Once there were four college students who had just graduated from university, they had been together for the last three years, and the two couples had decided to have a double wedding, in the beautiful little desert town Villa Myan which happened to be Ruban Estavons home town.

There was one problem. Three of them had to work until Friday, and Ruban had some business to take care of Friday at the university to finish his contract. Only Max was free Wednesday, and he was thinking of driving up early.

Max and Diane had been a couple slightly longer then Ruben and Ana. Diane knew she loved Max, but Max was not so sure he loved Diane enough to get married to her and spend the rest of his life with someone with a poodle who painted her nails and tonails to match her dog.

There were a lot of little things about Diane that drove Max nuts, like her always talking like she was a little girl unless they were in the company of other adults.

The way she treated Baby her poodle like she was a child. Max liked dogs, but dogs more like Ruben's Thor, now that was a real dog.

Ana and Ruben were so in love that nothing the other could do would be anything but indearing.

Ana was a free thinking love child who sometimes wished it was the sixties not the seventies, she was very smart, and also had a lot of gypsy blood and had strong feelings and dreams about things.

Ruben was Apache and Hispanic and he had been raised by a superstitious Mexican grandmother so he did not think Ana was eccentric at all. Max and he had been friends since their Freshmen year. Max thought Ana was very eccentric maybe a bit nuts. Max figured that maybe Ruben found ordinary girls boring after all the girls they had dated in their Freshmen year. Besides Ana was pretty and exotic and she was not bossy like Diane could be.

Diane sat in Max's '56 Chevy he had inherited from his father and looked at him.

"Are you sure you want to drive across the desert alone?" She asked.

"I do, you always complain the car messes up your hair and Baby's hair, and I can't afford a new top for it right now, and I want to take my car, you can ride up with Ruben and Ana." he sighed. The real reason he wanted time to think.

"Do you love me?" she asked in that pouty little girl voice.

"Of course I do," he said, unsure if he did but knowing he would sort it out, he just needed time alone to do so. He knew he loved her in a way but was it enough to marry her?

Wendesday dawned bright and Max waved at Diane and his friends and drove off.

"Bye see you in Villa Myan," Diane called.

"Remember what I said about stopping in the desert at night," Ruben warned.

"Be careful," Ana called, thinking she had tried her best to talk Max out of leaving early, because of her dream. But Max would not listen.

After watching Max leave they went back into their little cottage had breakfast and went to their jobs.

That night after the day of work, Ana told Ruben of her dream.

"You know those little globes like the one you brought me for Christmas last year, I dreamed last night that Max was trapped in one of those." Ana said.

"Really, I worry about Max you know he takes nothing serious, I am surprised he graduated college, I think he charmed his way through," Ruben sighed, "The desert can be dangerous."

Ana nodded, and Ruben loved her, any other girl would have laughed or said something about scorpions and snakes, but she knew what he meant. That was why he loved her so.

"Poor Diane is crying herself to sleep," Ana sighed.

Ruben sighed to he liked Diane and just thought Max was all wrong for her, he couldn't believe they had been together for three years almost.

Meanwhile Max was driving through the desert he really loved his car, and how the lead sled as Ruben called it sailed down the straight desert highway.

The cool breeze in his long hair, the smells of the desert.

"See the USA in your Chevrolet!" Max sung, then laughed, surely their had to be a radio station even out here.

The Doors filled the car, "Day destroys the night, break on through to the other side . . "

The music seemed right for driving through the night, even though the Doors were through and Jim Morrison was dead, and usually Max's taste in music leaned more to disco or pop.

Ana's Dodge Super Bee was only six years old and had air and a tape deck, his had only an AM radio and a broken top, so driving through the desert despite the dangers Ruben imagined was not only sensiable but nice.

"This is the end, my beautiful friend, the end," Morrison sang.

"All right," Max said, thinking that was what four Doors song, "time for some get down music."

He changed the station, and some new music came on, this was unfamiliar. Kind of hurdy gurdy music,

"Tell me the way to the next whiskey bar" Jim Morrison sang, "Or we must die . . "

"What the hell is this all Doors all the time?" Max asked the desert night, as his Chevy hummed along.

"Me and Bobby Magee," sang Janis Joplin.

Max changed the station.

"Purple Haze is in my mind," sang Jimi Hendrix.

"It's the dead rock stars radio hour," Max laughed snapping off the radio, shivering suddenly.

"Wow," he said softly suddenly he was getting very sleepy, and wasn't that a sign up ahead.

"Tiffany's Motel Desperados 3 miles," he read.

"That sounds good, man I am so tired, Ruben was right, I should have stopped in Pueblo and took a room," Max laughed.

