Free An Evening at Joe's by Dennis Berry Peter Wingfield F. Braun McAsh Valentine Pelka Ken Gord Stan Kirsch Don Anderson Roger Bellon Anthony De Longis Donna Lettow Peter Hudson Laura Brennan Jim Byrnes Bill Panzer Gillian Horvath, Darla Kershner

the ferocity of the sun overhead, or the amount of water necessary to complete the journey between the sanctuaries of population. Nothing and no one lived for long outside the boundaries of the settlements that grew around those sources of liquid. Water is the most important substance in that land, the currency of life itself.
    It so happened that when I reached my 28th birthday, our home was visited by a terrible calamity. My father was made aware that the well from which we drew our sustenance had dropped in level more than ever before. It had been low in the past, as the underground streams that fed it ebbed and flowed, but never had it sunk to such a desperate mark before. There was an assembly of all the people in our settlement, so that we could decide upon a course of action that would permit us to continue living without it.
    We had to move from there, and soon, but where could we go? None of my family had known any other place except this one, only a few of our people had ventured beyond our immediate borders for long. We recounted the tales of other oases that we had heard from the traders who had rested here, and tried to decide which ones might be close enough for us to travel to. We also had to consider whether any of those potential destinations might be occupied by a clan that would be hostile to our arrival. That turned out to be the least of our immediate concerns.
    II
     
     
    When the Bedouin scouting party found me, I was certain that I had died, but they revived me with water from their gourds and carried me back to their camp. I was so disoriented that at first I could not understand what they were saying, but I gradually awakened and explained to them what had happened. As the caravan from our village followed the bearings to our new home that my father was taking from the sun, we saw a sandstorm forming in the distance. We became completely disoriented and lost track of each other when the maelstrom hit; the sky became darker than night as we were engulfed by the swirling sand. I crouched on the ground and huddled into a ball, protected by the cape that I wrapped around myself to shut out the insane sounds of the turbulence. It seemed to go on forever, because day was indistinguishable from night until it finally stopped and I emerged from my cover to find that I was alone. I struggled to find some trace of my family, but the landscape was completely different, having been dramatically reformed by the storm. It took two days before I came upon the realisation that I should continue following my father's directions to the oasis and hope that the others had done the same. With only a small amount of water left in my container, I knew that I had to begin moving again or I would perish in that unforgiving terrain.
    I grew weaker and weaker, it was apparent that I wouldn't make it much further; I was seriously disoriented from my lack of food and water. The last thing I remember was thinking that if I could just take one more step, I would make it to safety....
    III
     
     
    These Bedouins were masters of riding camels across the parched land and I begged them to go out and look for my family, taking them some supplies and providing guidance back to this oasis. Four days later the riders returned to confirm my dreaded fears that none of my family had survived. While I sat there in shock, the Bedouin elders went away and discussed among themselves what they were to do, returning to offer me the safety of their camp. They taught me thgir ways of the desert, how to find water and food, and eventually they learned to accept me into their flock. We lived together for many years, until it became obvious that I was not growing older, The elders had me brought to their meeting tent, where one of the men from the original party who had found me was growing noticeably older. They passed their talking stick around and they debated what I could be, this man who didn't change appearance with the passage of time. They