I was driving my rental car, a royal blue Nissan Sentra, through Texas. I was currently on Route 287, spending a week exploring the state before attending a business conference at my company’s headquarters in Dallas. I’m a financial consultant for Fidelity.

I passed one wheat field after the next. It was 7 pm and the sky was magnificent shades of orange, red, and pink. The ground was bathed in gold. I was driving to my next hotel where I hoped to have a quick bite to eat. The hotel was 20 miles away.

I was traveling for business and pleasure, thoroughly enjoying my freedom. My divorce official as of 2 months ago, I’m still heartbroken and in need of a solo restorative adventure.

The sudden appearance of a woman caught my peripheral vision and I turned my head to look. I slammed on my breaks. My car screeched to a halt. I stared at the image before my eyes. I nearly jumped out of my skin a minute later when another driver was suddenly behind me and honked wildly and rapidly in obvious anger.

“F-ck you, a-hole!” He shouted. “Crazy drunken idiot!”

Nice.

That brought me out of my initial spell and I pulled the car off the road to park on the edge of the field I was currently in front of. I got out of the car. My long legs felt so cramped and my stiff muscles thanked me for finally stretching them.

I stared at the woman. She was so beautiful, fragile, a soft creature whose image was summoned by the Gods of deceit, although I did not know that yet. She looked like an angel. Everything about her was soft. Her long tresses, her silk dress, her closed eyes with delicate eyelashes, her red lips. The woman’s hair glowed red behind her back.

Then I noticed the blackness. Her dress, the umbrella she held onto. Is she Mary Poppins? Black crows circled above her, round and round. They cawed loudly and frantically. I shivered.

Something is not right. Something is very wrong. I felt goosebumps on my arms and legs. There is evil here. I looked at the innocent wheat blowing gently in the breeze and the knowing birds flying above. I sniffed the air, catching the faint smell of burnt meat. I could almost taste the cheeseburger I was craving, but I couldn’t see anything burning anywhere.

The sky swirled oddly with white and grey clouds, and a yellow glow.

“When did that happen?” I wondered out loud.

The woman’s posture was so inviting. She was looking towards the ground, her eyes closed.

Where did she come from, I thought quietly.

I want to speak to her but she is silent. I turn around to walk back to the car, closing my eyes and shaking my head, thinking I’ve really lost it now. Then I hear a whisper.

“Come to me.”

I whipped around.

“Come to me.”

I stared, mouth open, speechless.

Silence.

I found my voice.

“What did you say?”

“Come to me,” the woman said, breathlessly.

“Who are you?” What are you, I thought silently.

She floated in the wind, eyes now wide open, shockingly blue like my car, and stared at me as I stared at her. She didn’t answer my question.

“What is your name?” I tried again.

“Come to me my sweet love,” she said, longingly and with conviction.

What?

I thought of my ex, Carol, whom I wished would ask me to come back. She left me after walking in on me in bed with her friend. I never forgave myself for giving into temptation. Ok, so her friend was a former teen model who aged very, very well. But I didn’t have to do it. No one put a gun to my head. The only gun firing was my own.

Suddenly the woman spread her arms wide as if to capture me in a giant, bear hug. She instantly emanated desire and warmth. I took a few tentative steps forward. I was magnetically drawn to her. I kept walking until I was less than a foot from where she hovered.

She looked at me, her bright blue eyes boring into mine. I felt myself slip into her very essence. I walked into her outstretched arms. I shivered, not in fear, but in delicious anticipation, my eyes closing as I leaned in for a kiss.

Her lips met mine and I melted into her softness. She tasted like honey. I felt the heat rising in both of us even though she was, what, exactly? A ghost? A hologram? A figment of my imagination due to too much time spent alone? Carol? I mentally pushed that image away.

Suddenly, the woman pushed me to the ground with such force, I literally fell on my behind, hard.

Her eyes were no longer blue but blazing red. I saw coldness and hatred in them.

“Die Alex, die!” Her voice boomed thunderously.

I didn’t move a muscle. I was paralyzed by fear.

“This is crazy,” I laugh, a little hysterically. “This can’t be real.”

Suddenly fire flies from her hands towards me and disappears abruptly. I feel the lingering, intense heat. I stop laughing. I clearly did not amuse her.

She turned around, threw fire from her hands at the birds still flying overhead, and they fell to the ground. I watched them burn alive. I stared in horror as the birds burnt to a crisp. I turned my gaze to her again, eyes wide with fear.

Before I could move, she threw another fireball directly at my chest. The heat scorched my body right before the fire inexplicably disappeared. I cried out in pain.

She started screaming. “Now you know what it feels like when your heart gets burned!!” Her screams turned into the monstrous sound from before.

I writhed on the ground in pain. “I’m sorry!”, I half yelled, half sobbed. “I love you! Only you! I made a horrible terrible mistake.” To my own shock, I started crying like a baby.

I watched her fade, come back, fade again, come back less bright, until she faded away for good. Then I faded away.

“Sir, sir, are you ok?”

I opened my eyes. The sky was dark and I saw a few stars twinkling above. I smelled the crisp night air.

“Sir, can you hear me?!”

The man leaned in closer, a concerned expression on his middle-aged face. I caught the faint aroma of aftershave.

I gave him a confused, blank stare.

“What happended?” I said, after a dazed moment.

“Sir, I saw you lying here. Are you ok? What happened to you?”

I sat up, feeling groggy but more alert. I looked at the space where the woman had been. I saw nothing but a dark field of wheat.

“I, I, um I don’t know,” I stammered.

The man let go of my shoulder. “Is that your car?” He pointed to my rental. “What happened? Did you feel sick and pull over? Are you feeling sick now?

I stood up. “I pulled over because I was tired and I needed to rest. I think I fell asleep.”

Did I?

“Why did you get out of the car?” the man said.

Good question.

“I wanted to stretch my legs and I think I fainted from fatigue and hunger.”

There, that sounded reasonable. My stomach even growled.

“Are you ok now? Can you drive?”

I nodded. “Yes, I’m ok. I can drive.”

I turned and started walking to the car. I turned around.

“Thank you,” I said to the man. “I really am ok now.”

The stranger nodded. “Okay, well, I’ll get going myself then. Are you sure you don’t need anything?”

I shook my head. “I really am fine. Thanks again.”

He nodded a second time, got into his car, and drove off.

I got into my own car, fastened my seatbelt, and started the car. I looked down and saw the key fob in the console. I never even took it out of the car.

I shook my head, still in a daze about what exactly just happened. Was I dreaming? As if in answer, I felt the intense heat flare in my chest. I slapped my hand over my heart. I will never do that to you again, Carol, I love you. I decided right then and there that when I returned home, I will fight for Carol and get her back.

I drove away.