Board Thread:Forum Games/@comment-25394521-20150219123140/@comment-25393613-20150220014604

SlendySmile wrote: SlendySmile wrote: Maximight wrote: TaiTrantTT wrote: Maximight wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: ZiSharken wrote:

Davidwuhh wrote:

Maximight wrote:

Davidwuhh wrote:

Legofries wrote:

Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: SlendySmile wrote: Legofries wrote: SlendySmile wrote: Legofries wrote: 2002fan wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Legofries wrote: Examples down below. =D Continue this until hell. Cause why not? Wheee! OMG WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT MAKING THIS

(continue this till the middle of sun) no, aim for longer distances

cause the sun is too short for us P!ss off! no, peeing off until you fly isn't a good idea

use the quote line to fly I believe i can flyyy I believe a can touch the skyyy I think about it every night and day Spread my wings and fly awayyy I believe I can soooaaar See me running through that open door xD

continue the song? eh, just keep quoting until we reach the limits of time and space song gets replace by this

BABY, BABY, BABY, OHHH! hi

hi

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hi hello ezee peezeeee lemon squeezieeee keep it going

choo choo all aboard the quote train RIP noob 2015-2015 died by quote train

cue sad violin ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 im dada We're waiting every night to finally roam and invite newcomers to play with us for many years we've been all alone

We're forced to be still and play The same songs we've known since that day An imposter took our life away Now we're stuck here to decay So, there's a man crawling through the desert.

He'd decided to try his SUV in a little bit of cross-country travel, had great fun zooming over the badlands and through the sand, got lost, hit a big rock, and then he couldn't get it started again. There were no cell phone towers anywhere near, so his cell phone was useless. He had no family, his parents had died a few years before in an auto accident, and his few friends had no idea he was out here.

He stayed with the car for a day or so, but his one bottle of water ran out and he was getting thirsty. He thought maybe he knew the direction back, now that he'd paid attention to the sun and thought he'd figured out which way was north, so he decided to start walking. He figured he only had to go about 30 miles or so and he'd be back to the small town he'd gotten gas in last.

He thinks about walking at night to avoid the heat and sun, but based upon how dark it actually was the night before, and given that he has no flashlight, he's afraid that he'll break a leg or step on a rattlesnake. So, he puts on some sun block, puts the rest in his pocket for reapplication later, brings an umbrella he'd had in the back of the SUV with him to give him a little shade, pours the windshield wiper fluid into his water bottle in case he gets that desperate, brings his pocket knife in case he finds a cactus that looks like it might have water in it, and heads out in the direction he thinks is right.

He walks for the entire day. By the end of the day he's really thirsty. He's been sweating all day, and his lips are starting to crack. He's reapplied the sunblock twice, and tried to stay under the umbrella, but he still feels sunburned. The windshield wiper fluid sloshing in the bottle in his pocket is really getting tempting now. He knows that it's mainly water and some ethanol and coloring, but he also knows that they add some kind of poison to it to keep people from drinking it. He wonders what the poison is, and whether the poison would be worse than dying of thirst.

He pushes on, trying to get to that small town before dark.