The motel light in the distance looked inviting. Max was used to staying up 18-24 hours at a time with no sweat he had been barely up 15 according to his watch.

He pulled off the highway onto the motel drive, there was a parking lot several other cars, a Mercedes Benz, and he hoped it was not too expensive. Max felt like he had to sleep.

At least he could get out and stretch his legs maybe buy some coffee if it was to pricey.

There she stood in the door way, somewhere a bell tolled, as he walked towards the door.

Max thought wow she is so beautiful, and those lips.

"Welcome to the Motel Desperado, I am Tiffany," she said slyly, "The night man is away from his desk, you look tired, come on in."

The place was beautiful, but as he entered the door, he felt some odd things happen, he was suddenly wide awake.

He felt drawn to her, and he knew he could not marry Diane, not when there was someone like Tiffany in the world.

"Lovely place you have here," Max stammered, "That court yard looks so nice for a motel."

She just smiled.

He caressed her, she was almost to beautiful to be real.

There were some mens pictures in the hall, and that was a little odd, maybe creepy for some reason, but Max's attention was on the lovely Tiffany and didn't give it much thought.

"Come on up to my room I have a treat or two for you," she said in a low sexy voice, that made Max's heart race.

She had champagne of course, and Max thought she was so beautiful

"Let's drink to you, and your stay here," she said.

He smiled, and said, "My pleasure."

After the desert he seemed so thirsty like the dry air had taken all his moisture.

They toasted, and the champagne made him feel really alive but giddy also.

"To you and I," Max said, thinking love was an illusion, right now this was the real thing.

They sat on her bed and talked and kissed.

"You're engaged what about her?" she asked.

"I think she is a mistake," he said and kissed her.

They made love and it was unlike any love making Max had ever done, it was like fireworks were going off in his head.

They kissed some more, and he realized he was thirsty.

She suggested he go down and see the night man.

He was reluctant to leave her even for a minute, this was so unusual. Most the time after casual sex, he couldn't wait to leave them. Diane a distant memory now it seemed, was the only one he had ever stuck with for any time.

He went down and looked around and then the night man just seemed to appear out of no where.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

Max decided to impress Tiffany, and said, "I want some Bardot 1969."

"I am sorry we don't have that I will bring champagne," he said.

Suddenly Max saw he was reflected in the mirror and the night man was not there.

The pictures on the wall seemed so real, the men looked in agony. Max started to bolt for the door.

"You can check out, but you can never leave," the man said.

"Come back up to the room Max," she called.

Max shuddered but did as she asked, he had to be dreaming this, the guy looked like a vampire.

Saturday morning, Diane, Ana, and Ruben along with their dogs were driving the desert highway when they saw Max's Chevy.

"I wonder what his car is doing there," Diane said, as Ana pulled behind it.

Max ran out to the balcony as he hear them talking

"Up here," Max called. It was strange they didn't seem to see him, maybe they were angry at him. Diane had given him the silent treatment before.

"This is really odd," Diane said

I know why would he pull off here?" Ruben asked.

"I don't like this place it has a bad vibe," Ana said shivering even though it was over 100 degrees.

"Max," Diane called.

"Maybe the Chevy broke down and he hitched a ride?" Ruben said looking around the ruins. It was a creepy place, no way would Max pull in here at night.

"I think we should go on to Villa Myan and call a tow truck to bring the Chevy in," Ana said not wanting to stay on the spot another minute.

"Why couldn't they see me?" Max asked, watching them drive away and knowing he would never see Diane or the others again.

"Because we are in another dimension, come lets have some champaigne the sun is bad for me," Tiffany said, she was tired transforming the place into the present was hard for them and her.

He thought he would jump off the balcony and kill himself but somehow he knew he couldn't end it that way. He was in some kind of Hell. Right then he would have given anything to hear Diane's baby talk.

"Oh Diane," he cried, but no tears came from his eyes.

A month later Ana and Ruben were laying in bed in their new home, enjoying married life and their new jobs as teachers on the Apache reservation. Diane had gone back to Indiana to the small farming town where she had grown up.

"I got a letter from Diane, seems she found her old boyfriend from high school Jack, and they are getting married," Ana said smiling.

"That's wonderful, I suppose that Max ran off, but it is still a mystery why he left his Chevy there, the man at the station said nothing was wrong with it but the top and the radio was busted, but I knew that." Ruben sighed.

"I know looks like he would call," Ana said, "But at least we are happy."

What Ruben didn't tell her was the note he had found in the Chevy, he knew something had happened, skinwalkers* loved the desert, and they could look like anything. A place like that old motel that had burned down killing everyone in 1969 was just the kind of place they would live in too. Ruben had warned Max but he had not listened.

The End