“Alex, you all right?”

His voice was urgent and frightened. “Lily, stay right where you are!”

I extended one step toward him. “What?”

Now he sounded furious. “I said stop right there, now!”

“Alex!” My cheeks were burning; he had never talked to me like that.

“Lily, this is quicksand. Stay away!”

“But…”

“Damn it, Lily, do as I say. Just don’t come close!”

It was only now that I noticed that bubbles were gurgling up from the wet sand.

“Alex!” I screamed, suddenly aware that the sun was setting and the sky darkening. I shivered.

“Lily, you need to do something for me! Right now!” Alex yelled.

I rubbed my eyes, wishing that the frightening scene in front of me was just another mirage. Alex seemed to have shrunk by one or even two inches right in front of my eyes.

“Oh, my God, Alex, what should I do?”

“I don’t know. Let me think!” My lover’s voice exploded in this bare universe where no one else, not even a ghost, would hear.

Alex’s voice piped up again, this time less frightened and more focused. “Do you think you can go detach the truck’s spare tire and bring it here?”

“I don’t know,” I shouted, feeling stupid, spoiled, and completely worthless.

“Stay calm and focus, Lily, otherwise you will only see me again in our next life. Now, listen carefully. There are tools behind the seat. Get them and unscrew the metal covering the tire. Use the glove to give you additional leverage. Now go, if you don’t want to see me disappear right in front of your eyes!”

“You hang in there, Alex!” Crying, I ran all the way back to the truck, flung open the door, searched for the tools, and found the tool kit. In less than a minute, I was separating the metal cover with the tire iron.

“Come on! Come on!” I cursed and pleaded and prayed for what seemed forever until, miraculously, the metal started to loosen up, then finally came off.

Holding the tire like a bag of gold, I dashed back to Alex, only to find he was already another two to three inches shorter. But there was no time for fear. I used all the strength I had—from all the way back to when I’d sucked at my mother’s nipple—to throw the tire to Alex. To my great exultation and relief, it landed right next to him and he managed to grasp onto it right away.

Now the desert had completely lost its romance. Instead of resembling a beautiful, tanned woman striking seductive poses, it emerged as a huge charnel ground oozing bile and wafting the smell of death. The name “Go-In-But-Never-Come-Out” no longer amused me but instead rang loud in my ears like a funeral dirge blasted from horns and trumpets.

Alex yelled to me, “Don’t panic, Lily. At least I’m floating now.”

But he couldn’t get back to the bank. There was about fifteen feet between us.

I threw out another stupid question. “What am I supposed to do next?”

Then I thought maybe I could detach all the other tires, even the truck’s cushion, to build a platform.

“Alex, hang in there, I’m going to get the other tires!” I yelled, then ran back to the truck.

I quickly realized that I lacked the strength to jack up the truck and remove the wheels. As I was twisting in frustration, I heard in the distance the sound of wheels grinding on sand. I turned and saw a greenish van heading toward me. Elated beyond words, I sprang up and ran toward the car while frantically waving my hands. Finally the van stopped about ten feet in front of me, its two headlights shining like the eyes of a ferocious beast. But the driver didn’t get out. Maybe he was as frightened as I—scrutinizing this strange, agitated woman before him and sizing up the situation. Was I a pretend-victim-robber or a potential murderer?

The door finally opened and from it emerged a tall, muscular man whose broad face was partly concealed by a dark beard. A foreigner of indeterminate nationality. My heart beat frantically against my ribs. Would he be the angel sent to save Alex?

I called out in English, then Mandarin, while gesturing frantically and pointing toward the pond, which was hidden by the boulder. “My friend is in the sinking sand. Please help us!”

He must have understood me, if not in one of the two languages, at least from the anxiety in my voice and the frustration written on my face. But he didn’t look a bit interested in helping. Instead, his eyes scrutinized me while his hand meditatively stroked his beard.

It must be he wanted to be paid for his service.

I pleaded again, “Can you help my friend? I can pay you. Just tell me how much.” I immediately regretted what I’d just said. If he knew that I had some money, he might rob or even kill me. Then Alex would surely be left to sink and die.

Slowly he walked toward me. Before I understood what was about to happen, he grabbed my shoulder, pried open my mouth, and plunged in his filthy tongue.

