JUNE 2012 WULF Wulf takes the garbage out to the burn barrel behind the rider house, dumps it in. Just as he is about to light it, the...

1980 DAVID His cassette player was at full volume, first with one cassette and, when that failed to alter his mood or even divert it,...

JUNE 2012 DAVID The hay crop coming after the first mowing was once called aftermath. Though the word doesn't specifically refer to the...

1981 JUAN The pistol at Juan's temple is cold, he hears the trigger cock. Two other men hold his four girls with their hands behind...

DAVID AND KALI I was told that before the season's end I should hike to the Butte's north cone and spend the night looking over the...

MAY 2012 DENNY GROVER Kali's letters keep coming, David keeps throwing them away. He just finished shredding the latest to arrive,...

AUGUST 1980 DAVID AND KALI I imagine it was love, if indeed love is an actual thing. I'm undecided about that. Certainly the word...

MAY 2012 DAVID Oleva hands me the mail. "Pretty fragrant," she remarks, her left eye cocked with the opposite of a wink—inquiring rather...

DAVID AND KALI The buzzing of a motorcycle nears, its noisome sound rising over the wind's constant afternoon howl. I use the spotting...

EARLY JUNE 1980 GLEN AND DAVID "There's only one way to find out," Glen says drolly, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth....

1980 DAVID The authorities finally figured out, after eighty years of forewarning, that only wishful thinking is of infinite supply, so...

NOVEMBER 1979 DAVID Joe's is up for sale, Gary tells David. They stand near the tavern's steps, the early November sun out, the wind...

AUGUST 1979 DAVID It's a good thing I'm mechanically unskilled, David thinks, arriving at the end of a long string of morose thoughts,...

MAY 2012 DAVID I am becoming my father. A screw is loose. But what the hell. It's in my mind, the only way to get it out is to let it...

1978 DAVID AND GARY I'm a good listener, at least for the first six beers. After that I am all noise, converted from introvert to...

2012 DAVID There's a ledger in Henry's stash from the Pingree railroad depot, which brings back memories of Joe's. Not from Henry's...

APRIL 2012 DAVID As kids we were all magicians. So we thought. When we discovered a new trick we shared it and the resulting amazement...

APRIL 2012 WULF Back at the rider house, Wulf looks at the list David gave him. Three names, the same, different middle initials. One in...

APRIL 2012 DAVID AND WULF Yet again I can see the situation, don't want to imagine the details. Dad, provoked by Mom, put his anger on...

APRIL 2012 DAVID The museum, if you can call it that, is all but ready to go. I mounted the barbed wire collection and set up the Indian...