This is my prayer in the desert,
And all that's within me feels dry.
This is my prayer in my hunger and need,
My God is the God who provides.

~ Hillsong, "The Desert Song"

Chapter 20

My Prayer in the Desert

It was dark when Araceli ventured out of the rickety house and saw a silhouette sitting on the porch swing. Sam had wrapped a blanket ( Read more... )

"The desert has its holiness of silence..." - Walter Elliot

Chapter 19

Medicine Man

"Tío! Tío, he's awake."

"Get Doctor Sanchez."

"Sanchez, the gringo, he's awake."

"Don't call him that, mijoSam heard these voices around him as consciousness wavered and struggled to climb through the fogginess of his mind. He felt hands on him and ( Read more... )

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

Chapter 18

The Bullet That Traveled Across Two States

It was an hour riding through the desert from Alamogordo to the Texas border, most of it surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range with ( Read more... )

This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough. - Mary Austin

Chapter 17

Alamogordo

Together, Sam and Araceli rode south until they reached the city of Alamogordo. It was larger than any of the towns Sam had driven through so far, and everywhere it showed signs of expansion. It was the gateway city into ( Read more... )

In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

- America, "Horse With No Name"

Chapter 16

Desert Life Flashing By

The desert-a patch of earth torrefied by the sun, then beaten and molded to keep sustaining life where logic dictates that none should exist.

We were now in the Tularosa Basin, the ( Read more... )

This entry can also be read on FanFiction.net

Warning: Rated M for explicit material.

Mermage-a-trois

a One Piece fanfic

by Rhov

Zoro roamed aimlessly around the streets of Coral Hill on Fishman Island. The port town was bustling, people of all walks of life coming and going, Humans mixed with Merfolk and Fishmen. The chronically lost swordsman had to ( Read more... )

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. - Maya Angelou

Chapter 15

Walk the Girl Home

Sam woke up to the whiff of air-conditioned coolness, potent antiseptics, and a sweetly floral perfume that reminded him of fields of sunflowers back home.

"Don't move," came a gentle voice. Those sunflowers ( Read more... )

To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star.
- Don Quixote, "Man of La Mancha"

Chapter 14

Don Quixote, Dulcinea, and Sancho

When Sam woke up, he was laying on his stomach, his face turned to the side, on the cold metal operating table. His arms were stretched out ( Read more... )

If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. - Edgar Watson Howe

Chapter 13

Sacrifice for a Friend

Sam had blissfully passed out again, but not after a sizable chunk of muscle was removed from his arm... without anesthesia.

All Al could be thankful for was that Tony the ( Read more... )

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Chapter 12

Come Around

Sam's sense of irony kicked in when he woke up to someone playing Green Day on a boom box. Hearing the crackling static of a bad FM reception playing When I Come Around just as ( Read more... )