The heat was unbearable at midsummer out on the mesas of north central New Mexico, and the little town of Madrid was sizzling. Simi was laying on her bed in her underwear, trying to stay cool at mid-day on a Saturday. There were many tourists in the town and Gabriella and Luis were both out working. These years they were enjoying a more comfortable life with a better income but with far less time devoted to their home. They were unable to spend much time now or even supervise their precocious daughter of fifteen. She was listening to her music blasting out from a Sony boom box Luis had bought her instead of getting her the cell phone he had promised. The music was the same playlist she had given Curtis, and she was thinking about him—wondering if he had listened to it yet. She looked forward to visiting him in the store again on Monday evening. Her drawing of him riding the dragon was almost complete and she planed on showing it to him if she finished it over that weekend.

            Suddenly, she began to have those mental images of Curtis she sometimes got which came to her as clear as if being broadcast from satellite dish right over her room. They always came when she sensed he was thinking of her. And she had gotten over the shock of seeing his teenage boy fantasies he had while in the shower and sometimes in his room. Though they were lurid and involved her doing things with him she knew she was too young to have experience of, she watched nonetheless vicariously only because he enjoyed seeing Curtis in such candid and pleasurable moments.

            On this occasion, however, he was out walking along the dry river bed with someone else. It was a blond girl wearing jeans shorts, a blue tight blouse and they were holding hands. Simi immediately knew this was not a  fantasy of his but what he was doing at that moment. She sat up in the bed, reached over and shut off the music. Winter, who had been tolerating the noise and the heat while laying at the foot of her bed, raised his head and looked at her questioningly as her body language told him there was something serious happening.

            She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears to block out all other incoming stimuli. She just focused on what she knew was happening in real time. Her mind was like a telephoto lens now, moving in closer. The girl was older than Simi, of senior high school age like Curtis. She watched them move into the shade under a stand of trees. They sat close together on a large smooth stone which, during previous  millennia, had been shaped out like a chair by a wetter time when the little river near Madrid ran all year. She watched as Curtis carefully and shyly put his arm around the girl who was staring at him now, her face close to his.

            Simi quickly took her hand away from her ears and Winter knew this was a bad sign. She outstretched her arms with her fingers open in anger and all the small items on her dresser few across the room as if shot from a cannon. The force was great enough that a small bottle of perfume broke as it hit the floor and a basket of beads she had been selecting for jewelry scattered out in the psychic blast striking the back wall of her room with the sound of a hailstorm. Winter fearfully put his head down, expecting further explosive reactions. Simi got up off the bed and began pacing the floor with her hands back on her ears, ostensibly able to tune back in to what was happening simultaneously with Curtis about a half mile away. It was at a place near the river which Simi was  familiar with.

            This time she watched as a nervous Curtis moved his face closer to the girl's and they kissed softly in a suspended moment of affection. Simi's mental lens was finely tuned enough to see the sweat on Curtis' brow and the girl's pierced earrings of little galloping horses. As his hands glided down the shapely girl's back and waist, and the girl positioned herself for a longer, deeper kiss, Simi took her hands away again from the sides of her head and swung around, causing the door to fly open violently, as if she had planned to walk through the doorway and march up to the very place the affectionate scene was happening.

            Winter was now too on his feet, resigning himself that he would be soon leaving the house accompanying his lifetime friend with what ever her sudden business had demanded. Simi quickly slipped on a pair of shorts and put on her black Nike trainers. Just as she left the house was about to break into a run, she suddenly stopped, looked up defeated into the heavens and screamed out in a rage. There was immediately a strange lull in the midmorning breeze which had barley sustained the people in the town walking between shops in the unbearable heat. She then resignedly sat down on the ground with her legs crossed, face in her hands and cried. Tempted as she was to peer back into the harsh scene which was happening only some several hundred meters away, she did not. Instead, Simi began to draw an "S" pattern in the dirt in front of her with her finger. She traced the curvilinear shape over and over, digging the pattern deeper and deeper as a snake-like scar upon the earth. 

At that very moment, Curtis was laying the girl back against the smooth boulder and was kissing her neck. Out of the corner of the girl's eye she sensed the movement of something now on the stone below them which was not there when they first occupied it. Moving slowly up across the warm rock toward the two lovers was a large rattlesnake. Its rust colored and black diamond pattern glistened in the bright light along its undulating back. Clearly identifying it as a deadly intruder were the telltale black stripes of its tail, culminating into its beaded rattles.

            The girl screamed, causing both she and Curtis to roll apart and get to their feet immediately. Curtis picked up a large stone and threw it at the large serpent which still pursued them. He missed miserably at this and the reptile simply slid off the rock and into the underbrush now unseen, giving the entire area a more dangerous and deadly ambiance. The terrifying event caused the two lovers to quickly retreat and journey back into town.

