You should know that as of tomorrow the police will keep a lookout on this place. He’s a missing kid in St Louis, and you’re one here.

“Either we’ll see you when you’re picked up and brought to us, or we’ll see you when you come home by yourself. This can’t go on forever, can it?” “I don’t know what forever means.” “I guess we’ll find out.”

I DON’T KNOW WHAT FOREVER MEANS BY ROBERT EARLE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 61

Tommy’s trailer made him seem different. After the first night they spent there, he opened the door toward the front and helped Maybeth down to have a good look at the trailer from the outside. 

You could still faintly make out Morgan Movers in blue under the red primer paint on its side. Then the motto, Let’s get moving! Then the telephone number. Not a St Paul area code, from somewhere else. An old trailer that would look all right when a new owner put a top coat on it and his own advertising.

They walked around looking at the others. Forty-two, Tommy had counted them once. Many primed red like the Morgan Movers trailer. Some still needing work. A few twisted and crumpled from flipping off the highway. O…