Tricia grew up in a desert town pocked by an abandoned copper mine, lost jobs and lost honor.
Her high school was an Art Deco vision blurred by chem trails and tumbleweeds. It was fashioned from asbestos and dreams and funded by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. It got bigger and emptier as folks moved away and the graduating class dwindled to 14.
Tricia had never liked school, not even the days when out-of-town doctors showed up with Geiger counters and iodine pills. Rio Dulce had been a nuclear test sight, to add to the charm.
Tricia blew town as soon as she could hitch a ride. When she returned, she learned the last bar had closed just the night before.
The Hitching Post has since become a magnet for YouTube ghost-hunters. The bored spirits make no sound, drop no clues and keep their own counsel. Fridays, they play blackjack with the devil.
The Rio Dulce Baptist church hosts bingo, a support group for UFO abductees and a chapter of AA. The pastor’s wife attends fall three.
As for drugs, even the barking coyotes smoke meth.
–Sarah Torribio
See more flash fiction by Sarah Torribio HERE
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