Burgundy

A Story by Mirjana Ilic

A drive through the desert turns into an surrealistic experience.

Later

We will have been driving or days.

The colors of the sky will return to their full strength and will once again dull as the night approaches and the moon appears, giving the celestial landscape a dark tint, as if it were an ocean and not the sky. The sand dunes will continue to change their shape, transforming from one to the other. The wind will continue to carve its path throughout the atmosphere, leaving behind in its tracks fading lines of black and white and blue. The gusts will twist and turn, shaping the car and the figures who's paths it will meet and circle before continuing. And we will drive. We will drive until this seemingly endless road comes to an end.

Now

"Wow." you say.

I look at your rainbow illuminated skin, your mouth gapes like a cheerio and I feel the urge to put my finger into the empty space but my hand doesn't even fidget. Why don't I let myself. Wiring. The sky continues to change colors. The yellow turns to orange, and then to red. And then it slowly starts to turn purple, first one little area, and then another in a different part of the sky, as if someone was dropping blue food coloring into the red. Cautiously the whole sky turns to a bright purple, the kind of purple whose essence emits lavender in high season. And then blue green streaks begin to fly, forming stripes. The ground, which was a dark yellow has now turned cerulean, and then it turns eggshell . The wind around us pick up and it begins to draw clear lines around us, like ink on loose leaf. It lifts the sand which turns into a ray of colors as it follows the path carved by the wind and settles again, returning to the color of the ground. I watch as a specific gust, its blue line jagged, wraps around my ankles and travels up my legs and back into the air through my shirt. It spins off into the sky which is filled with similar gusts, each spinning in its own direction, spiraling and making simple loops. The winds do as they please yet the all seem to travel in the same direction. I lean back onto the car which is cold. Freezing. The heat which had been infiltrating our ever cell has suddenly dispersed leaving us with only the cool air which migrates to and fro around us. The sky has now turned green and specks of yellow appear, like paint being thrown at an easel.

"This isn't really happening." you say. I look into your eyes and I can see the excitement begin to rise. But it settles again and I wonder why you're preventing yourself from enjoying this momentary breath which you breath. I take your hand and watch a white line pick up a strand of your hair and then place it down again.

"Should we go back into the car?"

"No." I reply and begin to sit, and before my bum even touches the floor I feel my self rising. I thud to the ground which comes at me and I begin to climb. The sand below me forms a square platform which lifts up into the sky as if being pulled at by a magnet. The long prism climbs higher and higher. I look down from my sturdy seat at you. Your eyes get smaller and farther away until you're nothing but a speck on the now turquois sand. I look around me and realize I possess no feelings of fear. I watch the winds gusts, like cartoons, spinning around me like a hamster on a wheel, and don't even think of the possibility of falling. The land stretches out endlessly, reaching out in every angle and leaving an empty feeling of nothing behind. I look down to the ground and see other shapes begin to form. A cube rolls about like a die, a triangle flies at it and land on top like a roof forming a cozy little house. Some indigo triangles appear, forming a mountain scape which then separates, sending each triangle in its own direction. Spheres pop up from the ground and run down the sand like raindrops on a window. I watch the sky mutate colors. Periwinkle, silver, sea green, apricot. I feel the ground begin to shift below me as the prism starts retreating towards the ground. When I land I realize the sky has turned white, while the sand opposite it has turned a pitch black, a black darker than night. The moon, black like an endless pit in the sky, slowly makes its way up and leaves behind it a streak which shows the path it has taken to get to where it is right now. Throughout the night sky strains of fading color still drift like dye in a glass of water. I stand up next to you. You stand beside me and just stare. Your eyes cease to blink and then all at once you're hugging me. Your arms seem to wrap around my whole body and I feel you on every square milimeter of my being. I hug you back and we seem to stand there forever as the wind around us calms and the last traces of color fade and only gray remains, moving like smoke throughout the black of our zenith. The sand below us remains black and creates a complete contrast to the sky, reflecting the moons light and illuminating earth as if it were still day. Around us shapes continue forming and disappearing. We both sit leaning our backs against the car, which has remained its same mustard yellow this whole time. The ground becomes chilly and I lean into you as you lay your head on my shoulder and we stare into the atmosphere.

Before

We were supposed to leave at 6. The clock rang repeatedly, reminding us that five minutes had passed. It continued on like that for about an hour before you picked it up and threw it at the wall across from us. We left at 11.The drive would take us a lot of time. I don't know how long. The thought of driving hours through the desert seemed

unbearable at the time. Plains, sand. Some plants, maybe. Boring was something I couldn't take. After we had been driving for some time it started to get hot. The suns yellow beams seemed to be burning through the roof of the mustard car, making sweat run down my back. Your shirt wasn't any better. We drove

and drove,

and drove.

"Are we there yet?" I asked.

"No." you replied, turning away from the steering wheel and the road in front of you to look at me.

"Don't take you eyes of the road." You grinned and looked back to that which was never ending in front of you. We continued driving, small talk became a hastle and we sat in silence, lost in our own thoughts and wondering if we would ever get out of the desert. By my watch we had only had a couple more hours until we arrived. Hardly could I wait to see something other than sand. But then the sunset began. The sky turned a light orange, the blue slowly dispersing as the yellow kicked in, leaving the whole view in front of the car a mixture of sunny hues, our mustard car blending in as if it were only a single ray of the setting sun.

"Its too hot, can we get out and I don't know, watch the sunset?"

"Sure."

You pulled the car to the side of the road and we both got out. You came to my side and we watched the sky and the sunset which was about to take place.