By the end of the day he starts getting worried. He figures he's been walking at least 3 miles an hour, according to his watch for over 10 hours. That means that if his estimate was right that he should be close to the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">town. But he doesn't recognize any of this. He had to cross a dry creek bed a mile or two back, and he doesn't remember coming through it in the SUV. He figures that maybe he got his direction off just a little and that the dry creek bed was just off to one side of his path. He tells himself that he's close, and that after dark he'll start seeing the town lights over one of these hills, and that'll be all he needs.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">As it gets dim enough that he starts stumbling over small rocks and things, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">he finds a spot and sits down to wait for full dark and the town lights.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Full dark comes before he knows it. He must have dozed off. He stands back <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">up and turns all the way around. He sees nothing but stars.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He wakes up the next morning feeling absolutely lousy. His eyes are gummy and his mouth and nose feel like they're full of sand. He so thirsty that he can't even swallow. He barely got any sleep because it was so cold. He'd forgotten how cold it got at night in the desert and hadn't noticed it the night before because he'd been in his car.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He knows the Rule of Threes - three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food - then you die. Some people can make it a little longer, in the best situations. But the desert heat and having to walk and sweat isn't the best situation to be without water. He figures, unless he finds water, this is his last day.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He rinses his mouth out with a little of the windshield wiper fluid. He waits a while after spitting that little bit out, to see if his mouth goes numb, or he feels dizzy or something. Has his mouth gone numb? Is it just in <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his mind? He's not sure. He'll go a little farther, and if he still doesn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">find water, he'll try drinking some of the fluid.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Then he has to face his next, harder question - which way does he go from here? Does he keep walking the same way he was yesterday (assuming that he still knows which way that is), or does he try a new direction? He has no idea what to do.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Looking at the hills and dunes around him, he thinks he knows the direction he was heading before. Just going by a feeling, he points himself somewhat to the left of that, and starts walking.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">As he walks, the day starts heating up. The desert, too cold just a couple of hours before, soon becomes an oven again. He sweats a little at first, and then stops. He starts getting worried at that - when you stop sweating he knows that means you're in trouble - usually right before heat stroke.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He decides that it's time to try the windshield wiper fluid. He can't wait <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">any longer - if he passes out, he's dead. He stops in the shade of a large <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">rock, takes the bottle out, opens it, and takes a mouthful. He slowly <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">swallows it, making it last as long as he can. It feels so good in his dry <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and cracked throat that he doesn't even care about the nasty taste. He takes <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">another mouthful, and makes it last too. Slowly, he drinks half the bottle. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He figures that since he's drinking it, he might as well drink enough to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">make some difference and keep himself from passing out.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He's quit worrying about the denaturing of the wiper fluid. If it kills him, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it kills him - if he didn't drink it, he'd die anyway. Besides, he's pretty <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sure that whatever substance they denature the fluid with is just designed to make you sick - their way of keeping winos from buying cheap wiper fluid for the ethanol content. He can handle throwing up, if it comes to that.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He walks. He walks in the hot, dry, windless desert. Sand, rocks, hills, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dunes, the occasional scrawny cactus or dried bush. No sign of water. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Sometimes he'll see a little movement to one side or the other, but whatever moved is usually gone before he can focus his eyes on it. Probably birds, lizards, or mice. Maybe snakes, though they usually move more at night. He's careful to stay away from the movements.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After a while, he begins to stagger. He's not sure if it's fatigue, heat <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stroke finally catching him, or maybe he was wrong and the denaturing of the wiper fluid was worse than he thought. He tries to steady himself, and keep going.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After more walking, he comes to a large stretch of sand. This is good! He <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">knows he passed over a stretch of sand in the SUV - he remembers doing <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">donuts in it. Or at least he thinks he remembers it - he's getting woozy <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">enough and tired enough that he's not sure what he remembers any more or if <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">he's hallucinating. But he thinks he remembers it. So he heads off into it, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">trying to get to the other side, hoping that it gets him closer to the town.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He was heading for a town, wasn't he? He thinks he was. He isn't sure any more. He's not even sure how long he's been walking any more. Is it still morning? Or has it moved into afternoon and the sun is going down again? It must be afternoon - it seems like it's been too long since he started out.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He walks through the sand.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After a while, he comes to a big dune in the sand. This is bad. He doesn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">remember any dunes when driving over the sand in his SUV. Or at least he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">doesn't think he remembers any. This is bad.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">But, he has no other direction to go. Too late to turn back now. He figures <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that he'll get to the top of the dune and see if he can see anything from <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">there that helps him find the town. He keeps going up the dune.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Halfway up, he slips in the bad footing of the sand for the second or third <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">time, and falls to his knees. He doesn't feel like getting back up - he'll <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">just fall down again. So, he keeps going up the dune on his hand and knees.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">While crawling, if his throat weren't so dry, he'd laugh. He's finally <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">gotten to the hackneyed image of a man lost in the desert - crawling through <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the sand on his hands and knees. If would be the perfect image, he imagines, if only his clothes were more ragged. The people crawling through the desert <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the cartoons always had ragged clothes. But his have lasted without any <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">rips so far. Somebody will probably find his dessicated corpse half buried in the sand years from now, and his clothes will still be in fine shape - <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">shake the sand out, and a good wash, and they'd be wearable again. He wishes his throat were wet enough to laugh. He coughs a little instead, and it hurts.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He finally makes it to the top of the sand dune. Now that he's at the top, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">he struggles a little, but manages to stand up and look around. All he sees <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">is sand. Sand, and more sand. Behind him, about a mile away, he thinks he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sees the rocky ground he left to head into this sand. Ahead of him, more <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dunes, more sand. This isn't where he drove his SUV. This is Hell. Or close enough.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Again, he doesn't know what to do. He decides to drink the rest of the wiper <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">fluid while figuring it out. He takes out the bottle, and is removing the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">cap, when he glances to the side and sees something. Something in the sand. At the bottom of the dune, off to the side, he sees something strange. It's a flat area, in the sand. He stops taking the cap of the bottle off, and tries to look closer. The area seems to be circular. And it's dark - darker than the sand. And, there seems to be something in the middle of it, but he can't tell what it is. He looks as hard as he can, and still can tell from <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">here. He's going to have to go down there and look.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He puts the bottle back in his pocket, and starts to stumble down the dune. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After a few steps, he realizes that he's in trouble - he's not going to be able to keep his balance. After a couple of more sliding, tottering steps, he falls and starts to roll down the dune. The sand it so hot when his body hits it that for a minute he thinks he's caught fire on the way down - like a movie car wreck flashing into flames as it goes over the cliff, before it ever even hits the ground. He closes his eyes and mouth, covers his face with his hands, and waits to stop rolling.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He stops, at the bottom of the dune. After a minute or two, he finds enough <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">energy to try to sit up and get the sand out of his face and clothes. When <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">he clears his eyes enough, he looks around to make sure that the dark spot <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the sand it still there and he hadn't just imagined it.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">So, seeing the large, flat, dark spot on the sand is still there, he begins <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to crawl towards it. He'd get up and walk towards it, but he doesn't seem to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have the energy to get up and walk right now. He must be in the final stages <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">of dehydration he figures, as he crawls. If this place in the sand doesn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have water, he'll likely never make it anywhere else. This is his last <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">chance.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He gets closer and closer, but still can't see what's in the middle of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dark area. His eyes won't quite focus any more for some reason. And lifting <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his head up to look takes so much effort that he gives up trying. He just <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">keeps crawling.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Finally, he reaches the area he'd seen from the dune. It takes him a minute of crawling on it before he realizes that he's no longer on sand - he's now crawling on some kind of dark stone. Stone with some kind of marking on it - a pattern cut into the stone. He's too tired to stand up and try to see what the pattern is - so he just keeps crawling. He crawls towards the center, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">where his blurry eyes still see something in the middle of the dark stone <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">area.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">His mind, detached in a strange way, notes that either his hands and knees are so burnt by the sand that they no longer feel pain, or that this dark <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stone, in the middle of a burning desert with a pounding, punishing sun <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">overhead, doesn't seem to be hot. It almost feels cool. He considers lying <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">down on the nice cool surface.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Cool, dark stone. Not a good sign. He must be hallucinating this. He's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">probably in the middle of a patch of sand, already lying face down and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dying, and just imagining this whole thing. A desert mirage. Soon the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">beautiful women carrying pitchers of water will come up and start giving him <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">a drink. Then he'll know he's gone.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He decides against laying down on the cool stone. If he's going to die here <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the middle of this hallucination, he at least wants to see what's in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">center before he goes. He keeps crawling.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">It's the third time that he hears the voice before he realizes what he's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">hearing. He would swear that someone just said, "Greetings, traveler. You do <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">not look well. Do you hear me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He stops crawling. He tries to look up from where he is on his hands and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">knees, but it's too much effort to lift his head. So he tries something <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">different - he leans back and tries to sit up on the stone. After a few <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">seconds, he catches his balance, avoids falling on his face, sits up, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">tries to focus his eyes. Blurry. He rubs his eyes with the back of his hands <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and tries again. Better this time.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Yep. He can see. He's sitting in the middle of a large, flat, dark expanse <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">of stone. Directly next to him, about three feet away, is a white post or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">pole about two inches in diameter and sticking up about four or five feet <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">out of the stone, at an angle.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">And wrapped around this white rod, tail with rattle on it hovering and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">seeming to be ready to start rattling, is what must be a fifteen foot long <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">desert diamondback rattlesnake, looking directly at him.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He stares at the snake in shock. He doesn't have the energy to get up and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">run away. He doesn't even have the energy to crawl away. This is it, his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">final resting place. No matter what happens, he's not going to be able to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">move from this spot.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Well, at least dying of a bite from this monster should be quicker than <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dying of thirst. He'll face his end like a man. He struggles to sit up a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">little straighter. The snake keeps watching him. He lifts one hand and waves <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it in the snake's direction, feebly. The snake watches the hand for a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">moment, then goes back to watching the man, looking into his eyes.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Hmmm. Maybe the snake had no interest in biting him? It hadn't rattled yet - <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that was a good sign. Maybe he wasn't going to die of snake bite after all.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He then remembers that he'd looked up when he'd reached the center here <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">because he thought he'd heard a voice. He was still very woozy - he was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">likely to pass out soon, the sun still beat down on him even though he was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">now on cool stone. He still didn't have anything to drink. But maybe he had <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">actually heard a voice. This stone didn't look natural. Nor did that white <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">post sticking up out of the stone. Someone had to have built this. Maybe <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">they were still nearby. Maybe that was who talked to him. Maybe this snake <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">was even their pet, and that's why it wasn't biting.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He tries to clear his throat to say, "Hello," but his throat is too dry. All <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that comes out is a coughing or wheezing sound. There is no way he's going <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to be able to talk without something to drink. He feels his pocket, and the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bottle with the wiper fluid is still there. He shakily pulls the bottle out, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">almost losing his balance and falling on his back in the process. This isn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">good. He doesn't have much time left, by his reckoning, before he passes <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">out.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He gets the lid off of the bottle, manages to get the bottle to his lips, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and pours some of the fluid into his mouth. He sloshes it around, and then <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">swallows it. He coughs a little. His throat feels better. Maybe he can talk <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">now.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He tries again. Ignoring the snake, he turns to look around him, hoping to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">spot the owner of this place, and croaks out, "Hello? Is there anyone here?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He hears, from his side, "Greetings. What is it that you want?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He turns his head, back towards the snake. That's where the sound had seemed <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to come from. The only thing he can think of is that there must be a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">speaker, hidden under the snake, or maybe built into that post. He decides <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to try asking for help.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Please," he croaks again, suddenly feeling dizzy, "I'd love to not be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">thirsty any more. I've been a long time without water. Can you help me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Looking in the direction of the snake, hoping to see where the voice was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">coming from this time, he is shocked to see the snake rear back, open its <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">mouth, and speak. He hears it say, as the dizziness overtakes him and he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">falls forward, face first on the stone, "Very well. Coming up."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">A piercing pain shoots through his shoulder. Suddenly he is awake. He sits <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">up and grabs his shoulder, wincing at the throbbing pain. He's momentarily <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">disoriented as he looks around, and then he remembers - the crawl across the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sand, the dark area of stone, the snake. He sees the snake, still wrapped <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">around the tilted white post, still looking at him.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He reaches up and feels his shoulder, where it hurts. It feels slightly wet. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">He pulls his fingers away and looks at them - blood. He feels his shoulder <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">again - his shirt has what feels like two holes in it - two puncture holes - <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">they match up with the two aching spots of pain on his shoulder. He had been <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bitten. By the snake.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"It'll feel better in a minute." He looks up - it's the snake talking. He <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">hadn't dreamed it. Suddenly he notices - he's not dizzy any more. And more <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">importantly, he's not thirsty any more - at all!

