The taste of internal bleeding is that of metal, iron precisely. He feels it running down his insides, a reminder of mere flesh and blood. A crowd is gathered outside the tent to witness a miracle. Billy Halls is going to ascend to Heaven just like Jesus Christ. He’s been depressed lately and didn’t care if he died. But then again, he doesn’t assume he has to be dead to ascend to the cloud city. His plan is to call upon the miracle makers as he stands under the sun with eyes closed and arms outstretched. His brow is dappled with a pinon-scented sweat. His straight dark hair of decent length is flipping in the wind. “Come to me Lord of lords!” Billy Halls cries out. “Make me to fly all the way to your kingdom!” The wind suddenly sweeps up beneath his arms and tries to lift him. He rises slightly by the way of toe tips. The gullible people watching let out a communal gasp.

“He’s really going to do it!” someone yells. But then as suddenly as it rose, the wind loses its gusto and Billy Halls’ feet flatten against the hot dirt of a Panhandle Texas summer day. The crowd sighs in disappointment and begins to walk away, grumbling discontent.

Billy Halls stammers for a moment and slowly he opens his eyes and looks upward and studies the emptiness. The sun is harsh. He spits at the ground. “Well, fuck you too, God,” Billy Halls shamefully says, but he’s angry and he means it. He turns his head downward and kicks at the dusty dirt. “Fuck you, too,” he repeats with a murmur.

And as the others wander off, there is only one woman who is locked on him, watching him. He seems to be talking to himself, turning in less than miraculous circles, hands now driven down into his pants pockets. “Hello,” she says trying to catch his attention. “I enjoyed the revival.”

Billy Halls stops and looks at her seemingly perfect face. Their eyes meet in innocent fashion, but dangling on the precipice of love. “I’m no man of God,” he says. “I can’t even muster up a miracle.”

She extends a soft hand and he takes it. “I’m Andella Morgan.”

“I’m Billy Halls,” he says quickly, embarrassed by his social awkwardness. It seems he can talk to a crowd of people with no problem, but when it’s up close and personal with just one, he just seems to fade into a sickening nervousness, a slovenly shyness. He looks her up and down. She seems to be out of place by a million miles. “Are you from another planet?” Billy asks.

She returns a puzzled gaze. “No. Certainly not. I’m from Amarillo,” and she turns and points north. “Out there.”

He follows her finger along a path of dusty, hot emptiness and finally smiles at her. “Seems like you came a long way for a nothin’ revival.”

“On the contrary, Mr. Halls. I quite enjoyed it.”

Billy Halls snickers. “What part?”

“All of it,” she smiles as she moves closer to him.

Billy hears a noise and a scuddle. His hired men are disassembling the tent and cleaning up. He looks at Andella and something stirs in his guts. “I’m planning on being outside of Amarillo tonight… near Palo Duro Canyon.”

“I love it there,” Andella says. “Such a contrast…” She holds her hands up. “To all of this.”

“Will you be coming?”

“I would love to, but I have an appointment for a tarot reading.”

“Tarot? You’re messing with the dark arts. That’s weird stuff. Be careful.”

“And you talk to an invisible man in the sky and wish for things that never come true,” Andella replies. “Maybe you should try rubbing a magic lamp.”

“Maybe you should try shutting your face.”

“Preacher! My, my. Why don’t you just pray that I’ll shut my face?”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“Of course not.”

Billy Halls grows more frustrated with the woman and moves closer to her. He has an urge to put his hands around her neck and squeeze, but instead he kisses her.

Andella Morgan pushes him away and wipes at her mouth. “What are you doing!?”

“I was just trying to suck the evil from your soul.”

“Bullshit! You were trying to rape me.”

“Now just calm down. I wasn’t doing that. It was just a simple kiss.”

There was suddenly an invisible noise, and a white door appears in the dusty sand.

“What?”

“What?”

The sky suddenly turns sea-green and the dark-blue mountains draw closer.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Billy Hales says.

“It must be a tornado coming!” Andella cries out.

“The door! The door! We should go through the door!” Billy Hales shouts, and he grabs her hand and pulls her toward the door.

“No! No! That could be a portal to hell!” “Well, then you’ll fit right in,” Billy Hales says, and he pulls her hard one last time through the doorway and then everything is different once more.