When the hamburgers all disappeared, along with the buns I was warming, I thought I was seeing things.
But when my spatula went through the cast-iron grill top - I had to let it go out of reflex. No way was I going after it. I'd been burned too many times.
It wasn't like I had a choice after that. Because the grill itself dropped out through the bottom of the rolling coach we were cooking out of that summer.
I looked up at Hami, my order-taker, partner, and lover - only to see her fall through the floor as well. A look of shock and trying to say something, but frozen in time.
Then the coach disappeared, and I fell with it - but only as far as the pavement it used to be parked on. I could see the asphalt beneath my feet at least.
Until it turned to some sort of foamy waves lapping on a beach I'd never seen before. Green hard-packed sand. Green water. And a long white line that went down this beach like it was some sort of dual-lane highway.
In the distance, this shimmery circle thing. Down that "highway".
Oh, what the hell. Nothing else out here but sand and water. Might as well check it out...