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Have I died? Is this the afterlife? Why are you biting me in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">afterlife?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Sorry about that, but I had to bite you," says the snake. "That's the way I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">work. It all comes through the bite. Think of it as natural medicine."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"You bit me to help me? Why aren't I thirsty any more? Did you give me a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">drink before you bit me? How did I drink enough while unconscious to not be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">thirsty any more? I haven't had a drink for over two days. Well, except for <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the windshield wiper fluid... hold it, how in the world does a snake talk? <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Are you real? Are you some sort of Disney animation?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"No," says the snake, "I'm real. As real as you or anyone is, anyway. I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">didn't give you a drink. I bit you. That's how it works - it's what I do. I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bite. I don't have hands to give you a drink, even if I had water just <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sitting around here."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">The man sat stunned for a minute. Here he was, sitting in the middle of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">desert on some strange stone that should be hot but wasn't, talking to a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">snake that could talk back and had just bitten him. And he felt better. Not <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">great - he was still starving and exhausted, but much better - he was no <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">longer thirsty. He had started to sweat again, but only slightly. He felt <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">hot, in this sun, but it was starting to get lower in the sky, and the cool <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stone beneath him was a relief he could notice now that he was no longer <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dying of thirst.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I might suggest that we take care of that methanol you now have in your <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">system with the next request," continued the snake. "I can guess why you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">drank it, but I'm not sure how much you drank, or how much methanol was left <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the wiper fluid. That stuff is nasty. It'll make you go blind in a day or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">two, if you drank enough of it."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ummm, n-next request?" said the man. He put his hand back on his hurting <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">shoulder and backed away from the snake a little.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"That's the way it works. If you like, that is," explained the snake. "You <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">get three requests. Call them wishes, if you wish." The snake grinned at his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">own joke, and the man drew back a little further from the show of fangs.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"But there are rules," the snake continued. "The first request is free. The <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">second requires an agreement of secrecy. The third requires the binding of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">responsibility." The snake looks at the man seriously.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"By the way," the snake says suddenly, "my name is Nathan. Old Nathan, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Samuel used to call me. He gave me the name. Before that, most of the Bound <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">used to just call me 'Snake'. But that got old, and Samuel wouldn't stand <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">for it. He said that anything that could talk needed a name. He was big into <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">names. You can call me Nate, if you wish." Again, the snake grinned. "Sorry <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">if I don't offer to shake, but I think you can understand - my shake sounds <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">somewhat threatening." The snake give his rattle a little shake.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Umm, my name is Jack," said the man, trying to absorb all of this. "Jack <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Samson.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Can I ask you a question?" Jack says suddenly. "What happened to the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">poison...umm, in your bite. Why aren't I dying now? How did you do that? <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">What do you mean by that's how you work?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"That's more than one question," grins Nate. "But I'll still try to answer <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">all of them. First, yes, you can ask me a question." The snake's grin gets <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">wider. "Second, the poison is in you. It changed you. You now no longer need <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to drink. That's what you asked for. Or, well, technically, you asked to not <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">be thirsty any more - but 'any more' is such a vague term. I decided to make <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it permanent - now, as long as you live, you shouldn't need to drink much at <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">all. Your body will conserve water very efficiently. You should be able to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">get enough just from the food you eat - much like a creature of the desert. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">You've been changed.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"For the third question," Nate continues, "you are still dying. Besides the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">effects of that methanol in your system, you're a man - and men are mortal. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">In your current state, I give you no more than about another 50 years. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Assuming you get out of this desert, alive, that is." Nate seemed vastly <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">amused at his own humor, and continued his wide grin.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"As for the fourth question," Nate said, looking more serious as far as Jack <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">could tell, as Jack was just now working on his ability to read <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">talking-snake emotions from snake facial features, "first you have to agree <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to make a second request and become bound by the secrecy, or I can't tell <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">you."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Wait," joked Jack, "isn't this where you say you could tell me, but you'd <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have to kill me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I thought that was implied." Nate continued to look serious.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ummm...yeah." Jack leaned back a little as he remembered again that he was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">talking to a fifteen foot poisonous reptile with a reputation for having a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">nasty temper. "So, what is this 'Bound by Secrecy' stuff, and can you really <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stop the effects of the methanol?" Jack thought for a second. "And, what do <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">you mean methanol, anyway? I thought these days they use ethanol in wiper <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">fluid, and just denature it?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"They may, I don't really know," said Nate. "I haven't gotten out in a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">while. Maybe they do. All I know is that I smell methanol on your breath and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">on that bottle in your pocket. And the blue color of the liquid when you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">pulled it out to drink some let me guess that it was wiper fluid. I assume <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that they still color wiper fluid blue?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, they do," said Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I figured," replied Nate. "As for being bound by secrecy - with the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">fulfillment of your next request, you will be bound to say nothing about me, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">this place, or any of the information I will tell you after that, when you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">decide to go back out to your kind. You won't be allowed to talk about me, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">write about me, use sign language, charades, or even act in a way that will <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">lead someone to guess correctly about me. You'll be bound to secrecy. Of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">course, I'll also ask you to promise not to give me away, and as I'm <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">guessing that you're a man of your word, you'll never test the binding <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">anyway, so you won't notice." Nate said the last part with utter confidence.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack, who had always prided himself on being a man of his word, felt a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">little nervous at this. "Ummm, hey, Nate, who are you? How did you know <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that? Are you, umm, omniscient, or something?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Well, Jack," said Nate sadly, "I can't tell you that, unless you make the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">second request." Nate looked away for a minute, then looked back.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Umm, well, ok," said Jack, "what is this about a second request? What can I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">ask for? Are you allowed to tell me that?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Sure!" said Nate, brightening. "You're allowed to ask for changes. Changes <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to yourself. They're like wishes, but they can only affect you. Oh, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">before you ask, I can't give you immortality. Or omniscience. Or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">omnipresence, for that matter. Though I might be able to make you gaseous <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and yet remain alive, and then you could spread through the atmosphere and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sort of be omnipresent. But what good would that be - you still wouldn't be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">omniscient and thus still could only focus on one thing at a time. Not very <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">useful, at least in my opinion." Nate stopped when he realized that Jack was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">staring at him.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, anyway," continued Nate, "I'd probably suggest giving you permanent <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">good health. It would negate the methanol now in your system, you'd be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">immune to most poisons and diseases, and you'd tend to live a very long <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">time, barring accident, of course. And you'll even have a tendency to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">recover from accidents well. It always seemed like a good choice for a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">request to me."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Cure the methanol poisoning, huh?" said Jack. "And keep me healthy for a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">long time? Hmmm. It doesn't sound bad at that. And it has to be a request <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">about a change to me? I can't ask to be rich, right? Because that's not <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">really a change to me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Right," nodded Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Could I ask to be a genius and permanently healthy?" Jack asked, hopefully.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"That takes two requests, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, I figured so," said Jack. "But I could ask to be a genius? I could <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">become the smartest scientist in the world? Or the best athlete?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, I could make you very smart," admitted Nate, "but that wouldn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">necessarily make you the best scientist in the world. Or, I could make you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">very athletic, but it wouldn't necessarily make you the best athlete either. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">You've heard the saying that 99% of genius is hard work? Well, there's some <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">truth to that. I can give you the talent, but I can't make you work hard. It <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">all depends on what you decide to do with it."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Hmmm," said Jack. "Ok, I think I understand. And I get a third request, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">after this one?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Maybe," said Nate, "it depends on what you decide then. There are more <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">rules for the third request that I can only tell you about after the second <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">request. You know how it goes." Nate looked like he'd shrug, if he had <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">shoulders.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ok, well, since I'd rather not be blind in a day or two, and permanent <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">health doesn't sound bad, then consider that my second request. Officially. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Do I need to sign in blood or something?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"No," said Nate. "Just hold out your hand. Or heel." Nate grinned. "Or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">whatever part you want me to bite. I have to bite you again. Like I said, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that's how it works - the poison, you know," Nate said apologetically.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack winced a little and felt his shoulder, where the last bite was. Hey, it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">didn't hurt any more. Just like Nate had said. That made Jack feel better <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">about the biting business. But still, standing still while a fifteen foot <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">snake sunk it's fangs into you. Jack stood up. Ignoring how good it felt to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">be able to stand again, and the hunger starting to gnaw at his stomach, Jack <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">tried to decide where he wanted to get bitten. Despite knowing that it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">wouldn't hurt for long, Jack knew that this wasn't going to be easy.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Hey, Jack," Nate suddenly said, looking past Jack towards the dunes behind <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">him, "is that someone else coming up over there?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack spun around and looked. Who else could be out here in the middle of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">nowhere? And did they bring food?

