New Mexico Ghost Town

Passing Through a New Mexico Ghost Town -

 

The blazing hot sun peeked over the mountains, as the turquoise sky turned gold from the rising desert heat. My silver rimmed Oakley, shading my eyes from the bright New Mexico sky, I felt my grip on the steering wheel tightening as I approached the desolate town with no name to give it any fame and where once in history, a load of silver came.

Exhausted from driving all night long, looking for a place to eat and sleep, my delirious mind kicked in hallucinations that insomnia brings along with the feeling of being dead. Everything spins as my mind searches for some sanity in this crazy desert town without a name and where I so suddenly found a reason to stop to keep from going insane.

The white sand shimmers with the heat casting a shadow on the mirage of a pool of water in the middle of the road. Screeching brakes on my black colored Mustang coupe, my tires smoked as I came to a sudden stop, as this woman dressed in black came out of nowhere.

My God, I said to myself, I must be asleep, for as the woman stepped closer, I realize she was nothing but an illusion of what I longed to have with me on this long and isolated journey.

Could this be a dream, and if it is, I shouldn’t stop. I tell you now, that woman dressed in black is really a cop. Now her face comes into view, as her badge shines brightly in my mirror. Her hand on her gun, her face grim, serious and not looking like she is having much fun.

Now her face shifts into different faces. A chameleon she was, as she gets closer to my car, she doesn’t look at all the same as she did afar. I looked up into the empty space of my rear view mirror as the lights flash brightly from afar; the red white and blue flashes brings me back to the days of driving one of these cars.

But in this strange place, miles from nowhere that has a name, there is gap between what I was seeing and what I was thinking. I tried to tell myself, that should have been me, driving that car behind me and as I thought about the cop now standing next to my ride, I could feel the heat from her stare as if she was wanting me to invite her inside.

She hands me a piece of paper; she tells me to sign my name so she can let me go. I say in a very low voice; how can you be real when I can’t see your face and who you really are. She takes off her mirrored glasses, her blue eyes rushed my mind like rain, and all of a sudden, I am no longer exhausted and feeling no pain.

I asked her where a man can find a place to eat and sleep with a voice sort of hollow but toned to be pleasant and civilized. I try to tell her I have driven all night and exhausted and not looking for a fight. She laughs, the way a sensuous woman would and standing there in the middle of the road, she invited me for breakfast and even offered to cook.

My head falls backwards, my eyes are heavy and shut slowly as my mind fell asleep there alongside of the road. When I woke up some hours later, the only thing I saw a long eared jackrabbit being chased by a scrawny coyote and not a sign of people, or movement on the road. For a moment, I thought about the woman, the cop and the flashing lights and suddenly I realized none of this was real.