Kathleen Elizabeth
Muses on Life Out Here in Alaska
12. A Last Chance to Sleep
When Donna gave me the room key and took our credit card, I recognized her voice. I recalled Prattville, the hours of reconfiguration and recalculation at my dining room table that had driven me to the Milepost one afternoon and an advertisement for the Coal River Lodge and RV. “Yes, we are the last stop […]
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10. Far Flung Horizons
Shadowed only by a park ranger hat, her smile was sunlight. Of course we could pass through. So long as we did not stop. The Kootenay Highway became the Banff-Windermere Highway—roughly 103 kilometers of storied asphalt through Kootenay National Park to the Trans-Canada Highway. Morning sun reflected off the canyon as an iridescent copper and […]
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8. Not One of Those Americans
When the new lottery machine pulled a twenty from my fingers, I knew I had made a mistake. My gone money was reincarnated as an electric-green balance. “I don’t know anything about that machine,” said the woman at the counter, “but I don’t think it makes change. You’ll have to play all twenty dollars.” My […]
MoreYour Jesus (who dons a red cap)
Your Jesus who dons a red cap and brandishes the American flag on the steps of an earthen fortress to demand the restoration of God’s nation is not my Jesus. Your Jesus cover boy of your eleventh hour attempt to wake sleepers dead to the demise of God’s chosen democracy is not my Jesus. Your […]
MoreOut On Skyland Road: An Intermission
In his characteristic all-caps print, and with precise lines and arrows, Michael scrawled a crude map on the back of a Glacier Bank envelope. With the pen tip he pointed. “Just take the Skyland Access Road, clock about nine miles, and you’ll see us a little past Challenge Cabin,” he said. Zach asked, “won’t Cassie […]
More7. The Only Place that Ever Feels Like Home
The way was dark, the road winding. We lost elevation and the rolling Black Hills like ocean waves broke on the Great Plains, spilling out near-flat beneath a volatile sky. Electric air buzzed white, then the world went black again. The Buck Moon illuminated fence posts and barbed wire. Sometimes stars glinted as the calmer […]
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