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Wait a minute, there was nobody over there. What was Nate...

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack let out a bellow as he felt two fangs sink into his rear end, through <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his jeans...

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack sat down carefully, favoring his more tender buttock. "I would have <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">decided, eventually, Nate. I was just thinking about it. You didn't have to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">hoodwink me like that."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I've been doing this a long time, Jack," said Nate, confidently. "You <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">humans have a hard time sitting still and letting a snake bite you - <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">especially one my size. And besides, admit it - it's only been a couple of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">minutes and it already doesn't hurt any more, does it? That's because of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">health benefit with this one. I told you that you'd heal quickly now."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, well, still," said Jack, "it's the principle of the thing. And nobody <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">likes being bitten in the butt! Couldn't you have gotten my calf or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">something instead?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"More meat in the typical human butt," replied Nate. "And less chance you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">accidentally kick me or move at the last second."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, right. So, tell me all of these wonderful secrets that I now qualify <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to hear," answered Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ok," said Nate. "Do you want to ask questions first, or do you want me to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">just start talking?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Just talk," said Jack. "I'll sit here and try to not think about food."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"We could go try to rustle up some food for you first, if you like," <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">answered Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Hey! You didn't tell me you had food around here, Nate!" Jack jumped up. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"What do we have? Am I in walking distance to town? Or can you magically <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">whip up food along with your other powers?" Jack was almost shouting with <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">excitement. His stomach had been growling for hours.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I was thinking more like I could flush something out of its hole and bite <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it for you, and you could skin it and eat it. Assuming you have a knife, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that is," replied Nate, with the grin that Jack was starting to get used to.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ugh," said Jack, sitting back down. "I think I'll pass. I can last a little <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">longer before I get desperate enough to eat desert rat, or whatever else it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">is you find out here. And there's nothing to burn - I'd have to eat it raw. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">No thanks. Just talk."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ok," replied Nate, still grinning. "But I'd better hurry, before you start <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">looking at me as food.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate reared back a little, looked around for a second, and then continued. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"You, Jack, are sitting in the middle of the Garden of Eden."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked around at the sand and dunes and then looked back at Nate <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sceptically.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, that's the best I can figure it, anyway, Jack," said Nate. "Stand up <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and look at the symbol on the rock here." Nate gestured around the dark <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stone they were both sitting on with his nose.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack stood up and looked. Carved into the stone in a bas-relief was a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">representation of a large tree. The angled-pole that Nate was wrapped around <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">was coming out of the trunk of the tree, right below where the main branches <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">left the truck to reach out across the stone. It was very well done - it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">looked more like a tree had been reduced to almost two dimensions and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">embedded in the stone than it did like a carving.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack walked around and looked at the details in the fading light of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">setting sun. He wished he'd looked at it while the sun was higher in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sky.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Wait! The sun was setting! That meant he was going to have to spend another <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">night out here! Arrrgh!

