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outcropping of rock painted with religious sentiments. G OD IS LOVE and REPENT loomed large. Whatever was written under it, I couldn’t read. Probably a Bible quote. There was a dilapidated truck parked nearby with a wooden house built on the back, also painted with exhortations of some fundamentalist sort.
    I passed what must have served as a guard post when the original military base was still functioning. All that remained was a three-by-three-foot concrete shell, only slightly bigger than a telephone booth. I drove onto the old base. A few hundred yards down the road, a second guardhouse had been painted sky blue. Evergreens were outlined on the face of it, with WELCOME TO painted in black letters on the roof line and SLAB CITY in an arch of black letters on white, with white doves flying in all directions. G OD IS LOVE was lettered in two places, the paint job apparently left over from the sixties when the hippies came through. Nothing in the desert perishes—except the wildlife, of course. The air is so dry that nothing seems to rot, and the heat, while intense through much of the year, preserves more than it destroys. I’d passed abandoned wood cabins that had probably been sitting empty for sixty years.
    Here, in the endless stretch of gravel and dirt, I could see numerous vans, a few automobiles, many with doors hanging open to dispel the heat. Trailers, RVs, tents, and pickup trucks with camper shells were set up in makeshift neighborhoods. The wide avenues were defined by clumps of creosote and mesquite. Only one roadway was marked and the sign, propped up against a stone, read 18 TH ST .
    Along the main road, one of the world’s longest flea markets had been laid out. The tables were covered with odds and ends of glass, used clothing, old tires, used car seats, defunct television sets, which were being sold “cheep.” A hand-lettered sign announced HOLES DUG & ODD JOBS . There was not a buyer in sight. I didn’t even catch sight of any residents. A United States flag flew from a hand-rigged pole and I could see state flags as well, all snapping in a hot wind that whipped up the dust. Here, there were no TV antennas, no fences, no telephone poles, no power lines, no permanent structures of any kind. The whole place had a gypsy air, varicolored awnings offering protection from the midday sun. The silence was broken by an occasional barking dog.
    I pulled over to the side of the road and parked my car, getting out. I shaded my eyes and scanned the area. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the harsh light, I could see that there were actually people in view: a couple sitting in the open doorway of their mobile home, a lone man passing from one aisle of vehicles to the next. No one seemed to pay any attention to me. The arrival and departure of strangers was apparently so commonplace that my presence elicited no interest whatever.
    About fifty yards away, I spotted a woman sitting in arectangle of shade formed by a bright red and orange parachute that had been strung up between two campers. She was nursing a baby, her face bent to the sight of the infant. I approached, stopping about fifteen feet away. I wasn’t sure what constituted personal turf out here and I didn’t want to trespass.
    â€œHi,” I said. “I wonder if you could give me some help.”
    She looked up at me. She might have been eighteen. Her dark hair was pulled up in a ragged knot on top of her head. She wore shorts and a cotton shirt, unbuttoned down the front. The baby worked with such vigor that I could hear the sucking noise from where I stood. “You lookin’ for Eddie?”
    I shook my head. “I’m trying to find a woman named Agnes Grey. Do you happen to know her?”
    â€œNunh-unh. Eddie might. He’s been out here a lot longer than me. Is she permanent?”
    â€œI understand she’s been out here for years.”
    â€œThen you might check at the Christian Center down