Her rescuer drove a white Commodore station wagon with a pink plastic heart frame filled with kids’ faces stuck on the dash.

The man turned toward her and smiled sadly.

For a moment, the light from the driver’s side seemed to shine right through him and his form became indistinct. The heat of the Australian Outback was causing hallucinations.

“My wife died," he said and he told her about emptiness and how the soul is a breeding ground for dark thoughts that drive a man to touch the stars.

She felt strangely dizzy and disoriented and had to work to concentrate on his words as he spoke. It was as if his speech crept into her mind and numbed pieces of her consciousness.

"She was too weak to contain the winds that power the universe and shape destiny, and she simply eroded away. Perhaps you are the one who can contain the breath of the gods."

The world seemed to spin away as his words erupted in her brain. She was overcome with weakness and slumped back as he spoke, unable to support herself.

Distantly she was aware he had parked. Her car door opened and he stood looking down at her, the sun shining through him as if he were a man made of sky.

She watched dumbly as he reached down and touched her between the eyes with a blue-gray finger the color of heaven. Then she knew no more.

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