Floating over the Rub'al-Khali desert the

Floating over the Rub'al-Khali desert the wind patterned surface cast by the eye of Ra looked like the finger print left by some enormous jinn. As the air cooled so did our balloon

, and we descended carefully, trying to avoid the sand getting into our eyes. Just as we were about to land, however, the balloon punctured, and we were without food or water.

There we were, on top of the Sphinx's head, stranded in our balloon indefinitely- & I felt so lucky. I mean, imagine if this voyage had been MY idea & not my wife's! Suddenly, we s

melled fire. The balloon was on fire and we were there on top of the Sphinx's head, hundreds of feet from the ground. I jumped out of the balloon and helped my wife over the side

nx's left paw. The custodians had already started scraping her remains from the concrete. "Egypt sure is lovely this time of year," I said. The custodians scoffed and scraped. Of

all the natural wonders of the world, she had been the most ...natural. And now her remains were being scraped into an Egyptian urn. Well, a dumpster, really. Why did I have such

poor taste in friends, anyway? Nobody's really stuck in my life with me, they've mostly just... dissolved. Like salt in water, gone to the eye but leaving a lingering taste. I need

to sail away to different lands, to explore the vast world and find some less soluble companions. A fresh wave of confidence bubbles up within me, or is that just gas?

The litter of corpses behind me confirmed the truth. It was gas. All the more reason to move on, he said to himself before stepping ashore. To this day, we still haven't found him.