I met a beautiful woman whose interests lay in the design of destiny, miracles, and me-an average looking man whose naivete had been savaged while working for television news organizations in places like San Salvador and Beirut. Given our divergent views on the nature of our world, this meeting was a predictably bizarre exchange of explanatory experiences during which Bonnie dangled mystical intrigues from her novel-in-progress to secure my help adapting it for the screen. In addition to her clear interest in my personal exploits, her subsequent reluctance to reveal her plot made little...