The Rental

My mule is intelligent, and it loves me. perhaps it loves everybody, it's a rental. I need a shot of confidence. The mule rests its head on my shoulder. It's a well-travelled track but today I have met no one. I should have left camp in the early dark, for now a fiery desert sun is baking the dry earth into hot broken glass. I imagine our bones being found some years later by some kid in an off-road Lexus. The Mule snorts derisively; nudges me in the small of the back to get me going. A few miles later I'm drinking Tequila in a cantina and the mule is falling in love again with some other intrepid explorer.