The equatorial deserts of Hell are probably hotter than western Oklahoma in August. The good news for Oklahoma sinners is that Hell is also likely to be more interesting and easier to escape.

I trudged down an endless black snake of pavement so softened by the relentless sun that my sneakers depressed it with each step. Tumbleweeds lay motionless in the ditch, all hope of a breeze abandoned, while I alternately cursed the vast featureless prairie and talked to my blisters. I was a bug beneath God's magnifying glass, slowly frying. When the heat seeping through my sneakers became unbearable, I walked on the shoulder where the round gravel twisted my ankles and jabbed at my raw feet. After my shoes cooled, I stepped back onto the pavement and shook sweat from my hair.

For no particular reason the words to an old John Stewart song kept repeating in my mind: "July you're a woman, more than anyone I've ever known. " I pictured the songwriter driving down this very stretch of deserted road toward some anonymous gig, bored and alone, humming to himself and writing the song. "I can't hold it on the road when you're sittin' right beside me... "

Why name the woman July? Was the woman in his mind really named Julie but the sound didn't play as well for him? Or did he have a Playboy magazine on the car seat and Miss July kept distracting him? I decided I would never know the answer.

A brief gust of hot wind stirred dirt then died. In the distance a white bird soared and swooped. It rode the wind then glided the calm, twisting in a crazy pattern. As it flew in my general direction I realized it wasn't a bird at all but a scrap of paper. I stopped, fascinated, as the fitful wind carried it closer and closer and finally deposited it at my feet. Impossible odds. With a thousand acres of vacant prairie to choose from, Oklahoma chose to direct this paper to me. I picked it up and stared at a tattered centerfold. Miss February.

"Pure coincidence," I muttered, not completely convinced. "There's a logical explanation."

"Right," I argued sarcastically with myself. "Completely logical. You ask a question and then, perhaps for the first time in your life you simply shut up and wait and the answer falls from the sky. Maybe somebody's trying to tell you something."

I folded the paper and stuck it in my shirt pocket, embarrassed that I would even consider some mystical answer but not confident enough to throw it away.

"Just don't want to litter," I explained to myself as I began walking again.

The brown dirt was punctuated sparingly with short, thorny bushes, some close to the highway. Each time I passed one, it rustled wildly for a few seconds, then fell silent. After this happened several times, startling me each time, I began to consider it remarkable. Finally, as much from exhaustion and boredom as curiosity, I decided to investigate. I left the road and walked toward the nearest bush, twenty feet off the road, grateful to be walking on soft dirt.

The bush seemed completely inanimate and quiet. But I would not be fooled. What self-respecting mystery would reveal itself to a casual tourist? I lay down and stared at it, wishing it was tal1 enough to create shade,and made myself as stil1 and silent as the ragged weed itself.

I may have spent a lifetime staring at that bush, holding my breath, sweat dripping from my forehead. Perhaps it was less than a minute.

And then it rustled, loud as a potato chip sack. I waited another lifetime. Suddenly, as if conjured by a heatcrazed desert genie, a lizard smaller than my hand darted out to stare at the steaming mountain that had materialized in its front yard. We communed silently for several minutes, curious man and unblinking reptile, until I understood. As usual, there was more logic here than magic. The thornbush snagged dry leaves and candy wrappers from the wind, each one as sensitive to movement as a snare drum. It also repelled large predators, like hawks and little boys. The barbed tangle formed a safe little monastary for the poor of brain and the thin of skin. To survive, lizards hid within the noisy debris at the base of the bush. But to eat, they had to venture into the brutal arena of the open prairie. At the first hint of danger, the first thud of an approaching footstep, they scuttled back to their porcupine of a home. Interesting.

A sound on the highway startled me. I looked up in time to see a state patrol car pass by, sleek, official, and shiny as a shark. The driver had not seen me.

I could have jumped to my feet and run to the highway, yelling and waving my arms. The driver might have noticed me in his rearview mirror and given me a ride.

I did not move. The lizard did not move. The bush remained silent. Finally, when the sound of the car faded away completely, I started to get up, frightening my reptilian friend into a panic of insect-quick activity as he disappeared into the safety of thorns, ancient fast-food wrappers, and faded scraps of newspaper. The patrol car was

