Blood still dripped from the man's lips as he continued down the invisible path in the moonlight. The gila monster peeked out of the man's pocket every once in awhile, but only saw the same scene in front of him. Sand. The desert was an endless ocean of sand and wind. No one in this man's position could make it out alive. But then, to the gila monster's knowledge, this man wasn't ordinary. Apart from the meager meals the gila witnessed, the man hadn't eaten or drank anything in days. Who is he to say what is normal for a human though? This was in fact, the first he's ever met. He seemed nice enough, engaging the gila in pleasant conversation and even letting him ride in his pocket during the chilled nights. He liked the man. He was actually going quite a distance out of his way just to accompany the man. The man needed him, he thought. How else could he navigate through the harsh desert sun without a local to help guide him? And the snake! Surely, the man would be dead of venom if it hadn't been for the gila! This is how the gila monster justified its venturing far out of his normal routine and his infatuation with the human being. The gila, then realizing this fine opportunity, curled up inside the man's pocket, and fell asleep.
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The man could feel the gila curling up inside his jacket pocket and smiled to himself. The poor creature followed him without fail but this wasn't its journey to make. The journey was for the man alone. In a way, he admired the gila monster. He admired the loyalty it had for a man it had never met. A man that had never done anything to earn its loyalty. A man that had hardly earned loyalty from anyone in his life. The admiration soon turned into confusion. Why did the gila have such loyalty for the man? It didn't make sense. The man couldn't even remember when he first met the gila. Surely it was after the journey had begun, but he couldn't be sure. With an imaginary shrug of the shoulders, the man shook these thoughts from his mind and concentrated on the journey ahead of him. The night was long, but cool, and the moonlight turned the sandy dunes an eerie shade of gray. They moved, or at least they seemed to. In the distance mostly. They rolled, as if waves of a churning ocean, down, then up, then down again. It may have been the man's own motions, up and down the dunes, but no...he couldn't be moving that fast. No, in fact, the dunes he was walking on moved too. The entire desert moved in the moonlight. Up and down. Up and down. The waves lurched him forward as he walked. He prayed he wouldn't lose his bearings and his path, but what good is prayer in a time like this? Another wave came from behind him, catching him off guard, catapulting the man into the air. As he came down, the man splashed into the sand, chest high. The waves crashed over his head, as he fought hard to keep his head above the sand. He gripped his briefcase tightly as wave upon wave of sand smothered him. The man was losing his strength. With each wave that crashed over his head, the man sank deeper and deeper into the sand. Finally, the man took one last breath and his head was covered with the next passing wave.
He was standing. He hadn't moved for a few minutes now. The moon had retired and the sun was coming up. The man looked around him, not entirely remembering why he stopped moving forward. The marks in the sand indicated a struggle, but the man was clean of sand and the gila monster remained asleep in his pocket. He decided not to take notice and, checking his $1200 gold watch, the man continued on his path. As the sun raised its head over the most distant dunes, the gila monster awoke. It climbed from the man's pocket, falling to the desert floor. It regained its position to the man's left. Looking down, the man smiled at the reptile. "Ready for another day?" he asked. The gila looked up momentarily, then continued at the rapid pace it had become accustomed to, trying to keep up with the man's elongated stride. The man was growing weary of the reptile's silence. But he paid no mind, focusing on the horizon and continuing on.
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