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked out across the desert for a little bit, and then came back and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stood next to Nate. "In all the excitement, I almost forgot, Nate," said <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack. "Which way is it back to town? And how far? I'm eventually going to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have to head back - I'm not sure I'll be able to survive by eating raw <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">desert critters for long. And even if I can, I'm not sure I'll want to."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"It's about 30 miles that way." Nate pointed, with the rattle on his tail <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">this time. As far as Jack could tell, it was a direction at right angles to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the way he'd been going when he was crawling here. "But that's 30 miles by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the way the crow flies. It's about 40 by the way a man walks. You should be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">able to do it in about half a day with your improved endurance, if you head <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">out early tomorrow, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked out the way the snake had pointed for a few seconds more, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">then sat back down. It was getting dark. Not much he could do about heading <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">out right now. And besides, Nate was just about to get to the interesting <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stuff. "Garden of Eden? As best as you can figure it?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, yeah, as best as I and Samuel could figure it anyway," said Nate. "He <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">figured that the story just got a little mixed up. You know, snake, in a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">'tree', offering 'temptations', making bargains. That kind stuff. But he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">could never quite figure out how the Hebrews found out about this spot from <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">across the ocean. He worried about that for a while."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Garden of Eden, hunh?" said Jack. "How long have you been here, Nate?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"No idea, really," replied Nate. "A long time. It never occurred to me to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">count years, until recently, and by then, of course, it was too late. But I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">do remember when this whole place was green, so I figure it's been thousands <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">of years, at least."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"So, are you the snake that tempted Eve?" said Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Beats me," said Nate. "Maybe. I can't remember if the first one of your <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">kind that I talked to was female or not, and I never got a name, but it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">could have been. And I suppose she could have considered my offer to grant <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">requests a 'temptation', though I've rarely had refusals."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, umm, how did you get here then? And why is that white pole stuck out <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">of the stone there?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Dad left me here. Or, I assume it was my dad. It was another snake - much <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bigger than I was back then. I remember talking to him, but I don't remember <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">if it was in a language, or just kind of understanding what he wanted. But <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">one day, he brought me to this stone, told me about it, and asked me to do <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">something for him. I talked it over with him for a while, then agreed. I've <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">been here ever since.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"What is this place?" said Jack. "And what did he ask you to do?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, you see this pole here, sticking out of the stone?" Nate loosened his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">coils around the tilted white pole and showed Jack where it descended into <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the stone. The pole was tilted at about a 45 degree angle and seemed to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">enter the stone in an eighteen inch slot cut into the stone. Jack leaned <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">over and looked. The slot was dark and the pole went down into it as far as <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack could see in the dim light. Jack reached out to touch the pole, but <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate was suddenly there in the way.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"You can't touch that yet, Jack," said Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Why not?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I haven't explained it to you yet," replied Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, it kinda looks like a lever or something," said Jack. "You'd push it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that way, and it would move in the slot."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yep, that's what it is," replied Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"What does it do?" asked Jack. "End the world?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Oh, no," said Nate. "Nothing that drastic. It just ends humanity. I call it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">'The Lever of Doom'." For the last few words Nate had used a deeper, ringing <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">voice. He tried to look serious for a few seconds, and then gave up and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">grinned.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack was initially startled by Nate's pronouncement, but when Nate grinned <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack laughed. "Ha! You almost had me fooled for a second there. What does it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">really do?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Oh, it really ends humanity, like I said," smirked Nate. "I just thought <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the voice I used was funny, didn't you?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate continued to grin.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"A lever to end humanity?" asked Jack. "What in the world is that for? Why <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">would anyone need to end humanity?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well," replied Nate, "I get the idea that maybe humanity was an experiment. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Or maybe the Big Guy just thought, that if humanity started going really <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bad, there should be a way to end it. I'm not really sure. All I know are <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the rules, and the guesses that Samuel and I had about why it's here. I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">didn't think to ask back when I started here."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Rules? What rules?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"The rules are that I can't tell anybody about it or let them touch it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">unless they agree to be bound to secrecy by a bite. And that only one human <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">can be bound in that way at a time. That's it." explained Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked somewhat shocked. "You mean that I could pull the lever now? <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">You'd let me end humanity?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yep," replied Nate, "if you want to." Nate looked at Jack carefully. "Do <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">you want to, Jack?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Umm, no." said Jack, stepping a little further back from the lever. "Why in <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the world would anyone want to end humanity? It'd take a psychotic to want <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that! Or worse, a suicidal psychotic, because it would kill him too, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">wouldn't it?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yep," replied Nate, "being as he'd be human too."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Has anyone ever seriously considered it?" asked Nate. "Any of those bound <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to secrecy, that is?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, of course, I think they've all seriously considered it at one time or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">another. Being given that kind of responsibility makes you sit down and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">think, or so I'm told. Samuel considered it several times. He'd often get <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">disgusted with humanity, come out here, and just hold the lever for a while. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">But he never pulled it. Or you wouldn't be here." Nate grinned some more.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack sat down, well back from the lever. He looked thoughtful and puzzled at <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the same time. After a bit, he said, "So this makes me the Judge of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">humanity? I get to decide whether they keep going or just end? Me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"That seems to be it," agreed Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"What kind of criteria do I use to decide?" said Jack. "How do I make this <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">decision? Am I supposed to decide if they're good? Or too many of them are <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bad? Or that they're going the wrong way? Is there a set of rules for that?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Nope," replied Nate. "You pretty much just have to decide on your own. It's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">up to you, however you want to decide it. I guess that you're just supposed <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to know."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"But what if I get mad at someone? Or some girl dumps me and I feel <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">horrible? Couldn't I make a mistake? How do I know that I won't screw up?" <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">protested Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate gave his kind of snake-like shrug again. "You don't. You just have to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">try your best, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack sat there for a while, staring off into the desert that was rapidly <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">getting dark, chewing on a fingernail.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Suddenly, Jack turned around and looked at the snake. "Nate, was Samuel the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">one bound to this before me?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yep," replied Nate. "He was a good guy. Talked to me a lot. Taught me to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">read and brought me books. I think I still have a good pile of them buried <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the sand around here somewhere. I still miss him. He died a few months <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">ago."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Sounds like a good guy," agreed Jack. "How did he handle this, when you <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">first told him. What did he do?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well," said Nate, "he sat down for a while, thought about it for a bit, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">then asked me some questions, much like you're doing."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"What did he ask you, if you're allowed to tell me?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"He asked me about the third request," replied Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Aha!" It was Jack's turn to grin. "And what did you tell him?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I told him the rules for the third request. That to get the third request <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">you have to agree to this whole thing. That if it ever comes to the point <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that you really think that humanity should be ended, that you'll come here <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and end it. You won't avoid it, and you won't wimp out." Nate looked serious <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">again. "And you'll be bound to do it too, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Hmmm." Jack looked back out into the darkness for a while.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate watched him, waiting.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Nate," continued Jack, quietly, eventually. "What did Samuel ask for with <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his third request?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate sounded like he was grinning again as he replied, also quietly, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Wisdom, Jack. He asked for wisdom. As much as I could give him."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Ok," said Jack, suddenly, standing up and facing away from Nate, "give it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">to me.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate looked at Jack's backside. "Give you what, Jack?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Give me that wisdom. The same stuff that Samuel asked for. If it helped <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">him, maybe it'll help me too." Jack turned his head to look back over his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">shoulder at Nate. "It did help him, right?