planes and helicopters poured red dust as though it had no end . what was i to make of her strange words ? `` stay on this side , and that makes it a win . he laughed as he lifted up one hand to play with a stray black curl of her hair . the minutes seemed to crawl by , and when there were just three to go , my cell phone went bing . she stopped short at the sight of his silhouette , lit briefly by the lights of a passing car . 