Delamar Powerline Road
Delamar Powerline Road looked promising so he followed it into the Delamar Mountains Wilderness. He hoped to find a good spot to spend the night. If it was an especially good spot, he would stay longer. The trick was to pick someplace that wasn’t so attractive...
Folsom, California
Folsom, California struck her as a strange place for an outlet mall. But there it was, the Folsom Premium Outlets, where she found black jeans and tall black boots to go with her green velvet jacket. She would wear these to the funeral. She had briefly considered a...
The Delamar Mountains Wilderness
The Delamar Mountains Wilderness reminded him of his uncle in Spokane. He figured his uncle would have felt at home in these mountains. Just off Kane Springs Road, he pulled over and got out of the truck. He unfolded his faded red beach chair and pulled a bottle of...
Caliente, Nevada
Caliente, Nevada couldn’t help itself. The town never stopped shining, never retreated from the nameless forces that made it glisten. Light glimmered like the silvery tint of brass on an old trombone. Late one afternoon, when the town flickered in the day’s final...
Toppin Creek
Toppin Creek ripples like a nightgown through Malheur County in southeast Oregon. He still hadn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. When his friends back in Twin Falls asked him why he went to work as a lobbyist, he could never strike the tone of levity he was...
Williams, Arizona
Williams, Arizona turned out to be a good town for what could have been a bad accident. They were all nice to him, sympathetic and helpful. Right away they got him a tow truck. He remembered when he’d first started driving, some of the other drivers had warned him...
Clark County, Nevada
Clark County, Nevada never slept much and lately, neither did she. She was just outside Vegas, at a table by the dusty front window at the Love’s Truck Stop. Outside, warm wind rustled the fluorescent darkness. Inside, the big room rattled with brittle noise. She...
Peach Springs, Arizona
Peach Springs, Arizona dried up and roasted down to dust in the endless sun. That’s what happened when they opened Interstate 40 and bypassed the town. Veins collapsed along Route 66. America’s mother road was silenced. The Orlando Motel, the Cavern Inn and the...
Waitsburg, Washington
Waitsburg, Washington had no reason to feel crestfallen. It wasn’t as if the parade wouldn’t return. The Eagle Scouts up on the float would be back next year. At the head of the parade, America’s oldest pickup truck trembled along, an International Harvester model...
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel was sold out so she drove to the Hotel Bel-Air. It was time to splurge, at least for a few days. An officious desk clerk incapable of making eye contact gave her a hard time about an early check-in. Too exhausted to press her case, still...
Huevos Rancheros
Huevos Rancheros made for a fine breakfast out on the patio at the Hotel Bel-Air. They brought Reserve, New Mexico to mind. She would get back there after a few days. She was not prepared to feel like a fugitive. Although the clarities of good and evil had blurred,...
Connell, Washington
Connell, Washington clattered and clanked like a supermarket shopping cart with a broken front wheel. She drove straight through. Myths were on her mind. Myths struck her as easier to find here in the west than back east. She thought about what he’d said. How every...
Anton, Colorado
Anton, Colorado was where she finally found gas. Inside the Anton Co-op, she paid with cash. The credit card processor was still down. The clerk said it was her first day back from a week’s vacation. She’d been in Reno playing bingo with her mom. Somebody had left a...
Tarzana, California
Tarzana, California slept in and so did she, coddled in a crimson motel room. Dreams rattled through crevices wedged between myths and memories. The cast was familiar, her cautious but accomplished attorney in Houston, then her old boss, who was the very portrait of...
Mosca, Colorado
Mosca, Colorado gave her everything she could have hoped for after such a fall. Like a hoofer in a blurry chorus line, once accomplished and admired, she faded fast and fell hard. Down she went, cast aside. She turned a dangerous shade of gold on her plunge onto the...
Tepesquet Road
Tepesquet Road quietly slipped south off California State Route 166. The narrow road caught the radiance of the coastal range as it curled up into the Santa Lucia Mountains in gentle swerves. He drove too quickly. If he slowed down to question why he came here to...
Battle Mountain, Nevada
Battle Mountain, Nevada got her thinking. She wore a sweater of unknown odors from the past, woven in a gentle blur. They reminded her of days when she felt she was accomplishing something. But reminiscences only aggravated her. Memories of more productive times did...
Hollywood, California
Hollywood, California was once again home. A century gives a neighborhood enough time for history to pile up to into a marinade of gilded myths. That’s how it felt. It was good to be back tending bar. And it had been good working maintenance at the motel in Laguna...
