Juan Bautista de Anza Park
Juan Bautista de Anza Park was empty. Later on, a few families would show up for lunch and the playground would laugh. For now it was quiet. The five of them sat at a picnic table. “What would Teddy do about these frackers?” Caroline asked no one in particular. ...
John Day, Oregon
John Day, Oregon declined the invitation. It was not a town to excessively mourn. In a tight canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, the coyotes were now quiet. Cecile lost sight of the two assassins. Their track bent them away from her. She heard them scuff through...
Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari, New Mexico treasures all those blue mornings when everything glistens. And the town still sifts through a trove of fine memories, even if a few have gone blurry. The old Best Western Motel, the one they tore down back in the eighties, what a place, those...
The Desert Coyote
The Desert Coyote can be tough to distinguish from the darker skinned mountain coyote. Cecile wasn’t sure which she heard. Their sudden outburst of staccato yips slashed through the last of the evening darkness. A soft breeze fluttered. The coyotes’ quarrel in the...
On Melrose Avenue
On Melrose Avenue, east of the Hollywood Freeway, Nick pulled into a Mobil station. The silver Nissan Pathfinder he was looking for was parked by the air hose. He slid in beside it and got out of his car. The man in the Pathfinder joined him and they walked across...
Clives Corners, New Mexico
Clives Corners, New Mexico shook off a century of ingrained resentments. Dorothy decided to step into a life, at least for a while, where precision didn’t matter. She wanted her usual attention to detail deliberately displaced. This focus was so extreme she was able...
Progresso, New Mexico
Progresso, New Mexico shuddered. Cecile imagined the path their conversation would follow when she called Miguel Gutierrez on a phone only a handful of people could reach. Their conversation would drip the false notes of excessive cordiality only criminals can...
Ruby, Washington
Ruby, Washington kept waiting for a rainbow. Cecile kept herself focused on how Miguel Gutierrez figured out she had raided the cartel’s bank accounts. Something stopped him from taking her bait. He should have concluded his brother Balbino had stolen from him, at...
Metaline Falls, Washington
Metaline Falls, Washington sank deeper into the folds of the Colville National Forest. When they woke up the morning after their neighbor’s birthday party, Cecile was gone. She was always first to get coffee going. That was what set the gentle rhythm in the darkness...
Platora, Nevada
Platora, Nevada waved goodbye like a maiden aunt draped in faded calico. Caroline went into the kitchen to pour another cup of coffee and lit the last of her Marlboros. Dorothy chimed in. “These are clearly injustices. If these injustices ever make their way to...
Trout Fishing On The Pit River
Trout fishing on the Pit River might come back someday. The guide didn’t sound hopeful when he told her this. Conviction seemed drained from his voice. He told her the water was changing and not just because it was clogged with sediment. Every aspect of the river...
Nara Visa, New Mexico
Nara Visa, New Mexico seethed, as did Caroline. “So we leave the oilfields crippled. They’re splintered, all smashed up. The pipes are twisted and torn. Pumps are shot through. The blades in their impellers are bent and their motors are fried. “And we’re hundreds...
When Teddy Roosevelt Went Camping In Yosemite
When Teddy Roosevelt went camping in Yosemite, back in 1903, the President took no chances on getting cold. It was the middle of May. The first night in Mariposa Grove he bedded down with just shy of forty woolen blankets. The second night, those blankets paid off...
Angel Fire, New Mexico
Angel Fire, New Mexico is rarely visited by angels anymore. Caroline points to the framed picture of Teddy Roosevelt in the dining room of the little house in the Santa Monica Mountains. “Here’s what he said. He was in Memphis to give a speech. I think it was 1907. ...
Golden Yarrow
Golden Yarrow didn’t usually make it much past the Fourth of July. Her neighbor on Kanan Dume Road explained its first spurt of growth. The plant would sprout delicate white threads which cloaked all the little leaves. Then, after the June Gloom, the flowers would...
Riddle, Idaho
Riddle, Idaho remembers what it was like to call somebody up and get an answer. Somewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains, Caroline curls along Mulholland. She catalogs a life of close calls. All but one make her smile. Coming up on a curve, she bends into it like a...
Her Neighbor On Kanan Dume Road
Her neighbor on Kanan Dume Road ambled over one morning and invited them to his birthday party. He was about to turn seventy-seven. He liked Caroline. She reminded him of his granddaughter, although when he considered the reasons why, nothing came to mind. He...
Quinn River Crossing, Nevada
Quinn River Crossing, Nevada shook off the slights. Rather than listen to the wind and the thrash of boughs, the thin rustle of leaves and punches landed by gusts, an unknown woman listened to the sky itself. What she heard were echoes. She fancied they were answers...