        When Simi at that moment sensed the two were walking further apart, and entering the main street, she went back into her room and turned the music up louder. She took out of her drawer the drawing of the dragon which she had been working on with Curtis commandeering it heroically. Using a pair of scissors she carefully and skillfully cut him off the back of the magical beast. She then took his image, folded it, and placed the small cutting into a ring box with a tight fitting lid. This she placed under her bed, though she did not know exactly why she did this—except for no other reason than to not have to see the drawing of him over the next days. She was still, however, scheduled to pay him another visit in the store the next day.           

                                                          *     *     * 

            On that Monday evening the little shop bells greeted Simi as she passed through the doorway of Curtis' family store again. She found him, as usual, behind the counter and standing at the cash register. And like before, Simi wore her all black clothing and favorite accoutrements. 

            "Simi! I'm glad you came by again," Curtis said as she walked up to the counter. I was thinking about you this weekend."

            "No you weren't," she said resolutely. "But that's OK. I was getting tired of those nasty things you were doing with me . . . those thoughts you have, anyway."

            Curtis was surprised. "Hey come on, Simi. You still want me to believe you can tell what I'm thinking about you?"

            "You don't have to believe it. It just happens," she said matter-of-factly, looking painfully into his eyes.

            "Hey . . . what's up? Why you so sad? Your dog get sick or something?"

            "No he's fine. I'm just not happy these days."

            "So. . . you wanna talk about it?

            "Well I might . . . but you wouldn't want to, I'm sure."

            "Hey, I was almost killed by a rattler on Saturday. I'm not kidding."

            "Really?"

            "Yeah. It was awesome. A big sucker. It even chased me!"

            "So who was she, Curtis?"

            "What? The snake?"

            "No. The girl over by the river. The blond one . . . with the big boobs and the little horse earrings?"

            "Whoa. . . How'd you know about her?"

            "Same way I know when you're in the shower . . . and pretending I'm in there with you."

            "Awe Simi . . . come on. . . where do you get this stuff?"

            "So . . . is she your girlfriend now, Curtis?"

            "No! Just a friend only. . ."

        At that moment a loud noise could be heard at the back of the store and Curtis ran back to investigate it. Simi walked back slowly following him. When she caught up with him she could see he was in a state of shock. An entire shelf of canned goods had slid off a long counter onto the floor. Cans of or corn, beans and peas were in small piles and some still rolling along the floor.

            "What the . . . What do you think caused this?" he asked of Simi standing behind him.

            "I don't know. . . a lie maybe?"

            "What? Simi . . . did you . . . did you somehow . . .?"

            "Just tell me if she's your girlfriend now . . ."

            "No Simi! . . . that girl's leaving in a few days. She's just vacationing here with her family. I just met her. We talked only, OK?"

            Back at the front of the store a similar roar of noise rose up as more merchandise fell crashing to the floor.

            "Simi!  . . .What are you. . ."

            Curtis ran to the front of the shop, again with Simi following him to the newest disaster zone. There, a whole wall of camping supplies—lanterns, sleeping bags, tents and camp chairs had inexplicably left their moorings and now cluttered the entire isle.

            Just then the familiar bells rang as the store front door opened. In walked Curtis' father. He approached them standing amid the passageway now littered with assorted camping goods.

            "What . . .What the hell is going on here, Curt!?"

            "Dad. . . It's Ok . . . Really. We were just . . . just playing around and . . . all that stuff  . . . just."

            "Young lady. . . I would appreciate it if you would not come in here anymore. You just distract my son while he works. . . and now I see you've caused this . . . trouble."

            "Dad. . . Simi's not a problem . . ."

            "I said I want her out of here , Curtis!"

            Simi stepped over a sleeping bag and started to walk out.

            "What is it with you, young lady," Curtis' father added, angrily. "Are you really trying to be just like your great grandmother? How she was in this town?"

            Simi just paused and stared back at him in silence.

            "Well if so, young lady. . . you probably know where that got her here." he said this surprisingly cruel and accusingly."

        Simi held a hand out to him strangely. She then lifted it up as if aiming a weapon. She pointed her two fingers at his throat. The man suddenly clutched his neck with both hands and appeared to have trouble breathing.

            "Dad! Dad!  . . . What's wrong?"

            "Can't breathe. . .can't br. . . ."

        At that moment Simi lowered her hand and Curtis'  father seemed immediately released from the invisible grip on his neck. His breathing resumed once more, though he was noticeably shaken by the incident and sat down slowly on one of the portable camp chairs to regain his composure.

            Simi looked over at Curtis who was standing over his father and still in shock at what had just happened.

        "Simi. . . ?"

        "I'm sorry Curtis . . . I don't understand this myself sometimes. . . but I didn't like what your father said . . .  about Theresa."

            "Who is Theresa?"

            "Your father seems to know very well who she was. Maybe you should ask him sometime."

        Simi left them both perplexed and disturbed as she walked purposely to the store entrance. And once again the bells chimed out into the street as she slammed the heavy door behind her.

                                                        *     *     *