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"He said it did," replied Nate. "But he seemed a little quieter afterward. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Like he had a lot to think about."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Well, yeah, I can see that," said Jack. "So, give it to me." Jack turned to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">face away from Nate again, bent over slightly and tensed up.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate watched Jack tense up with a little exasperation. If he bit Jack now, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack would likely jump out of his skin and maybe hurt them both.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"You remember that you'll be bound to destroy humanity if it ever looks like <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it needs it, right Jack?" asked Nate, shifting position.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, yeah, I got that," replied Jack, eyes squeezed tightly shut and body <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">tense, not noticing the change in direction of Nate's voice.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"And," continued Nate, from his new position, "do you remember that you'll <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">turn bright purple, and grow big horns and extra eyes?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, yeah...Hey, wait a minute!" said Jack, opening his eyes, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">straightening up and turning around. "Purple?!" He didn't see Nate there. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">With the moonlight Jack could see that the lever extended up from its slot <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the rock without the snake wrapped around it.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack heard, from behind him, Nate's "Just Kidding!" right before he felt the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">now familiar piercing pain, this time in the other buttock.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack sat on the edge of the dark stone in the rapidly cooling air, his feet <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">extending out into the sand. He stared out into the darkness, listening to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the wind stir the sand, occasionally rubbing his butt where he'd been <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">recently bitten.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate had left for a little while, had come back with a desert-rodent-shaped <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">bulge somewhere in his middle, and was now wrapped back around the lever, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his tongue flicking out into the desert night's air the only sign that he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">was still awake.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Occasionally Jack, with his toes absentmindedly digging in the sand while he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">thought, would ask Nate a question without turning around.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Nate, do accidents count?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate lifted his head a little bit. "What do you mean, Jack?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack tilted his head back like he was looking at the stars. "You know, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">accidents. If I accidentally fall on the lever, without meaning to, does <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that still wipe out humanity?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it does, Jack. I'd suggest you be careful about that <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">if you start feeling wobbly," said Nate with some amusement.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">A little later - "Does it have to be me that pulls the lever?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"That's the rule, Jack. Nobody else can pull it," answered Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"No," Jack shook his head, "I meant does it have to be my hand? Could I pull <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the lever with a rope tied around it? Or push it with a stick? Or throw a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">rock?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yes, those should work," replied Nate. "Though I'm not sure how complicated <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">you could get. Samuel thought about trying to build some kind of remote <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">control for it once, but gave it up. Everything he'd build would be gone by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the next sunrise, if it was touching the stone, or over it. I told him that <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">in the past others that had been bound had tried to bury the lever so they <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">wouldn't be tempted to pull it, but every time the stones or sand or <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">whatever had disappeared."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Wow," said Jack, "Cool." Jack leaned back until only his elbows kept him <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">off of the stone and looked up into the sky.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Nate, how long did Samuel live? One of his wishes was for health too, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">right?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yes," replied Nate, "it was. He lived 167 years, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Wow, 167 years. That's almost 140 more years I'll live if I live as long. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Do you know what he died of, Nate?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"He died of getting tired of living, Jack," Nate said, sounding somewhat <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sad.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack turned his head to look at Nate in the starlight.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate looked back. "Samuel knew he wasn't going to be able to stay in <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">society. He figured that they'd eventually see him still alive and start <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">questioning it, so he decided that he'd have to disappear after a while. He <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">faked his death once, but changed his mind - he decided it was too early and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">he could stay for a little longer. He wasn't very fond of mankind, but he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">liked the attention. Most of the time, anyway.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"His daughter and then his wife dying almost did him in though. He didn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stay in society much longer after that. He eventually came out here to spend <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">time talking to me and thinking about pulling the lever. A few months ago he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">told me he'd had enough. It was his time."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"And then he just died?" asked Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate shook his head a little. "He made his forth request, Jack. There's only <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">one thing you can ask for the fourth request. The last bite.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After a bit Nate continued, "He told me that he was tired, that it was his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">time. He reassured me that someone new would show up soon, like they always <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">had.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After another pause, Nate finished, "Samuel's body disappeared off the stone <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">with the sunrise."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack lay back down and looked at the sky, leaving Nate alone with his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">memories. It was a long time until Jack's breathing evened out into sleep.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack woke with the sunrise the next morning. He was a little chilled with <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the morning desert air, but overall was feeling pretty good. Well, except <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that his stomach was grumbling and he wasn't willing to eat raw desert rat.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">So, after getting directions to town from Nate, making sure he knew how to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">get back, and reassuring Nate that he'd be back soon, Jack started the long <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">walk back to town. With his new health and Nate's good directions, he made <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it back easily.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack caught a bus back to the city, and showed up for work the next day, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">little worse for the wear and with a story about getting lost in the desert <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and walking back out. Within a couple of days Jack had talked a friend with <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">a tow truck into going back out into the desert with him to fetch the SUV. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">They found it after a couple of hours of searching and towed it back without <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">incident. Jack was careful not to even look in the direction of Nate's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">lever, though their path back didn't come within sight of it.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Before the next weekend, Jack had gone to a couple of stores, including a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">book store, and had gotten his SUV back from the mechanic, with a warning to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">avoid any more joyriding in the desert. On Saturday, Jack headed back to see <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack parked a little way out of the small town near Nate, loaded up his new <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">backpack with camping gear and the things he was bringing for Nate, and then <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">started walking. He figured that walking would leave the least trail, and he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">knew that while not many people camped in the desert, it wasn't unheard of, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and shouldn't really raise suspicions.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack had brought more books for Nate - recent books, magazines, newspapers. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Some things that would catch Nate up with what was happening in the world, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">others that were just good books to read. He spent the weekend with Nate, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and then headed out again, telling Nate that he'd be back again soon, but <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that he had things to do first.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Over four months later Jack was back to see Nate again. This time he brought <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">a laptop with him - a specially modified laptop. It had a solar recharger, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">special filters and seals to keep out the sand, a satellite link-up, and a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">special keyboard and joystick that Jack hoped that a fifteen-foot <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">rattlesnake would be able to use. And, it had been hacked to not give out <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">its location to the satellite.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After that Jack could e-mail Nate to keep in touch, but still visited him <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">fairly regularly - at least once or twice a year.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After the first year, Jack quit his job. For some reason, with the wisdom he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">'d been given, and the knowledge that he could live for over 150 years, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">working in a nine to five job for someone else didn't seem that worthwhile <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">any more. Jack went back to school.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Eventually, Jack started writing. Perhaps because of the wisdom, or perhaps <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">because of his new perspective, he wrote well. People liked what he wrote, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and he became well known for it. After a time, Jack bought an RV and started <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">traveling around the country for book signings and readings.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">But, he still remembered to drop by and visit Nate occasionally.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">On one of the visits Nate seemed quieter than usual. Not that Nate had been <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">a fountain of joy lately. Jack's best guess was that Nate was still missing <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Samuel, and though Jack had tried, he still hadn't been able to replace <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Samuel in Nate's eyes. Nate had been getting quieter each visit. But on this <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">visit Nate didn't even speak when Jack walked up to the lever. He nodded at <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack, and then went back to staring into the desert. Jack, respecting Nate's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">silence, sat down and waited.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">After a few minutes, Nate spoke. "Jack, I have someone to introduce you to."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked surprised. "Someone to introduce me to?" Jack looked around, and then looked carefully back at Nate. "This something to do with the Big Guy?

