Desert Manufacture

The horizon burned though it was not on fire. Heat rose in translucent waves from the golden desert floor, mingling and merging with the clear blue sky. Jarvis walked toward that mixture and though he’d made no progress in the time he measured and the time he hadn’t, he pressed on all the same. He knew before he began this journey that his options consisted of escape and insanity, each at the cost of the other.

“Sobering thought, ain’t it?” Elias spoke between mouthfuls, sending flecks of bread and spittle on the hard consonants. “Y’know, the desert? How it don’t end? So they say at least.” He bit off another chunk.

“It’s not endless. Nothing is.” Jarvis flinched away from his cellmate who burst into laughter.

“Speaking in absolutes, huh? Shit like that’ll get you offed.” Elias took a messy swig from his victory grog and wiped his mouth and chin clean of the foul smelling drink. Jarvis grimaced as he watched the man revel in his meager opulence. He wished for a larger window if only to have something else to focus on.

Elias irritated to the point of Jarvis wishing the Pitch would take him. Maybe then he would get a cellmate more like himself, quiet and reserved. With a nice collection of books, he thought. With his rotten luck he’d get another just like this one as they seemed to be the only demographic in the population; not counting himself of course. When Elias began pawing at his groin to relieve a pesky itch, Jarvis thought happily of trading the bigger window for a chance to kill the slovenly mess before him.

“What’s that look for?” Elias said.

“There’s no look. You’re seeing things.”

“Yeah, I’m seeing that look you’re giving and I don’t like it.”

“Makes two of us then, doesn’t it?” Jarvis rolled his eyes at the confused glare of his cellmate. “Just eat your winnings already. Making me sick.”

Elias responded with some quip about jealousy and its relation to physical stature, but Jarvis could no longer remember it.

~~~

continued in Stranger and Fiction Anthology 3

Surrender by Steven Belledin. Inspiration for this story.