Cut!

My cousin Ad was mad. I had made him sit on the dune with me while I pretended to meditate. I can be infinitely patient when working on annoying my cousin.

After a while I relented and he alternately waded and bounded across the dunes back to our rented Grand Am. He was polishing off a beer when I got there.

I grabbed a beer and jumped in the passengers seat. Ad, intent on winning our endless dominance game, got in the car and floored it and we tooled off through the sand, Ad looking for every opportunity to scare me with high speed traversals of the lower slopes of the dunes.

I don't scare easily when I'm hammered, and I was enjoying the wind and scenery and the ear shattering music we were playing.

Off in the distance Ad spotted the top of a palm tree. His scream of 'oasis!' merged with my screamed 'mirage!' and he jerked the wheel for a closer look.

The oasis came clearer as we rapidly approached. Palm tops. Four palms. A little pond. Green grass. Three curvy women in bikinis.

Ad rammed on the brakes and we stared as we slid to a stop. The roostertails of dust that had been trailing us washed over the scene and we heard someone yelling. Angrily yelling. Ad turned off the car and we both looked left.

A person was threading his way through a couple of huge cameras. He looked seriously pissed. I nervously slugged my beer as the man yelled some more.

He broke into a run and my cousin, galvanized into action, fumbled with the keys as I screamed "drive!". The engine caught and Ad floored it in reverse, did a perfect rockford, and flinging dust everywhere we roared off into the dunes. Looking out the back window I noticed the 7-Up backdrops around the set and finally got what it was we had interrupted.

I snagged a couple more beers, cranked the tunes, and settled in, waiting for our next moment of enlightenment in the desert.