I screamed till my lungs burst.

“Something wrong?” Alex’s distant, faint, worried voice drifted from the other side of the rocks.

The man’s muscular arm locked my waist, his other hand enjoying a free tour of my breasts.

“You bastard, let me go!” I screamed, limbs struggling to free from his iron grasp.

Alex’s voice drifted toward us weak and fading like a ghost’s. “Lily?!”

“Nice warm sand dunes.” Bastard finally spoke, in heavily accented English. Then he turned to the direction of Alex’s voice and exclaimed, “Man, your girlfriend is an oasis in the desert!”

Alex’s thread-thin voice rose again desperately in this no-man’s-land. “You bastard, leave her alone or I’ll kill you! I swear!”

Bastard emitted a thunderous laugh, his stinking breath suffocating me. “You’re going to be dead soon, my friend. So how are you going to kill me? Maybe as a ghost in hell?”

As he was trying to tear off my shirt and pull down my jeans, my hand felt the tire iron I’d slipped inside my jeans pocket before I went up to greet him. Instantly, I snatched it out and struck the side of his head as hard as a blacksmith shoeing a horse.

“Ouuchhh!!!” He let go of me, looking stunned.

Alex seemed to be on his last bit of strength. He called out faintly, “Lily, are you hurt?”

“Alex, don’t worry about me. You just hang in there!” I exclaimed while running as fast as my feet could carry my 118-pound frame. I climbed inside the truck to start the engine, only to realize that the keys were in Alex’s pocket.

So I jumped out, ran to the bastard’s van, and quickly started the engine. Thank God he’d left the key in!

Face covered with blood, Bastard was staggering around, seemingly disoriented.

I drove the van up in front of him as a warning that if he dared come forward I would run him over and leave him as a delicious dinner for the desert beasts. But the crazy bastard threw himself right toward me! So my foot pushed down on the pedal and sent the van leaping forward. I heard a loud thump, felt the van lift up, then silence.

Then I realized what I had just done. “Oh, my God, I might have killed him!”

I gingerly got out of the van to look. The bastard was now lying unconscious as his blood seeped into the sand. I put my finger under his nostrils and felt breath. He was not dead but was not going to wake up anytime soon, either. One of his legs was bent at an odd angle.

I ran back to Alex.

Although Alex was still holding on to the tire and floating, he didn’t look good—his upper body was shivering and his face was as pale as milk.

“Alex! Alex!” I screamed till my lungs were about to burst. “Wake up, stay alert!”

He slowly opened his eyes, his expression glazed.

Then I realized the only way I could save him. I took off my shirt, bra, and jeans, tied them together, attached a stone, and threw my makeshift rescue line to Alex.

“Alex, get hold of the cloth and stay there. I’m now going to drive the van here!”

After I pulled the bastard’s van right up to the bank, I immediately tied the other end of the cloth to the van’s fender.

When finished, I yelled, “Alex, pull yourself to the bank as hard as you can!”

His eyes were half closed and his expression blank.

“Alex, did you hear me? Move! Quickly! The temperature is dropping and you’re getting seriously chilled. We need to get away from here now!”

Alex slowly opened his eyes to stare at me, emitting a very weak and pained, “Are you hurt?”

“Alex, we have no time to discuss this! If you truly love me, get your ass back here, right now! You pull the cloth from your side and I’ll pull it from mine. Let’s move!”

With great effort, Alex managed to slowly drag himself to the bank. I pulled him into my arms and kissed him madly while tears flooded down my cheeks onto his wet body. He felt stiff and cold as a marble statue.

“Alex, Alex, answer me, you OK?”

It seemed it was a great effort for him just to nod. Without losing a beat, I helped him get inside the van, peeled off his wet clothes, started the engine, and turned on the heat full blast.

“Alex, you wait right here.” I dashed to our truck to get a blanket and our thermos of hot tea, then dashed back.

I wrapped the blanket around Alex and poured the tea down his throat. He’d been freezing and worrying for almost an hour now.

I drove Bastard’s van next to our truck, retrieved the key from Alex’s pants pocket, started the engine of our truck, and turned on the heat. Then I helped Alex from the van into the truck. My attacker was still motionless, but I feared he might wake up soon—or he might be dead—so I certainly did not want another vehicle to come by and realize what I had done.