30.
   I gazed up at the canyon walls stretching into an infinite blue sky above us. My God, if I was dreaming, I hope I never forget this, and if I wasn’t, God help me. And yet now, right now, why worry about it? I had just lived through a sixty-foot monkey attack, a huge pile of stones that made Groucho Marx look handsome and a brandy and coke. It seemed like only moments before I had been crest fallen that some soul sucking mall had closed its doors in my face. So maybe my life is in danger in this bizarre hallucination. I could have been shot dead in the streets in the hallucination I just left. There was no frustration now, no impotence. I wasn’t cramming my head with rants and raves about how everything had gone to hell and there was nothing I could do about it. What kind of life is that? It’s a stunted life, a foul, ingrown life. Now I was slowly drifting down a bottomless lapis lazuli river. I should enjoy this moment of peace. I began to feel as though a great weight was peeling off me. Sheer cadmium yellow cliffs towered above me. The dogs lay peacefully by my side. I smiled.

   But the feeling of relief was short lived. The water was splashing all around me. Dozens of fish were hurling themselves into the air. The water began to churn. A dark shape slid beneath us. The school of fish leapt into the air in unison.  I followed the shadow in the water as it turned and came back toward us. 
   “What the hell was that?”, I whispered to the dogs in a panic.
    “Don’t move an inch.”, Nanette hissed. 

    The black form moved under us again. It was enormous. We held our breath.