Now, across the desert, a giant explosion of flame sends up a rubbery puff of soot-black smoke, and a diaphanous form slowly takes shape: A perfect smoke ring.
Last week, like most orchards in the lush, hot valley, Ramirez' trees were soot-black with the leaf-ravaging larvae of the mosca prieta (citrus black fly).
Several times Gobel got up to go out in the empty, soot-black courtyard for air.