Detour

The road ahead was a smear, a smudge of charcoal on a stained and dirty canvas, stretching across a featureless landscape toward the horizon. There was a ragged stubble of half-naked bushes along the edge of the asphalt, whipped about by the wind and flailing their bony branches like tortured souls as I passed by. Beyond that unkempt fringe was nothing but endless acres of rock and sand, spreading monotonously in all directions. It was hard to believe the map on my phone, which assured me that there would be a little town less than an hour away. At this point I would welcome the livid glow of neon, the cluster of ugly structures huddled together like stranded survivors at the edge of the void. I would order myself a cheap greasy burger from whatever joint I could find and be on my way, fortified to face whatever creatures lay waiting ahead in the alien terrain.

Speaking of creatures, I became aware of a shape interrupting the line of the road and the minimal flora laid out ahead of me. At first I thought it might be a dead tree stump standing taller than the neighboring brush, but then I realized that it had a kind of head and shoulders like a man or a statue of a man. But who would display a statue in this wasteland? As I got closer, I realized that there was a rack of antlers attached to its head. I tried to make out some details as I sped by, but it was too much of a blur. As I returned my eyes to the road I realized that the statue or person or whatever it was was now in the middle of the road directly in front of me. I applied my brakes strenuously and screeched to a swerving stop just in time to avoid coming into contact with the - well, the creature, I guess. I could tell now that it wasn't a statue because it was moving.

The door on the passenger side of my car opened - surely it had locked automatically when I started the engine. And surely there was no way that those antlers could fit under the frame of the door, but the thing was now seated beside me.

"Where are you going?” I asked, trying to maintain some degree of self control by acting as if I had stopped in a normal way to pick up a normal hitchhiker. I tried to catch a glimpse of its face from the side, but there was not much there to seen besides two deep eye sockets and a lipless mouth.

There was no response from my passenger other than a slight nod of the head with its massive horns. I interpreted this to mean that I should proceed further in the direction I had been driving.

After a while I made another feeble attempt to start a conversation. "Where are you from? Do you live near here?" When there was nothing but stony silence in return, I gave up.

We had put quite a few empty miles behind us when I noticed some flashing lights in the distance ahead of us. As we drew closer, I could make out a troop of police cars blocking the road. I wondered if my passenger was some kind of fugitive - a psychopathic murderer escaped from some high-security facility? When I turned to look over at him to gauge his response to the blockade, I saw to my absolute shock that the seat was empty. I was so shaken by this realization that I had trouble bringing my car to a stop in time to avoid a collision. The police cars were parked end-to-end, completely barring the highway.

I rolled down my window in response to a gesture from the officer who approached. He addressed me politely enough. "Afternoon, sir."

"Is there a problem?" I stammered back. "Are you looking for someone?"

The policeman looked confused. "The highway is closed," he finally responded. "You need to turn around and head back the way you came."

"How far back is the detour?" I asked. "I must have missed it."

"There is no detour. Turn your vehicle around and go back as fast and far as you can."

"I need to get to Phoenix tonight," I protested. "I have a meeting in the morning."

"Not going to happen," he informed me. "Look over there."

There was a dark line of thunder clouds on the horizon.

"You're closing the highway because of a rainstorm?" I asked.

"That's not a rainstorm. That's a haboob. I see you smiling, but it's no laughing matter. You'd better get turned around now and be on your way."

"What the heck's a haboob?" I asked.

"It's what the Arabs call a hurricane-level sandstorm. They know what they're talking about over there, and this one's moving in fast. When it catches up to you, and it will, pull well off the road and keep your lights off. You leave 'em on and someone'll plow into the back of you before they realize you're not moving."

I looked over at the horizon and saw that the black clouds were now much closer.

"It is moving fast."

"That's what I said. Now get this vehicle headed in the other direction. It's for your own safety."

I did as I was told but was still determined to find an alternate route to my destination. There must be a side road somewhere which I could use to get around the roadblock.

