vision of the afterlife Ellen and John sit in a car together, driving through the desert. The car is a lurid-colored convertible, the color of a refrigerator door. This is my vision of the Afterlife. Ellen is driving with her hair pulled back in a headband tied behind her ears, and John is wedged into the far corner where the seat meets the door panel, his feet up on the dashboard, smoking. Ellen is staring intently at the road, and seems to be actually trying to stand up in her seat so she can lean over the windshield and watch the road more closely. This is making John nervous and Ellen realizes this, so with a dull plop she returns to a relaxed position. Languidly her hand reaches toward the chrome dial of the radio. "I'll put some music on," she tells John. "Do you like Merle Haggard?" John shrugs and nods petulantly. He takes a final drag on his cigarette and tosses it out the window. "Where are we going?" he asks her. "Have you figured out where we are?" The sound of Merle Haggard swells up from the desert floor and shimmers in the air. The entire scene vibrates with it. Ellen moves her foot from the accelerator to the brake and pulls the car over to a stop. "Look, John, I didn't know you before this whole episode began. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not ever going to see you again as soon as this episode is over. So anything I do for you in between is purely fictional." This cracks John up for some reason. "Ellen, you break my heart," he tells her, meanwhile Merle Haggard still booming and rumbling. "Why, if you stranded me in this desert right here and now, I could survive on my magic powers alone, but you can't drive from here to Flagstaff without my help."
	location: New York City date: 1991 average rating: [not rated] your rating (0-10):