Rage
She felt the rage return when she threw her brother’s brittle ashes. There was no release, no closure, nothing that came close to making her feel better. She vaguely understood the symbolism but whatever meaning it was supposed to represent was lost on her.
Early
Early one morning they drove up to the Carrizo Plain to scatter his ashes. Her mother and father tossed clumps straight up into the blue sky. Their fury was unconcealed. Then the Santa Ana wind swept the sharp-edged ashes south like the shadows of swallows.
Clematis and Chrysanthemums
Clematis and chrysanthemums, asters and larkspur. Looking out at her mother’s garden, they drew Caroline back to when her brother was still alive. Why this happened she wasn’t sure.
The Story From Another Century
The story from another century lived on despite all odds. The people it had been passed down to, miners and loggers, wildcatters, developers and boosters, had other things to consider. Suddenly, when the tale sprouted like a long dormant seed, everyone within a...
She Drifted
She drifted through a downpour of slipshod thoughts and cauterized conversations with herself, the kind that kept her mind off the speedometer. Northbound out of Baker, she stuck to the middle lane and soared up the slope’s long straightaway like a clipper ship...
It Was All Too Clear
It was all too clear what was happening. Money for California’s highway repairs was being spent elsewhere. Nobody was fooled by signs which proclaimed their tax dollars were at work. Every rut, every crack, the absences of necessary lanes reminded them their tax...
Some Roads
Some roads were broken and patched, some parched and white from sun. Holiday ribbons of empty roads were laid out across the high desert. Most seemed long and straight enough for anyone so inclined to run horizon to horizon and squeeze all meaning out of time.
Just East Of Yermo
Just east of Yermo, where the night crew tarred up quilts of cracks on the interstate, traffic merged into a single lane. After that, the only places to pass came where a slow lane was added for trucks. That’s where the horse galloped by. Nobody else saw the white...
Now And Then
Now and then they passed a building or what passed for a building. None were close enough to the interstate to get a good look at, so she focused on the folds of the mountains and how they trapped the slanting light.
He Settled Into The Shotgun Seat
He settled into the shotgun seat, turned to the warm window and stared out into the passing scene. It unraveled with disregard to his wishes, refusing to slow down or stop to allow him to make sense of it. He hoped to pull something out of the blur, perhaps to find...
There Was No Panic
There was no panic, no pinpricks of urgency and nothing to dislodge the way they felt about heading out. Departures, once so weighted down with sadness, no longer felt dispiriting.
Then They Lit Out
Then they lit out from the place on Kanan Dume Road, winding through the gauzy canyons up to the 101. The only other vehicles out were the slow pickup trucks of early morning landscapers.
He Took Time To Notice
He took time to notice but there was nothing much to see, No place to win or lose, And no place warm to be.
Frivolity #7
After they sold motor court in Tucumcari, the couple used a small portion of the proceeds to fund a lavish honeymoon in Vegas. They were seventeen years late.
Frivolity #8
She knew all the barroom tricks. But she had never seen anything like the rancher who spread his hands palm down on the bar and made his knuckles crack without any tugging.
Frivolity #6
The little man who took the open stool next to her at the blackjack table wheezed and sputtered. The dealer scowled and dealt.
Frivolity #5
Then her confidence returned. At first, she was suspicious. After a few days trying to puncture it, she was satisfied and lit out for Las Vegas.
Frivolity #4
When he told her they would leave at the end of the end of the month, she said she would let him go alone. He couldn’t blame her and told her so.
