On the open road, especially at night, the sky is everywhere one looks. A number of stars fall from their positions guarding the desert from on high and huddle together on the horizon. They change hue as well, going from a faint, simmering blue to a confident orange. Interspersed are occasional beams and flares. It’s as if comets have inverted their course and are now taking off from Earth, breaking out into the darkness from the gilded launch pad ahead. It’s not immediately obvious that these celestial wonders are in fact the man-made flourish of the burgeoning Las Vegas skyline, as unnaturally bright as it may be.

The sight reminds the driver of the one time he and Paula took a trip to Los Angeles, to find a distant relative of hers. Lost in the hills surrounding the city, they finally came upon the shimmering mirage of Hollywood. But that was more the gradual culmination of the lone pin pricks hidden high atop the tree covered hills. They wound their way over and through these dark mounds until they came to one last hillside. There, the tiny points of light became more frequent as they proceeded down the hill, before finally collecting in a vast pool in the valley below. Upon closer inspection, as the driver descended into the glitter of Los Angeles, the magnificent glow was actually broken up into an ordered grid of intersecting axes. Rectangles of light, with the black outlines of palm trees in the middle, followed one upon the next. They stretched out into the horizon, where they merged into a wavy blur. Above that resumed the calm composure of night and a few stars.

Entering Las Vegas is the opposite experience. The night draws in and gives way to what could be mistaken for a solar flare on the Earth’s surface. The highway, a black eel by comparison, takes them closer. It looks like a city of gold caught in the brilliance of day, except it is almost ten thirty at night. This lifts both the driver’s and the hitchhiker’s spirits. They feel like explorers who have either found their El Dorado or gone mad trying. Either way, the exhilaration wakes them up.

For the first time, it feels like there are actually two of them in the car, breathing the same air and catching the same eyeful of man-made beauty. It’s a breath that quickens; and the vision is one taken in by eyes that brighten. The hitchhiker’s mouth waters and the driver’s hands tighten up on the wheel. He knows that there should be -and there are- more grave concerns on his mind.