“My plan... was to watch the Perseid meteor shower. ...before I died. But a call came in at midnight... I... started down New Mexico state road 44. The night was warm and clear, and I could hear the high desert all around me, breathing and stretching in the dark. Even as a little boy, I could see things––beyond what others saw—but now I could hear things too. ...Everything on the plateau hummed: the volcanic ridges and the red desert floor; the San Juan River and the Aztec Ruins; the spiny edges of {{w|rabbitbrush}} and piñon, moving on the breeze.”