© Maynard Chen, All rights reserved 2009.
A sharing by Maynard Chen
February 4th 2003, On the road to Laramie, Wyoming
The next morning I passed by Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. One really gets a sense of the size of the North American continent as the flat landscape affords a view that stretches from horizon to horizon.
Soon I crossed another state line. While driving through the bright snowy fields of Wyoming, I started to listen to “Interview with a Vampire”. There could not have been a more striking contrast between the sunny and open cowboy countryside I was passing through and the dark dank claustrophobic atmosphere of New Orleans as described in this novel. Lestat who was an immortal vampire was lonely, so he turned Louis into a vampire for companionship. Louis was a reluctant vampire who found it morally repulsive to kill humans for their blood, so he had to feed on the blood of animals in order to survive. Lestat however had no qualms about feeding upon the slaves in Louis’s plantation in Louisiana. Gradually Louis was persuaded by Lestat to feed on human blood.
I was very glad to pass the time with this tale of moral angst amongst vampires because otherwise the trip would have been numbingly boring. A three thousand mile journey is little more than endless cycles of the buildup and alleviation of biological and mechanical needs:
Begin Loop
If hungry, thirsty or in need of a toilet, then look for a rest stop
If the gas indicator is down to two thirds empty, then scan signs for cheap gas and fill up
Return to the beginning of this loop and repeat infinitely
Lestat fearing that Louis might leave him, turns a young girl into a vampire so as to give Louis a daughter – someone to care for. This leads to treachery as the vampire girl plots with Louis to murder Lestat and then flee to Europe. The novel was diverting without being the least bit scary and it made the day pass quickly. However as evening approached and the bright sunny landscape darkened into twilight, I found that the dark story became more powerful and affecting. At the same time, the gas tank was getting low and soon I would have to find the next Motel 6. As I was scanning for cheap gas, it gradually dawned upon me that gasoline to me was like blood to Louis. I could now understand at a visceral level the rising lust that vampires feel when the strength they derive from fresh blood is slowly drained and a parching thirst for fresh blood develops. To complete the metaphor, I suppose my spending the night in Motel 6 was the equivalent of resting in a coffin during the day for vampires. I laughed aloud at discovering this inadvertent metaphor, because fortunately, I did not have to kill people to fill my tank.
Driving alone day after day with no human interaction except at the most superficial level, is I suppose a form of sensory deprivation, and it is known that extended deprivation can lead to bizarre thoughts, even hallucinations.
Between Rock Springs and Rawlins, I passed over the Continental Divide of the Americas. I stopped to take a photograph of the sign that marked the line. Behind me the rivers drained into the Pacific and before me the rivers flowed into the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
Finally I arrived in Laramie where I would spend the night in Motel 6 again. I used to watch a TV series called Laramie when I was in primary school. Never would I have dreamt then that decades later I would spend a night in this town.
(To be continued)
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About the Writer
Maynard Chen was a software consultant working in Silicon Valley from 1997 to 2003. He has now relocated to Singapore.
