Chapter 2

She had been driving that day in Rock County Nebraska on the lonely stretch of Highway 183 between Taylor and Bancroft when the Chevy pick-up ran out of gas. It was her fault. She hadn’t thought to check the gauge in Burwell after the sale where she had gone to bid on fifty scrappy little red Angus yearling heifers from a breeder in Wyoming. It was May, and the grass looked good, and they’d decided that year to run a few...

A Member of the Family

Lena Bradfield walked past her mother three times at the bus station before she recognized her. It was her hair. Dyed a jet black, it had been ratted and back combed into an elaborate bouffant.

“Ma?” Lena said when she finally recognized her. “What’d you do to your hair?” Her mother seemed bewildered by this greeting and absently patted her hair as though to remind herself what had happened. “It looks like Elizabeth Taylor’s,” she said then.

“Says who?”

“Myra, over at Geltone.”

“Don’t believe...