When we got back, I tore open the side door to the Oldsmobile and dumped the tank into the passenger seat.  Rachel left me for just a moment and rolled up all four windows of the car.  We locked ourselves in the backseat of the car and kept on laughin’.  We were in each others arms.  It was crazy.  The laughin’ was sex.  Uncontrollable, spontaneous, passionate, and it was givin’ me a real good headache.

Then, Rachel’s laughter cooled to a smile.  She looked into my eyes and started kissin’ me again.  She pushed me back against the side of the car and climbed deep into my mouth.  She was lyin’ on her belly across my lap.  Without breakin’ our kiss, she reached into the front of the car and fiddled with the tank.  I heard the tank wheeze and sputter.  It sounded like Teddy’s laugh.  I smelled a strange air fillin’ the car.  I could taste it in our kiss.  It was sweet, like the smell of balloons.

“Daniel, do you want to fuck me?”
It was from nowhere.  I didn’t feel awkward when I heard it, though.  I felt calm.
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?  Please.  For me.”
“It doesn’t seem right.”
“It’s the only thing that seems right to me.  Be a man.  For me.  Be a man.”
I couldn’t think.  The gas started drawin’ me back into my head.  The inside of the car was gettin’ big.  My fingers and toes were gettin’ numb.

“I don’t—I don’t think I can do that to you.”
“Take off your shirt,” she demanded.
I didn’t speak or comply, so she said it again.
“Take off your shirt.”
So I did.  And she took off her tube top.
“Take—,” she started out serious and stern, cracked up a bit, then composed herself again, “Take off your jeans.”

I tore at my jeans to get them off.  It was a fuckin’ puzzle.  The zipper was miles long.  I closed my eyes and fought my jeans for a few more seconds, laughin’ the whole time.  When I opened my eyes, my jeans sat at my feet.  Rachel’s shorts were there, too.

Then, somethin’ happened in my head.  Somethin’ big happened in my head.  Silver bubbles lifted in my mind.  My body got real small, real quick.  It was as fast as a roller coaster.  I had to close my eyes again, ‘cause the rush was too much.  I waited for the rush to settle.  Then, I opened my eyes.  The inside of the car was acres big.  The air was shiny and pink.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  And when she heard me laugh, Rachel started laughin’ harder.  The hissin’ of the tank was a child’s voice, singin’.

And I laughed harder.  And Rachel joined in.  Our laughin’ became a windstorm in the car.  The car became winter cold in just a few seconds.  Rachel and I had somehow become naked in the blizzard of this Oldsmobile.  The windows of the car frosted over.

We sank into the soft backseat and swam around in the back.  We crawled across each other, movin’ just ‘cause we could.  Laughin’, ‘cause we couldn’t help it.  We must’ve switched places plenty of times.  I couldn’t tell.  I was dead numb.  The car sounded like it was underwater.

“Fuck, I’m drownin’,” I cried laughin’.  I swam toward the radio, miles away, and found it somehow within my reach.  I turned it on and a liquid sound emptied into the car.  I could hear the static of the radio pouring onto the floor.  Rachel was curled in a ball, laughin’ and shoutin’, “I never wanted to fuck you, Daniel!  I wanted you to fuck me!”

Rachel laughed harder.  So did I.  It didn’t make sense.  Her voice sounded like a circus.  So I told her that her voice sounded like a circus.  And she couldn’t understand.  So we laughed harder.  And we looked at each other.  We weren’t beautiful.  We were naked.  We were ugly.  We were real ugly.  We were shiny like metal.  We were soft like pillows.  We bounced like Silly Putty.  And it was insane.  Life was insane.  The Oldsmobile was a joke.  I felt myself fadin’ away into pure laughter.  Pure happiness.
Then I heard words emerge within the music of the air, “Warden threw a party in the county jail.  Prison band was there and we began to wail...”

“Elvis?” I screamed, insanely, “Elvis!”
Elvis was in the car.  He was in the driver’s seat, grippin’ the steerin’ wheel.  He sang to us.  He sang like an angel and he glowed.  He glowed like Jesus.
“Rachel, it’s Elvis!  Can you see him?”
Rachel spoke very quickly and very softly, “I can’t see.  I can’t see.  I can’t feel.  Help.”
“Holy shit!  It’s Jesus.  And he’s Elvis!  He’s singin’!”

“I can’t hear,” Rachel whimpered—it sounded like a faint laughter, “I’m deaf.  I’m—I’m dyin’.”
Rachel kept laughin’.  Quieter, now.  Very quiet.  Her eyes were wide open.  She was facin’ the front of the car, toward Elvis.  She must’ve seen him.  Then, gently, her laughter ended.  It was like she froze in time.  Her eyes were stuck wide open.  Her body was limp and motionless.
“Wake up!” I shouted, but she was stuck like that.  I tried to move her, but she was made of ice.
Then, I heard a blast of pure sound tear through the air.  It was loud and sprayed pink into the music of the car.  It was the sound of a gunshot.  It echoed in my mind for a few seconds.  Then, I heard another sound.  It was Teddy’s voice.  It was distant.  Beyond the walls of the car.  He was screamin’.  It sounded like he was laughin’ at first, but he was screamin’.

“Leon!  Fuck!  Somebody help,” Teddy’s voice pulsed like a heavy drum beat.  When I heard him speak, I couldn’t think of nothin’ besides that joke he said in the car.  About bein’ probed and needin’ a smoke afterwards.  And that made me laugh even harder.  My laughter became blaring sirens in the ocean around me.
Then, I saw a glow from outside the car.  Blue and red smoky light poured in through the frosted front windshield, giving Elvis a whirling halo.  And I heard a voice:
“Daniel.  It is time.  Come with me.  Back into the stars.  Back into the heavens where you were born.”

I didn’t respond.  I couldn’t see anyone.  But I felt a hand grab my wrist.  It was the hand of God.  And His touch made my body numb.  I couldn’t feel anything.  I couldn’t hear any more music.  I couldn’t see nothin’ but gray light.  The world around me was invisible.  And I went up.  I went up through the roof of the car.  I went up above that tiny town of Esperanto.  I went up beyond the sands of the Midwest.  I went up through the feathery clouds.  I went up, past a jet plane, and I waved to it.  I went up into space.  I went up, past the moon and the planets, and I waved to them, too.  I went up into the stars of the heavens.  And I stopped there, in the crowd of stars.  I felt the stars around me.
That’s when I saw Rachel.  She was up there with me.  She was swimming in between the stars, lookin’ for me.

“I thought you were dead,” I called out to her, gettin’ her attention.  She didn’t say nothin’, but she smiled at me from behind a constellation.  So, I swam over to her.  I swam past the Little Dipper.  I swam through the Milky Way.  And when I got to her, I held her.  We left our bodies behind.  I held her tighter.  We left our world behind.  I held her so close, I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.  She became part of me.  And everything was perfect.  No God was around to judge us.  No pain was around to scold us.  The stars were around, to please us.  And that was that.  I was in charge.  All the stuff of the universe was just there to make me happy.