Monday, July 25, 2011

Roadside Attraction: Salton Sea


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by Rhett Metz
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Duri and the DeHavilland Beaver bank 32 degrees into a controlled dive.

Watching through aviator shades, he sees his passenger’s grip tighten on the armrest. A smile flickers across his face.

Dilia looks up from her magazine and slaps the train engineer’s cap off Duri’s head with a flick of her hand.

Dilia: You’re an idiot.

Duri: And you’re a control freak. Read your Cosmo and let me fly the plane.

Dilia: Stop screwing around and land already.

Duri: Land, you say? Right away, madam.

The DeHavilland groans in protest as Duri pushes its limits.

The eerie grey surface of the Salton Sea, buried an improbable 200 feet below sea level, rushes up to meet them. The pontoons splash into the water, jolting the passengers.

They taxi into the shallows and bump to a halt. Duri drops the anchor and jumps into the knee deep water, soaking his jeans to mid hip.

Dilia: Ahem!

Duri: Huh?

Dilia: Aren’t you going to spread your cape across the puddle?

Duri: No.

Dilia: Come here flyboy.

Duri obeys and Dilia pounces on his back for a piggyback out of the sour smelling water. When he sets her on the sand, she blows him a kiss.

Duri and Dilia walk around a thicket of beach grass and find a rusted out bus half buried in the salt flat sand.


Dilia: No sign of him.

Duri: Your father said he’d be here.

Dilia: My father’s in prison.

Duri: But he’s innocent, right?

Dilia: Of course, but that doesn’t make him right. How would he know from his jail cell who would be here?

Duri turns his head from side to side and sniffs the air.

Duri: Gumbo?

Dilia: Burned whatever it was.

Duri lifts the gunny sack curtain over the open back door and follows Dilia into the abandoned bus. A freshly burned pot of soup sits over a makeshift stove. Dilia leans down to inspect the propane tank.

Dilia: Duri...

Duri: Run!

They dash from the rusted out bus and make for the plane.

Two loud clicks echo over the water. A blinding flash fills the sky and a deafening boom thunders across Imperial Valley. The blast throws them off their feet and slams them into the sand and rocks as the bus explodes into flames.

Duri: You okay?

Dilia: Emotionally? No. Physically - a few scratches.

Duri: We’ve been setup...

~end

Guest post created for rrRoad trip event by Rhett Metz, co-author of Gypsy Knights
© 2011. All rights reserved.

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by Rhett Metz
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--~ eBook Giveaway courtesy of author ~--

Gypsy Knights
by Two Brothers Metz

Win a copy of this ebook!

Open to all.

Offer ends: July 31, 2011 -->extended to Aug 14

TO DO:
READ about the Metz brothers at Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf and tell me something your learned about them.

AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it)

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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~===~ rrRoad trip schedule ~===~


 
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