Trailer Park Lookout

It's his fulltime job.  Chief Henry Crow sits in an aluminum lawn chair at the edge of the trailer park, his gaze fixed on the horizon.  He wears a headband, blue jeans, and a double-breasted gray pinstripe coat from Brooks Brothers.  He is sixty-seven years old according to the Gregorian calendar.

Behind him, doublewide trailers crouch in neat rows, trusting in their motionless guardian.  They know he possesses magical powers to unwind storms, to twirl his index finger in a direction counter to the swirling vortex of a tornado while chanting sacred words.  It works every time.  The skill was taught to him by his father, who claimed that all weather is composed of spirits, many of which are open to peaceful negotiation.

The children in the park play tag while their fathers barbecue hamburgers.  Their mothers are hanging laundry to dry or creating internet companies on computers inside their doublewide homes.  The sky in the distance is an ominous gray, but no one is worried.  Henry Crow has their backs.

~William Hammett

Buy The Ghost of Richard Brautigan at Amazon.

Thanks for stopping by Richard Brautigan: Stories in His Style

SITEMAP

Home
About
Index of Short Stories by William Hammett
Richard Brautigan
Ianthe Elizabeth Brautigan
Richard Brautigan Timeline
The Richard Brautigan Library
Articles on Richard Brautigan
Resources for Researching Richard Brautigan's Life and Work
The Prose Style of Richard Brautigan
Books about Richard Brautigan
The Novels of Richard Brautigan
The Short Stories of Richard Brautigan
Poetry Collections by Richard Brautigan
The Uncollected Poetry of Richard Brautigan
The Unpublished Poetry of Richard Brautigan
The Ghost of Richard Brautigan
William Hammett
Contact