I was studying at the side of the highway so carefully that I almost ran my car into the antlered figure for the second time that day. Once again he was standing directly in front of me, and this time he was pointing to a dirt lane leading off the paved shoulder of the road. It was the side road I had been searching for! He started walking and I slowly drove after him over the gravel.

The "road" soon narrowed to a gully and then a ravine. I became increasingly apprehensive as I followed my guide, since it seemed that there was no way to turn around. Finally the sides of the ditch closed in on me. I couldn't go forward and when I tried to shift into reverse, the wheels spun and threw up handfuls of pebbles and dirt. There wasn't even room to open the door so my guide helped me to crawl through the window

He motioned for me to follow and, having no alternative, I obeyed. He pointed to the side of the cliff, and I saw a set of handholds carved into the rock - a sort of stone ladder leading upward. I followed his lead, ascending awkwardly at first, but gaining confidence as time went on. After what seemed an endless scrabble, we emerge at the base of a cave perforating the cliff wall. My antlered companion helped me up over the edge and then directed me inside.

The day had become quite dark by the time we reached our destination, but the inside of the cave was illuminated by light from some unknown source. On its sides I could see stick figures carved or scratched and colored with black and red pigment. I could make out images of what I assumed were people alongside various animals - dogs, deer, rabbits, birds. After a while, horses made an appearance and then rows of boxes which could have been locomotives or wooden houses. I realized that I was looking at a kind of mural which documented the history of the area.

As I made my way down the procession of images, I noticed a strange figure which seemed to resemble my abandoned sedan. It was even depicted in a blue pigment that matched the color of my vehicle. A human figure with deer antlers stood next to it. I turned to point out this odd coincidence to my companion and found that he had once again disappeared. Just as I realized that I was alone in the cave, the mysterious light was extinguished and I found myself submerged in utter blackness.

I was so shocked by the change in illumination that I stopped breathing, as if I were literally under water. Calming myself with a deep breath, I fumbled for my mobile phone and activated the flashlight function with fumbling hands. Slowly, I began to make my way along the illustrated wall back the way I had come. The floor of the cave was relatively smooth and I decided that since the phone was my only potential contact with the outside world, I should save the battery charge. I switched off the light and groped my way along, step by faltering step.

I had no way of telling how much time had passed since the onset of the darkness, but I had no choice but to continue, hoping that I had not wandered down some branch of the cavern that I had missed on the way in. A sudden hissing noise reawakened my panic. I had noticed images of large coiled serpents in the mural and I wondered if they had been accurate representations of the local denizens. The noise continued without interruption as if an ocean wave were crashing on a beach but never actually breaking and receding.I finally deduced that the sound was the wind of the storm rushing past the opening of the cave. I was getting closer to the entrance! Unfortunately, the storm seemed to still be raging outside. Failing again to identify an alternative option, I continued on.

At last thin filaments of gray light begin to disperse the gloom. I was relieved to notice that the hissing of the wind had somewhat abated. Before too much longer, I could make out the dim semi-circle of the aperture in the cliff through which we had penetrated the hillside. I tentatively leaned my head out of the opening. The storm seemed to have mostly blown itself out at this point, leaving the ravine below partially filled with sand and dirt and scraps of vegetation. I could make out no sign of my car under the debris.

As I searched for the footholds beside the cave entrance, I noticed that they also proceeded up the side of the cliff wall. Since my phone had not even a single bar of reception, I thought that perhaps there would be a better signal farther up. Judging from the cliff on the other side of the ravine, I was currently not too far down from the crest in any case. I braced myself against my natural acrophobia and started to climb, resisting the temptation to look anywhere but directly in front of me.

Finally emerging at the top of the cliff, I stepped away from the edge and gazed in every direction, looking for any sort of landmark or sign of a roadway, The last wheezing of the storm blew random particles into my face, so I had to squint to see anything at all, A large hawk (or was it a vulture?) hovered dreamily overhead. Aside from that, the vast landscape was as empty as an unpainted canvas. With no signal showing on my phone, I was utterly alone on what might as well be an alien planet.

Engulfed in the desert's parched silence, I was nothing but another grain of sand in the wind.