STORIES
If our lives are a book, the cars we drive define the chapters.
These are stories featuring cars, trucks, and even RVs that played a role in the lives of the people who owned or drove them. Many are set in Fort Stockton, Texas and involve a cast of characters in and around the dusty southwest Texas town. A lot of the stories are shared around the table at The Grounds for Divorce, where the ‘regulars’ meet.
Pull up a chair and let Lucinda pour you a hot cuppa joe and enjoy.
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COMIN’ HOME, Chapter IV
This is the fourth chapter in a series of six stories that will run this week. Eddie Ray got back in the Caddy, the door groaning like it shared his disappointment. His hopes—of spending time or anything else with Lucinda—had been dashed clean. The reminder of who he’d been putting off seeing ripped the scab…
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COMIN’ HOME, Chapter III
This is the third chapter of a series of six stories that will run this week. It was time. Eddie Ray wheeled the Cadillac back toward town, taking the long way so the engine could warm up and his nerves could settle. He turned onto Main and rolled up to the Grounds for Divorce. The…
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COMIN’ HOME, Chapter II
This is the second chapter in a series of stories that will run all week. The next morning, after a lukewarm shower and a powdered doughnut from the vending machine, Eddie Ray took the Cadillac on a slow roll through town, windows down, breeze cutting through the heat like a mercy. He passed the Piggly…
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COMIN’ HOME, Chapter I
This is the first chapter of a six-chapter story that will run all week. In Fort Stockton, Texas, you can’t go ten minutes without somebody either fixin’ something that doesn’t need fixin’ or talkin’ about somebody who doesn’t want to be talked about. So when Eddie Ray Sinclair rolled through town in a black-over-red leather…
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CONTINENTAL KIT, FASTEST GUMS IN THE WEST
In Fort Stockton, the truth never stood a chance once Continental Kit rolled into the Dairy Twin. He wasn’t born with the name. No, sir. The county records still listed him as Leonard Carson, but somewhere between the Eisenhower administration and the third week of Nixon, folks quit calling him anything but Continental Kit. The…
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UNTO HIM A CHILD IS BORN, Part III – Rain Will Come
IT’S TIME TO BRING THIS ONE IN FOR A LANDING. BUCKLE UP, IT COULD BE BUMPY. Pastor Peterson had seen a lot of heartbreak in his time — pews emptied by slow attrition, marriages cracked down the middle, prayers whispered with nothing but silence on the other end. But nothing hit quite like standing in…
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UNTO HIM A CHILD IS BORN, Part II – The Dust Stirs
HERE WE ARE. THE HALFWAY POINT OF PASTOR PETERSON’S PREDICAMENT. THINGS WILL LOOK UP. WON’T THEY? The Grounds for Divorce had once been a dry cleaner, which still explained the faint scent of starch and regret that hung near the back booths. Now it was the only place in Fort Stockton where you could get…
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UNTO HIM A CHILD IS BORN, Part I – Dry Ground
THE FIRST CHAPTER IN A TRILOGY OF PAIN, SUFFERING, AND LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. AT LEAST, I THINK THAT’S LIGHT. If Fort Stockton had a color, it would be beige. Not a soft, comforting beige either, but the kind that makes your lips chap just looking at it. The town had been…
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CHUCK BUCKDRILLER GOES UNDERCOVER
Nobody knew what Chuck Buckdriller was really up to, which is how Chuck liked it. Fort Stockton wasn’t much for secrets—too many bored folks with too many eyes—but somehow, Chuck managed to keep his life murkier than motor oil left out in the sun. You’d see him, sure. Down near the Skuttlebutt Gentlemen’s Club, parked…
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DRIVEN ONCE. BY FATE.
Business was slow at Oil Patch Cadillac-John Deere, the kind of slow where tumbleweeds got better mileage than the sales team. So in a flash of marketing genius—or possibly desperation—the dealership partnered with the Fort Stockton Mud Hens for a joint promotion. Guess the number of balloons stuffed inside a brand-new 2024 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing…