UNDERCURRENTS

Date: 7-14-06
Time: 1:36 a.m.
Place: Blacktop County Rd. 9
.....A loud rumbling noise wakes me. I hurry outside into the darkness. There is a strong smell of hot asphalt & tar in the cool night air. Cautiously I walk down the gravel driveway towards the blacktop road. There, standing with a pair of dogs is this woman (photo). She asks if I have lost my dogs, saying she found them nearby. I tell the woman the dogs are not mine.
It is difficult to breath. The tar road is hissing and popping, acrid vapors steaming from the melting tar. The air is hot on my face. The road appears to slither in pain.
This strange woman suggests I take a photo of the dogs in order to show neighbors who may have lost them. I agree, retrieving my camera from the house. Darkness makes it difficult, but manage to get a shot. The heat and smell is overpowering, and I must back away, up the driveway.
She thanks me, turns and begins walking barefoot down the sizzling twisted road. It was then I asked her where she lives, in the case the dogs' owner is found. No answer from the darkness.
Then she appears once again, slowly walking from the darkness to within several feet from where I stand on the gravel. Almost in a whisper, barely audible above the hissing hot tar below, she says, " I live in you", and she melts into the darkness once more.
I sleep very little that night.

__________________________