It's All Good

I had to roll the window down after that. It was just too much and my eyes were streaming with tears. I coughed, and while the radio went from one hit song to another, began to gag furiously.

A mile later, I still hadn't recovered. I pulled over onto the shoulder and, squinting into the desert sun, got out of the Humvee. It somehow seemed appropriate that the newest substitute for gasoline should be belching out of the earth in gaseous form, just like oil did so many years ago. But if I didn't get an air freshener in here soon, I would pass out for sure.

Unless, it occurred to me, I could fashion a makeshift oxygen tank. But where would I find any untainted molecules within a fifty mile radius? Think, I said, still gagging now and then - feeling faint and gaseous at the same time... "Must-not-add-to-it" I gritted through clenched teeth.