Mountain Lion's Silent Stalk


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Published: December 22nd 2008
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Rocks, Sand, and Twisted Metal. 90 miles an hour out of Shoshone. Midnight. 20 gallons of gasoline in the trunk. Loaded pistol on the passenger seat. Too much to drink. Uninsured, expired tags...

Car burning through the night. Its remains, the only warm place to sleep. Sun rises. Watch it slowly climb, waiting. Stash gun under rock. More waiting... Hitch ride back to Pahrump.

So the story goes. I was begged to pull over one day on the way to do some surveys in my government issued Ford Explorer by two concerned men in a truck. They told me there was an overturned car just over the pass in the middle of the road. I radioed it in to the rangers, but didn't hear anyone responding, so assumed it was old news. I went and did my own investigation anyways, and never heard anything about it again until a week later. So the story goes...

12 ten hour days out of 14, surveying on overnight trips:

Words and words and words. Fill my head. Disconnected fragments. Meaningless. Half asleep. Dreams of ice. Wake up frozen. Sand in my pockets. Burro grunts shatter the ineffable silence.

Sound of my footsteps, bag creaking, straps slapping, clothes rubbing. I stop. Look behind and around. Nothing but my heart beat.

Sun down. Too early to sleep, too cold not to. Each dark second, layered in wool, cocooned beneath the moon, expecting to die, living a thousand deaths by a thousand hungry cougars.

But I live to go deeper.

Take another picture.

Smoke another cigarette.

Live this bliss a little longer.

Aging

Awaiting death.




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23rd December 2008

snow
Hey there buddy, well while your drinking and shooting your way to immortality we forest dwellers are digging out from the great white dump. Its true that gods shit don't stink but it sure is cold. Send that burning car this way so i can make some breakfast.
26th December 2008

Manson Family
Run into any of the remaining Manson Family members out there yet?

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