You never expect a day like this: I wake up and have some very expensive coffee, apply my make-up and put on a light print dress; this morning I am going into the desert with a photographer/friend and I didn’t want the photos to reveal how much I sweat. He picks me up in this big green truck, and we drive deep into the Mohave. All the way he is telling me how pretty I am and that the photos will be phenomenal. A few miles later he slows down and pulls off the road.
“I think this is the spot,” he says craning his head around. I got out of the truck, and felt him behind me, I turned to him and must have looked frightened: “that terrified look in your eyes … beautiful, you’re so beautiful, …these will be great pictures,” he smiles and pushes me to the ground. Standing over me, the sun behind him transforming him into a specter; black, shapeless and malevolent, leaning down mumbling about my beauty; “this will be fantastic, the best ever, without equal.”
He leans forward, sure of his victory; believing me too frightened to say or do anything, so I smile and pick up a rock and swing hard, hitting him on the side of his head; blood flows from the cut and he crashes to the ground. I jumped in his truck, locked the doors and see him jumping around and cursing; I thought he was damning me then I saw a large rattlesnake attached to his arm; I gunned the truck and didn’t look back. I got home and called the police; I explained to them where I left him and his truck is parked outside my apartment; when you get here, I told them; I’ll be waiting for you, just look for the woman sitting at the bottom of the stairs, smoking.
