BUFFALO LIGHTS: Free Chapters from the Book!

“Hi fella, how you doin’?” said the smiling silver-haired man as he approached, carrying a clipboard. A pencil stub dangled from the clip, attached with a piece of string. Grasping the stub, his hand hovered over the printed form flapping in the breeze as he eyed the black-and-white plate on the rear bumper and inquired, “Where you from?”

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What a scene: wind-driven snow, brilliant sunshine, clouds and sky now allowing a view across the open spaces, and in the middle of the snowy pasture, the big black beasts snuffling around ignoring it all. A few minutes later the clouds closed in again around the setting sun, the snow tapered off, and I was standing there watching one lone vaca negra about a hundred feet away in the adjacent pasture, looking solid and alert in the deepening gloom.

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What, me appreciate? This probably doesn’t mean anything, but I just learned that there are eight copies of my book, BUFFALO LIGHTS: Maryland to New Mexico, for sale right now on eBay. One listing is $22.59 plus $3.49 shipping for a “new” copy. There’s a used one for sale for almost that much. But why [...]

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As we left the adobe cottage and headed off for a sunset walk, I glanced back at the smoke coming out the metal chimney. There was only a little, but it was distinctly dark, almost black, with a rather unpleasant industrial smell. I stopped and considered the situation. “What’s wrong?” she asked, coming back towards me, boots squeaking on the icy snow.

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Moving quickly before his resolve faded, he donned a down parka, grabbed a flashlight, and strode outside into a different world. The air was perfectly still. The moon reflected brightly off the fresh snow that crunched reassuringly under his boots. He imagined he could see almost as well as if it were daylight. When he reached the gate at the road, he looked at his watch once more and was stricken with a guilty terror: run, Johnny, run! And so he did.

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Suddenly the brilliant unconscious reasoning behind waiting until the last minute to start packing was revealed. Of course!! I had to fail at packing in order to leave my burdens behind. If I had started a month ago like the moving company’s brochures urged, I’d have had twice as much junk to deal with on the other end. I wasn’t a fool, I was a fucking genius!

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We’d returned from New Mexico to Maryland to finish the packing postponed from earlier in the summer, but my mind and body just weren’t with the program. After weeks in totally new and often strange surroundings, finally getting adjusted and starting to settle in, to drive two thousand miles all the way back to a place I had shut out of my mind was more than a little unsettling. After we got there, I felt I was losing my mind.

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After I’d used a sturdy long-handled shovel to cut and lift away the sod and uncover the lid, I put the shovel back in the garage and went inside to clean up. But coming through the back door into the kitchen, I had a singular experience: I felt taller, properly aligned and proportioned. I felt good. There was a bright blue light coursing through my neck, shoulders, and upper arms. My God, my shoulders were high!

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They were getting ready to move, or trying to, as the days flew by in a headlong rush. He was planning on the fly as they tumbled toward the inevitable, but every day brought more questions he couldn’t answer.

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