Category: Fiction
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The Drive Home
The man and woman in the compact car were young, newly married, and looking forward to their first Christmas together. She had insisted that they drive to her parents’ home in Rendville, Ohio; he had to work late at the newspaper.
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The Sack Lunch
Elmer sat in a graying wood shack on a street corner looking over a small collection of evergreen trees. The trees were propped up by metal stakes driven into the hard-packed ground. He sold trees at the lot every November and December.
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The Jacktown Trail: Epilogue
Tritt and his friends helped the Shawnee band over the next few days as the dead were buried and the band made preparations for their trip west. Tritt gave them some of their supplies, and they divided up the robbers’ horses and gear.
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The Jacktown Trail – Chapter 9
“Up ahead is a settlement of Christianized Shawnees,” Black said to the others. “Proudy Bill is the son of a Shawnee chief, but he’s way past his prime now. When we go into that village, we need to show ‘em who’s in charge. If they so much as lift a finger to us, shoot to…
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The Jacktown Trail – Chapter 8
They were led into a lantern-lit cabin that smelled of woodsmoke, old leather and grease. A dark-haired woman dressed in a linsey-woolsey frock set cups of hot chicory coffee before them and served them thick cornmeal cakes fried in bacon grease, along with slabs of crisp wild boar bacon.
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The Jacktown Trail – Chapter 7
Tritt, still sitting at the table in the tavern after Mac had left on an errand, looked at Susan, now sitting across from him. “Oh, you’re wondering what I’m doing here? Well, I’ve been asking myself some questions,” she said.
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The Jacktown Trail – Chapter 6
The man rode a circuitous route back to a secluded area where four men sat around a fire. One of them stood up and pointed a pistol when the man rode up, then relaxed when he recognized him.
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The Jacktown Trail, Chapter 5
Tritt and Mac lounged outside the sheriff’s office until the appointed time. Tritt pulled out a pocket watch and stood up, opened the door and went in, with Mac following.
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The Jacktown Trail, Chapter 4
FOUR: A nasty reminder Tritt had been uncomfortable about discussing any matters of future plans in public for good reason. There were many unsavory ears about in these rough pike towns, and you didn’t know who might be passing through looking for some unwholesome opportunity. One couldn’t be too careful about who he was and…
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The Jacktown Trail, Chapter 3
Tritt went across Jacksontown’s Main Street, the National Road, to a clapboard building that resembled a large shack that might soon tumble down. The only thing that identified it as a restaurant was a hand-written sign in a dirty window that read “EAT.” He sat down at a rough-sawn table.
Dusty Tires 