawling sensation engulfed the lower vertebrae of my spine. My eyes slipped, or rather, fluttered shut. I slowly knelt down on one knee and let myself melt into the almost searing desert rock. Not much sand here, but it would do. Rest was needed.
Shrugging off the backpack from my shoulders, I melted once again, nestling my head into it, as if it were a pillow. The cover of eyelids slipped over my eyes once again. My thoughts, almost immediately became rapid-fire; racing. My heart pumped as if it would burst.
“It’s on fucking…fire.”
I opened my eyes. The vision was vividly burnt into my memory. Sigh. I let my eyes slip shut once again.
“Calm,” I said, slowly, exhaling the word as it was a whisper …
“Calmmmmmmmm.”
Just then, a circus of thought broke through my lucidity. These images came as furiously as they had quickly fleeted.
Tigers. Osiris Shriners Circus.
Tight ropes. Comin’ to yer city, folks.
Fire.
“Fire,” I said aloud, with more exclamation than I had spoken the word ‘calm.
Room service, I thought. I was in dire need…of a drink. I thought of pictures:
Flags. Gas Masks. Provocatively shot black and white photographs of completely innocent body parts – hands, lips…closed eyes.
It was then that I realized that I was not the lonely traveler I had
aforementioned.
She was lying next to me, about three feet to my left. She almost resembled a sleeping sculpture the way she laid, carved out in great detail. Shadows and highlights very carefully marked. She was thin and long. Drawing her longs in, and forcing her body into a ball, she tried to cover the bare skin of her legs using her arms. Re-draping herself with more skin, if you will.
“This is fucking crazy” she says.
With one eye open, I tilt my head to look at her. I nod.
She shakes her head silently, in response. Squinting at the sun, she stretched out, inching closer to me. The setting sun’s red beams caught her open eye and danced there for a moment –
Bright, vivid blue, like the sky that suspended itself overhead.
She smiled.
“We’re basically fucked, you know…”
“Yeah,” I sighed, “I know.”
“At least we have the nighttime to rest…and not stroke out in the sun…” her voice trailed off as she turned her head over her shoulder.
Standing abruptly, she reached into her pocket.
“…And, I have This.”
Clever. A joint. She lit it, and handed it to me. Breathing deep and long, I allowed my eyes to shut again. 200 fucking miles to the lights of the city…
I felt myself beginning to experience vertigo.
At least the fire from the wrecked car was in the distance. It was brighter than the moon. It helped me to keep my bearings.
This,
was not
a dream.