clearwater publishing company publishes Kenn Amdahl books in Colorado. Clearwater Publishing Company publishes educational fun books. Books include There Are No Electrons Electronics &lt;span class=&quot;style8&quot;&gt;for Earthlings, Algebra Unplugged, Calculus for Cats, Joy Writing: Discover and Develop your Creative Voice, The Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo. Clearwater also publishes The Barefoot Fisherman: a fishing book for kids by Paul Amdahl. and Economics for the Impatient by C.A. Turner. Our books are about science, math, creative writing algebra, calculus s, economics, fishing, kids, parenting, education. Curriculums like them, and so do home schoolers. Joy of Writing and The Joy of Writing are not our books, but Joy Writing is. Kenn Amdahl is president. He's a songwriter and author in Broomfield Colorado. Electronics, teaching electricity, teaching math, especially alebra and calculus and creative writing. SAT, LSAT, and other test takers may like these books. They are like books for dummies, algebra for dummies, algebra unplugged, math book. kenn amdahl jim loats calculus for dummies, creative writing for dummies, fishing for dummies, parenting for dummies . Or Algebra for Idiots, Calculus for Idiots, Creative Writing for Dummies. Memoir writing or memoir writers may find Joy Writing useful, although it is not The Joy of Writing or the Joy of Sex or the joy of writing sex or the Joy of Algebra for that matter. They are not chicken soup for the writers soul, or algebra for the writers soul, or calculus for the writers soul. They are not strictly speaking Christian or religious or spiritual, but those folks are welcome. Jesus would not disapprove of these books. Jesus might like them. The Rapture of Writing might be a good title. Self-publishers read our books, Dan Poynter is recommended. Top ten bestsellers not on the list. New York Times Bestsellers are loved here. DaVinci Code or Harry Potter fans welcome. Obviously I'm practicing my writing on this web area that you should not be able to see because I need to make thisalgebra unplugged, math book. kenn amdahl jim loatsclearwater publishing company publishes Kenn Amdahl books in Colorado. Clearwater Publishing Company publishes educational fun books. Books include There Are No Electrons Electronics &lt;span class=&quot;style8&quot;&gt;for Earthlings, Algebra Unplugged, Calculus for Cats, Joy Writing: Discover and Develop your Creative Voice, The Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo. Clearwater also publishes The Barefoot Fisherman: a fishing book for kids by Paul Amdahl. and Economics for the Impatient by C.A. Turner. Our books are about science, math, creative writingg algebra, calculus s, economics, fishing, kids, parenting, education. Curriculums like them, and so do home schoolers. Joy of Writing and The Joy of Writing are not our books, but Joy Writing is. Kenn Amdahl is president. He's a songwriter and author in Broomfield Colorado. Electronics, teaching electricity, teaching math, especially alebra and calculus and creative writing. SAT, LSAT, and other test takers may like these books. They are like books for dummies, algebra for dummies, calculus for dummies, creative writing for dummies, fishing for dummies, parenting for dummies . Or Algebra for Idiots, Calculus for Idiots, Creative Writing for Dummies. Memoir writing or memoir writers may find Joy Writing useful, although it is not The Joy of Writing or the Joy of Sex or the Joy of Algebra for that matter. They are not chicken soup for the writers soul, or algebra for the writers soul, or calculus for the writers soul. They are not strictly speaking Christian or religious or spiritual, but those folks are welcome. Jesus would not disapprove of these books. Jesus might like them. The Rapture of Writing might be a good title. Self-publishers read our books, Dan Poynter is recommended. Top ten bestsellers not on the list. New York Times Bestsellers are loved here. DaVinci Code or Harry Potter fans welcome. Obviously I'm practicing my writing on this web area that you should not be able to see because I need to make this square bigger and have not learned how yet except to type in words, poetry, prose, language, steinbeck type stuff, No Child Left Behind, that's my motto. Naked books, with no girls gone wild, no bikini models no first amendment problems. Sorry, no Jill, no wagner. no amateur index ladies or lightspeed girls or coeds or women. Just books about electricity, like Tesla or Edison might write, books about Algebra like Aristotle might write. Calculus books like Garfield the cat might write. Cat stuff, feline stuff, study guide type raw material. Books for girls who like to read and boys who know how to. Teach yourself math, science, fishing, in clear water or clearwater economics creative writing and poetry. Sing a song. Release a CD Write a book and self publish it. Groups we like include Book Organizations of Colorado, Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA Colorado Authors League Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Pikes Peak Writers Aspen Writers Mountains and Plains Booksellers Independent Booksellers SPAN Small Press Association of North America Publishers Association of the WEst Colorado Library Association Last Note Singers Cottonwood the music group. Edward Ormondroyd and George Garrett gave blurbs to our books </span></div>
square bigger and have not learned how yet except to type in words, poetry, prose, language, steinbeck type stuff, No Child Left Behind, that's my motto. Naked books, with no girls gone wild, no bikini models no first amendment problems. no amateur index ladies or lightspeed girls or coeds or women. Just books about electricity, like Tesla or Edison might write, books about Algebra like Aristotle might write. Calculus books like Garfield the cat might write. Cat stuff, feline stuff, study guide type raw material. Books for girls who like to read and boys who know how to. Teach yourself math, science, fishing, in clear water or clearwater economics creative writing and poetry. Sing a song. Release a CD Write a book and self publish it. Groups we like include Book Organizations of Colorado, Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA Colorado Authors League Rocky Mountain Fiction Wri</span><span class="style11">ters Pikes Peak Writers Aspen Writers Mountains and Plains Booksellers Independent Booksellers SPAN Small Press Association of North America Publishers Association of the WEst Colorado Library Association Last Note Singers Cottonwood the music group. Jill Wagner is the actress in the Mercury Mariner TV commercial. Jill Wagner will become a big star and people will google her. That's Jill Wagner, mercuryvehicles.com, TV actress. She's in Vancouver filming a movie.Edward Ormondroyd and George Garrett gave blurbs to our books </span></div>