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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PERRY’S PACKARD: PART II, The Process
A big, long car deserves a big, long story. This one will take a week to tell, a new installment, a new car every day this week, with the finale on Sunday. “Have you lost your mind?” Perry asked, slurring his words ever so slightly. “A limousine? I thought I was getting a sports car?” “It’s not…
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PERRY’S PACKARD: PART I, The Present
A big, long car deserves a big, long story. This one will take a week to tell, a new installment every day this week, with the final chapter on Sunday. ” I swear to god … ” Perry’s mother mumbled to herself as she stared out the picture window the living room, watching her son float…
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ROADS NOT TAKEN
She was an attractive woman. Fair skinned, dark haired. When she laughed she did it with her whole body in a way that people were drawn in to and had to laugh along with her. Constance taught English at Jim Bowie High School. Not because she had to. She was what you’d call a trust…
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EMBRACING THE FUTURAMIC
Jane yelled at Walter at the top of her voice, “You’re not even listening to me!” which Walter thought was a strange way to start a conversation. There had been a lot of moments like that since both boys moved out of the house and left the Schuttes ‘empty-nesters’. Sometimes Jane would get so frustrated…
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BACKPEDDLING BECKY
This one rips the scab right off. Not even going to try to lie about it or pretend it never happened. They say time heals everything, but not this. Not even sixty years later. We were in a groove in RoadRunner Estates. We’d worked out a hierarchy. Everyone knew their place, where they belonged. A routine. Girls knew the fort was off…
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GATEWAY DRUG TO 1959
“What’s your name Kid?” the big guy in the flawlessly tailored suit asked. “Who me? Are you talking to me, Mr. Mitchell?” replied the shy looking kid in the ill-fitting khakis and sport coat he received as a graduation from college a year before months before. “Do you see anyone else, Kid?” “No sir. It’s just .…
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AGENT TODD AND THE EXECUTIVE LIMO
Back when he still had keys to the Oval Office, the Big Guy used to make the trip from Johnson City to Fort Stockton because the Piggly Wiggly here in town was the only place that could be counted on to always be stocked with Dr. Pepper and Boerne hot sauce, the key ingredient in…
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DAMN COOL SHOT OF ADRENALINE
Pretty typical morning at The Grounds for Divorce this morning, other than the fact that it’s damn near one hundred and twelve degrees outside. That may have been what drove everyone into the coffee shop. It was so hot that Delgado said he saw two trees fighting over a male dog out near the alley…
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SNAKES ON A PLAIN
Some would argue the government has just gotten too big. That was the theory Reagan ran on and it resonated with the people enough that he won two terms. He used to say in campaign speeches that the five most dangerous words in America were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” People…
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ANNABELLE’S PORTRAIT
Annabelle Hornsworthy was widowed at a young age, one of the hazards (some would say benefits) of being a young trophy wife married to a ‘more seasoned’ gentleman. Harrison Hornsworthy, her late husband, had been just as effective at playing markets as he was playing the field. When he keeled over, victim of an apparent…