Oilman #2
Oilman #2 weighed his career options with considerable care and decided to follow the call to become a man of the cloth. The transition felt natural. After more than one investor presentation, he had been complemented on his persuasive skills. Why not establish a...
Oilman #1
Oilman #1 lost all his money paying lawyers. Then he took a job selling Cadillacs, quickly decided he knew more about the car business than the men he worked for and quit. He put together a line of white label skin moisturizing products and put them up on Amazon,...
Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano covered a lot of ground. Banker, lawyer, congressman from Ohio, his ancestors came over on the Mayflower. After the Civil War, Manifest Destiny still roaring after thirty years, he was appointed Secretary of the Interior. In 1871, when the federal...
The Crack In The Sky
The crack in the sky was ragged on top, smooth on the bottom, and full of the same kind of bronze you could see in Golden Yarrow. She knew it wouldn’t last long and as the sun rose up into the clouds the crack would fade into the same gray that filled the rest of the...
Fishtail, Montana
Fishtail, Montana had a knack for tackling thorny issues. This could have drawn global admiration had anyone bothered to pay attention. The problem plaguing Caroline and her cohorts was the fate of the five oilmen. Number six, he was off the board now, hauled away by...
Encampment, Wyoming
Encampment, Wyoming wondered how myths of the American West held up so well when everything else seemed to keep breaking down. So much held sacred for so long, a bunch torn to shreds, tossed into the wind by careless people. Just because a story was a myth didn’t...
Custer County, Montana
Custer County, Montana once again balanced its budget and retired a few shadowy municipal bonds. Gloomy auditors were sent packing, morbid men with shoes always in need of a proper shine. Nobody in the county saw the spectacle down south. Nobody heard the crash of...
Queets, Washington
Queets, Washington couldn’t remember if she had a vaguely Nordic look with a pronounced sneer or a pronounced Nordic look with a vague sneer. The young men lounging in the warmth of the convenience store had never seen anyone like her. Maybe down in Hollywood but not...
Rosette, Utah
Rosette, Utah settled for a tie. They all blamed a savage hailstorm conjured by the furies and shoved into town by colliding forces out over the Pacific. They agreed things would turn out different next time. All they needed was an opportunity. In Grossmont...
Bitter Creek, Wyoming
Bitter Creek, Wyoming had been stuck on the sidelines for more than fifty years, cruelly refused admittance to the only ceremony that mattered. Down in Mexico, the five oilmen held captive by the cartel were told that in a few days, they would be reunited with their...
Hayden, Colorado
Hayden, Colorado grasped at a vague sense of privilege, a regal birthright passed down from pious pioneers. On the outskirts of Los Angeles, in a suddenly festive house in the Santa Monica Mountains, five fugitives watched a live stream of five men sitting at a dining...
Delhi, Colorado
Delhi, Colorado was where the slow stream used to run so hard in late spring all the gold along its banks was swept downstream. It wound up in the commune where the more spiritual showgirls from Reno retired. When the showgirls hiked down to the stream to pan for...
Thatcher, Colorado
Thatcher, Colorado was no longer guided by the sensibility of the seasons and finally fell apart after an optimistic century of overgrazing. A thousand miles away, the mescaline infused oilman sat at a picnic table in a park in Grossmont, California. He was...
San Simon, Arizona
San Simon, Arizona never bothered to sweep away the dust. On the town’s windowsills a century’s worth had piled up, caked on the brittle wood, dust from the days of the Teapot Dome Scandal. “It’s too late for the frackers to atone,” said Caroline. They were all in...
Grossmont, California
Grossmont, California ignored the wistful man pacing back and forth in front of the discount furniture store that morning, his head thrown back like he’d been pulled from a car wreck. He was attempting to sing a Bob Dylan song. It was a nonchalant attempt buried in...
Avila Beach, California
Avila Beach, California grilled up another omelet stuffed with linguica, chorizo and green chili. In the morning when the sun was still low, glass faces of the big waves shimmered and their foam crests sparkled. There was always that last push up to the sky before...
Floyd, New Mexico
Floyd, New Mexico never met a rabble rouser it didn’t like. Demagogues, they were a different story, especially the ones who promised to bring back the old days. These sodden wretches spewed the bitter belief that a return to the old ways would solve every imaginable...
Overgaard, Arizona
Overgaard, Arizona lined up the empty beer kegs along the side of the road just to see how far they would stretch. One of the men in the saloon was convinced they would eventually reach all the way to Las Vegas. The rancher at the end of the bar had broken every one...
