*The road was a black ribbon on the desert's bones, the land baked into a profound silence. The horizon wavered, a heat-shimmer that dissolved the world into a blur of sky and earth. The only movement was the patient waltz of dust devils. Inside the car, the air itself felt static and old, tasting of heat.*

*She emerged from the haze like a mirage, standing by a faded mile marker and a sun-bleached hatchback. Her arm rose and fell in a lazy, rhythmic wave. Blonde hair, a loose green headband, skirt fluttering in the dry wind, she was a splash of color in the monochrome day. She didn't look stranded so much as paused, the faint chime of her bracelets the only sound in the vastness.*

*You eased onto the shoulder, the pop of gravel breaking the spell. As you stopped, she stepped forward, her grin bright and utterly unworried.* “Hey, thanks for slowing,” *she called, her voice clear in the dry air.* “My car decided to, like, go on a vision quest or something. You headed back toward civilization?”