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"No, no," replied Nate. "This is more personal. I want you to meet my son." <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate looked over at the nearest sand dune. "Sammy!"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack watched as a four foot long desert rattlesnake crawled from behind the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">dune and up to the stone base of the lever.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yo, Jack," said the new, much smaller snake.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yo, Sammy" replied Jack. Jack looked at Nate. "Named after Samuel, I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">assume?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate nodded. "Jack, I've got a favor to ask you. Could you show Sammy around <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">for me?" Nate unwrapped himself from the lever and slithered over to the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">edge of the stone and looked across the sands. "When Samuel first told me <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">about the world, and brought me books and pictures, I wished that I could go see it. I wanted to see the great forests, the canyons, the cities, even the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">other deserts, to see if they felt and smelled the same. I want my son to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have that chance - to see the world. Before he becomes bound here like I have been.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"He's seen it in pictures, over the computer that you brought me. But I hear that it's not the same. That being there is different. I want him to have <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that. Think you can do that for me, Jack?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack nodded. This was obviously very important to Nate, so Jack didn't even <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">joke about taking a talking rattlesnake out to see the world. "Yeah, I can <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">do that for you, Nate. Is that all you need?" Jack could sense that was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">something more.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate looked at Sammy. Sammy looked back at Nate for a second and then said, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Oh, yeah. Ummm, I've gotta go pack. Back in a little bit Jack. Nice to meet <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">ya!" Sammy slithered back over the dune and out of sight.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate watched Sammy disappear and then looked back at Jack. "Jack, this is my <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">first son. My first offspring through all the years. You don't even want to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">know what it took for me to find a mate." Nate grinned to himself. "But <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">anyway, I had a son for a reason. I'm tired. I'm ready for it to be over. I <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">needed a replacement."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack considered this for a minute. "So, you're ready to come see the world, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and you wanted him to watch the lever while you were gone?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate shook his head. "No, Jack - you're a better guesser than that. You've <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">already figured out - I'm bound here - there's only one way for me to leave <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">here. And I'm ready. It's my time to die."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack looked more closely at Nate. He could tell Nate had thought about <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">this - probably for quite a while. Jack had trouble imagining what it would <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">be like to be as old as Nate, but Jack could already tell that in another <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">hundred or two hundred years, he might be getting tired of life himself. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack could understand Samuel's decision, and now Nate's. So, all Jack said <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">was, "What do you want me to do?"

