[ CW ] Short film set in a desert

-112 
 ( Part 1 of 4 ) 
 
 `` I told you. We went into the desert to take photos of the wildlife and fauna.'' Jack told the detective. The light was bright and in his eyes. He could n't actually see the man, just the light. 
 
 Jack tried to force his eyes to see past the mini-sun the man was directing his way, but it was useless. The man would n't even talk. Jack sat there in silence for a long time, refusing to talk. Other than a creaking chair, the other man said nothing. It went almost an hour in this fashion before Jack felt the urge to tell the story again. 
 
 `` From the top, dammit!'' Jack barked. `` Here it is. Jenny is an amateur photographer. She was n't very happy with her last spread. She kept going on and on about the boring subject matter. She was tired of taking pictures of spider webs beaded with dew and shit like that. I had spent the first half of my life living in a trailer house in Arizona. I asked her if she had ever been out to the desert. She said she did n't want to photograph sand. I told her about the fact that the term desert is often misconstrued.'' Jack paused and looked toward where the detective sat. 
 
 `` Have you ever been in the desert?'' Jack asked. A pencil was being tapped on the desk in measured beats. `` It's fucking beautiful.'' Jack tol the man. `` It's absolutely beautiful. I knew this. I knew she did n't. I had a plan.'' Jack pulled an empty ring box out of his pocket. `` I was going to propose to her. I had the ring. I had champagne. I rented one of those chillers for it and brought my camping generator with us. I wanted her to spend twenty-four hours out in the desert with me. I brought tents. I brought water. I brought fruit and wine. I brought everything I thought we would need. I brought everything we needed, but I did n't bring a gun. I do n't even own one.'' 
 
 The chair squealed as it was slid back. The detective reached up and turned the knob on the airconditioner in the window. It gave a series of clicks, jumped a little in the window, then started to pump cooler air into the room. The chair squealed as it was slid back and then the pencil resumed its tap, tap, tap on the table. 
 
 `` Like I said, from the beginning.'' 
 
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 Jenny leaned over and slid her hand up Jack's thigh. He laughed and leaned his leg out a little further. She slid her hand up further an further and he leaned his leg over more and more in anticipation. Her fingers neared his groin then stopped. She bit her lip then pulled her hand away. 
 
 `` Tease!'' Jack cried comically. Jenny giggled meanly. 
 
 `` Maybe in the desert... if you're lucky.'' She said, pointedly turning away to survey the barren wasteland about them. The sides of the road and the surrounding areas were carved up with deep gullys and tufts of tough yellow grass. Bushes with small oval red leaves stained the area crimson. The few rises of rocks they saw were alternating striations of brown, yellow, and red mineral deposits. They had n't seen another car in over an hour. They had n't seen civilization in over two. 
 
 `` What happens if we get in trouble out here?'' She asked, glancing back the way they had come. She wiped sweat from her brow. Even though the air conditioner was going full blast in the car, it only managed to make the car reasonably comfortable. Truth was, it was fighting a losing battle with the sun beating down on them. `` How much further?'' She asked. 
 
 Jack ignored her first question. She'd asked that question a lot. To her second question, he slowed and pulled off onto an old dirt road leading out past the rocks into the desert beyond. 
 
 `` Jack, baby? Are you sure about this?'' She asked, touching the window in her door by accident with her bare arm. She hissed in pain. The thing felt like it was being heated with a torch. 
 
 `` You okay?'' He asked. She nodded and tried to blow on the the burned area, but just couldnt' reach it. Jack fished her camera from the open bag between them and snapped a quick picture of her all twisted up trying to reach her burn. 
 
 `` Yeah. I'm fine.'' She noticed the clicking and turned to see what he was doing. `` Do n't do that. Do n't touch the camera.'' 
 
 `` Chill.'' He said. `` I'm just joking around. He took another picture. 
 
 `` I'm not fucking around. You can screw me. I'll blow you. You can call me a bitch a tramp and a slut. I might let you spit in my face and on your birthday, I met let you stick it in my ass, but do n't ever touch my god damned camera.'' She screamed. `` I'm fucking serious.'' She snatched the camera away him and cleaned the lens, wiped some lint from face and closed the shutter. Then with the same care a miner in the 1800s would have used when handling dynamite, she carefully slid the camera back in its bag. 
 
 The drove along in silence for several awkward moments. 
 
 `` Baby?'' He called quietly, nervously, pensively. 
 
 `` Yeah.'' She replied, refusing to look at him. 
 
 `` I think today's my birthday.'' He deadpanned. The sat there listening to the clunks and squeaks of the car for a moment later before she started to laugh. 
 
 `` Fuck you.'' She told him, trying hard not to laugh at his joke. 
 
 `` That's what I'm trying to make happen.'' He quipped. She surrendered and slapped him playfully, laughing all the while. He laughed too. 
 
 `` Just do n't mess with the camera.'' She told him. `` Or, I cut off your dick and feed it to a coyote.'' That laughter was still had by all, but for Jack it was a little more strained than for her. 
 
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 The tapping pencil stopped. The man behind the light slid a photo across the table. It was a picture of the back of his car sticking out of a ravine. 
 
 `` I'm getting to that.'' Jack said. He took a sip of water from the bottle he'd been nursing through the interview. `` Anyway, she was n't kidding about her camera. She was balls-to-wall crazy about her camera. She might have been an amateur photographer and supermodels across the world should pray to their anorexic gods for that fact. There would n't be a supermodel left on the planet otherwise.'' He looked at the photograph again. `` Did you ever find the park ranger?'' He asked. 
 
 ( Continued )
