A bracket that holds the steering wheel to the dash came loose. The convoy of military vehicles pulled over and waited for a mechanic to come and fix the problem. We were parked on the side of a freeway in Korea, just before twenty little tollbooths, alon...
The fat evangelist stuttered when he talked, but he sang when he preached-ah. He sang-ah the sin-ah out of the sinners heart-ah. He sang wallets out of purses and back pockets. He sang deep emotions out of my soul and tears out of my eyes. I loved to hear...
The first time I met her, I followed a herd of adults out into a green pasture. I ignored their dull talking. We were introduced, and her twenty-some-year-old daughter was there. Omni was pretty, even though she was old; all of her hair had turned white....
Walt was a handsome Norwegian cowboy. His wife, my Aunt Pat, was a squat Native American woman with hazel eyes.He'd cheated on her for years, and was standing before a judge asking for a divorce so he could be with Mary. When the legalities and accounts s...
I wasn't old enough to be in school yet. I worshiped my Aunt Missy, who fought forest fires in the summer. I followed her everywhere. I was given a silver hard-hat she had been issued by forestry. I wore it everywhere.I wore it as she invited me up on a h...
The snag on the corner looked like a wizard. The tree was a part of hedge of green poplars that had been planted long ago by Old Man Tolkie, a Norwegian ship-builder who had lived near here in a house with a roof that was shaped like a ship's bow. The tre...
My Grandpa was little and old. He sat all day long looking into his coffee cup and smoking. Sometimes he sat in the kitchen. One day he saw a small mouse. He got up and rummaged through the junk drawer until he found a mouse trap. He set and baited it wit...
My mare had a colt. I named him Dhatu Senu after a fifteenth century Sri Lankian king I read about in a National Geographic. Dhatu put his nose in a porcupine. Horses do that from time to time because a walking porcupine kinda sounds like someone shaking...
My Grandpa is a little Native American man. He flyfishes and has a wicker kreel and waders. He was fishing in the Jocko River. A black bear came down the trail and stopped and sniffed one of my grandfather's footprints. The bear spent a lot of time sniffi...