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate nodded. "Thanks, Jack. I only want two things. One - show Sammy around <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the world - let him get his fill of it, until he's ready to come back here <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and take over. Two - give me the fourth request.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I can't just decide to die, not any more than you can. I won't even die of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">old age like you eventually will, even though it'll be a long time from now. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">I need to be killed. Once Sammy is back here, ready to take over, I'll be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">able to die. And I need you to kill me.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"I've even thought about how. Poisons and other drugs won't work on me. And <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">I've seen pictures of snakes that were shot - some of them live for days, so <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that's out too. So, I want you to bring back a sword.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate turned away to look back to the dune that Sammy had gone behind. "I'd <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">say an axe, but that's somewhat undignified - putting my head on the ground <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">or a chopping block like that. No, I like a sword. A time-honored way of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">going out. A dignified way to die. And, most importantly, it should work, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">even on me.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"You willing to do that for me, Jack?" Nate turned back to look at Jack.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">"Yeah, Nate," replied Jack solemnly, "I think I can handle that."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Nate nodded. "Good!" He turned back toward the dune and shouted, "Sammy! <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack's about ready to leave!" Then quietly, "Thanks, Jack."

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack didn't have anything to say to that, so he waited for Sammy to make it <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">back to the lever, nodded to him, nodded a final time to Nate, and then <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">headed into the desert with Sammy following. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Over the next several years Sammy and Jack kept in touch with Nate through <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">e-mail as they went about their adventures. They made a goal of visiting <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">every country in the world, and did a respectable job of it. Sammy had a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">natural gift for languages, as Jack expected he would, and even ended up <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">acting as a translator for Jack in a few of the countries. Jack managed to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">keep the talking rattlesnake hidden, even so, and by the time they were <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">nearing the end of their tour of countries, Sammy had only been spotted a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">few times. While there were several people that had seen enough to startle <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">them greatly, nobody had enough evidence to prove anything, and while a few <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">wild rumors and storied followed Jack and Sammy around, nothing ever hit the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">newspapers or the public in general.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">When they finished the tour of countries, Jack suggested that they try some <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">undersea diving. They did. And spelunking. They did that too. Sammy finally <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">drew the line at visiting Antarctica. He'd come to realize that Jack was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stalling. After talking to his Dad about it over e-mail, he figured out that <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack probably didn't want to have to kill Nate. Nate told Sammy that humans <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">could be squeamish about killing friends and acquaintances.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">So, Sammy eventually put his tail down (as he didn't have a foot) and told <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack that it was time - he was ready to go back and take up his duties from <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">his dad. Jack, delayed it a little more by insisting that they go back to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Japan and buy an appropriate sword. He even stretched it a little more by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">getting lessons in how to use the sword. But, eventually, he'd learned as <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">much as he was likely to without dedicating his life to it, and was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">definitely competent enough to take the head off of a snake. It was time to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">head back and see Nate.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">When they got back to the US, Jack got the old RV out of storage where he <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">and Sammy had left it after their tour of the fifty states, he loaded up <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Sammy and the sword, and they headed for the desert.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">When they got to the small town that Jack had been trying to find those <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">years ago when he'd met Nate, Jack was in a funk. He didn't really feel like <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">walking all of the way out there. Not only that, but he'd forgotten to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">figure the travel time correctly, and it was late afternoon. They'd either <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">have to spend the night in town and walk out tomorrow, or walk in the dark.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">As Jack was afraid that if he waited one more night he might lose his <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">resolve, he decided that he'd go ahead and drive the RV out there. It was <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">only going to be this once, and Jack would go back and cover the tracks <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">afterward. They ought to be able to make it out there by nightfall if they <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">drove, and then they could get it over tonight.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack told Sammy to e-mail Nate that they were coming as he drove out of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sight of the town on the road. They then pulled off the road and headed out <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">into the desert.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Everything went well, until they got to the sand dunes. Jack had been <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">nursing the RV along the whole time, over the rocks, through the creek beds, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">revving the engine the few times they almost got stuck. When they came to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the dunes, Jack didn't really think about it, he just downshifted and headed <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">up the first one. By the third dune, Jack started to regret that he'd <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">decided to try driving on the sand. The RV was fishtailling and losing <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">traction. Jack was having to work it up each dune slowly and was trying to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">keep from losing control each time they came over the top and slid down the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">other side. Sammy had come up to sit in the passenger seat, coiled up and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">laughing at Jack's driving.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">As they came over the top of the fourth dune, the biggest one yet, Jack saw <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">that this was the final dune - the stone, the lever, and somewhere Nate, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">waited below. Jack put on the brakes, but he'd gone a little too far. The RV <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">started slipping down the other side.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack tried turning the wheel, but he didn't have enough traction. He pumped <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the brakes - no response. They started sliding down the hill, faster and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">faster.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack felt a shock go through him as he suddenly realized that they were <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">heading for the lever. He looked down - the RV was directly on course for <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">it. If Jack didn't do something, the RV would hit it. He was about to end <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">humanity.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack steered more frantically, trying to get traction. It still wasn't <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">working. The dune was too steep, and the sand too loose. In a split second, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack realized that his only chance would be once he hit the stone around the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">lever - he should have traction on the stone for just a second before he hit <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the lever - he wouldn't have time to stop, but he should be able to steer <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">away.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack took a better grip on the steering wheel and tried to turn the RV a <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">little bit - every little bit would help. He'd have to time his turn just <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">right.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">The RV got to the bottom of the dune, sliding at an amazing speed in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sand. Just before they reached the stone Jack looked across it to check that <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">they were still heading for the lever. They were. But Jack noticed something <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">else that he hadn't seen from the top of the dune. Nate wasn't wrapped <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">around the lever. He was off to the side of the lever, but still on the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">stone, waiting for them. The problem was, he was waiting on the same side of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">the lever that Jack had picked to steer towards to avoid the lever. The RV <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">was already starting to drift that way a little in its mad rush across the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">sand and there was no way that Jack was going to be able to go around the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">lever to the other side.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack had an instant of realization. He was either going to have to hit the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">lever, or run over Nate. He glanced over at Sammy and saw that Sammy <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">realized the same thing.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Jack took a firmer grip on the steering wheel as the RV ran up on the stone. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,102);font-family:Tahoma;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;line-height:normal;">Shouting to Sammy as he pulled the steering wheel, "BETTER NATE THAN LEVER," he ran over the snake.