AVERIL BONES

When the Desert Turns

They were driving a Kombi van through the Stuart Desert 
famous for its Desert Pea, were flagged down 
by a mirage of a man whose smell was suddenly all too 
real. 

From there the desert's claw twisted in ancient boredom 
and flung the couple from their car into the noonday sun, 
bound and gagged them, shot him quickly in the back of the 
head, dead. 

When they found her, she was still tied at the wrists, 
cowering sunburnt, 
thirsty for the coolness of dark and oasis. She walked as 
if the earth 
repelled her, and perhaps that's what the desert had in 
mind. 

copyright 2003 AVERIL BONES

ALEC KOWALCZYK

Kinescope

Until recently, he was the oldest living human on record. Born after World War
II, he evolved into the remaining survivor of that era, marking him for
posterity as the last baby boomer.

To honor him, an old black and white TV was stationed nearby, tuned to run
continuously through the night. Cathode rays bathed the closed casket in
hypnotic flickering light, in an otherwise barren and unlit room.

Images from the past scanned electronically across the 6-inch diagonal surface
of the miniature screen. There was the test pattern and the message 'please
stand by', followed by Lights Out and the marching Delco batteries, Howdy
Doody and Princess Summerfallwinterspring, Jon Gnagy ... "if you can draw a
circle, a triangle, a square ... "

And then a rerun of Universal Studio's Frankenstein. Boris Karloff waited to
be electroshocked back into life.

It remained to be seen whether the occupant of the casket would follow suit.

Please stand by.

copyright 2003 Alec Kowalcyzk