Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103

329. "GAMMAW, DO ANGELS HAVE PALE EYES?" Willamina offered Marnie a cup of milk, which the child took with a bashful little "Think you." Willamina started to take a sip of coffee when Marnie looked up, smiled with a milk mustache on her upper lip, and asked with wide-eyed innocence, "Gammaw, do angels have pale eyes?" Willamina's throat slammed shut to keep her from drowning. She swallowed quickly, carefully, leaned her head forward, placed her coffee very calmly, very precisely on the tabletop. Marnie placed hers on the table as well, her eyes widening a littl

328. COFFEE, AND SUNRISE Two coffee cups lifted, two prolonged slurps were heard. Two sets of pale eyes regarded the far horizon. Silence grew between the two, but a companionable silence, the kind that is comfortable between old friends. Two hands gripped each of the heavy ceramic mugs: mother and son sat on the broad back steps, regarding the lightening horizon, the intervening terrain resembling granite teeth, more distinct now, upthrust as if to tear a snarling rip in the heavens themselves. Finally, a voice, quiet, hushed, respectful of morning's hush. "You'v

I can get in trouble just settin' in my easy chair ... ... and having read Pat Riot's account of the stampede string and the double gun... I will never, EVER use a stampede string, because dollars to doughnuts, I would end up imitatin' his unintentional example!

Mine is similar to Cat Brules. I took a look at the Ohio Highway Patrol. They use a back strap. So do I. Instead of a stampede string that goes under your chin, I run leather boot lace around the crown, down against the brim; take it down the holes in the side, then around back of my head below the occipital bulge, draw it snug, throw a square knot in it, run the tag ends back up through the brim holes and make a couple neat turns in the leather running around the base of the crown. Put on the hat, pull down the back strap, done.

327. AND IN THE FATHER'S DARKNESS, A CLICK Linn was dreaming. Shelly swam toward the surface of the dark lake of slumber, half floating, half kicking: she rolled like a dolphin in slow motion, laid her hand on her husband's chest. Usually, when his soul's torturers flayed him at night, she needed only lay a hand on his breastbone: his hand would sear out from under the bedcovers, moving like a striking viper, it would press down on hers and she would feel him shiver, once, and sigh a great breath, once, and then he would relax, and she would, too. Linn felt his wife start t

326. THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT Sheriff Willamina Keller opened a briefcase she'd forgotten she had, and laughed quietly. Linn looked up. "Find a good one?" Willamina sorted through some papers, pulled out a 8x10 glossy and handed it wordlessly to her son. It was ... well, at first he thought it was his Mama, but this doxy was in a short skirt and scandalously high heels, she was draped most shamelessly over a young man, giving the camera an absolutely seductive look, her mouth open, her lips a shining scarlet... and her eyes a remarkable, distinct violet. Linn turned the

Utah Bob said it right! Hire Suth'n girls! It's been my observation that the further north you go, the faster people talk. I've frequently wondered if the girls at the drive-thru window weren't rejects from auctioneer school. I make a point of speaking a little slower than standard, a little louder than standard, for the same reason I print instead of write in cursive. Too many years of communicating in venues where a good clear commo is what kept my partner and I alive.

325. IT WASN'T HELL, JACOB, BUT IT WAS DAMN CLOSE TO IT Jacob knew the haunted look in his father's pale eyes. He'd seen it in his own mirror a time or two, but he persisted, and Linn considered for a long moment, then nodded, turned to his son. "Jacob," he said slowly, "I have a bad habit. If you ask me a question, I will give you the honest answer, even if it's not what you want to hear." "Yes, sir." "Now ask your question." "Yes, sir." Jacob thrust out his lower jaw and asked the question he'd wondered about for several long years now. "Sir," he

324. A TWIST OF FOG Retired Sheriff Willamina Keller landed flat on her back. Habit caused her to slap the ground hard to break her fall: it didn't knock all the wind out of her. Maybe half of it, but not all. Willamina rolled, snarling, came up on all fours, launched. She came off the ground like a missile, seized the horse's bridle in mid-rear: her boots came off the ground and swung up and when the horse realized that something white, unhappy and heavy was suddenly attached to its head, it came to earth more quickly than it realized, stumbled, and Willamina snarled

When my beautiful bride and I moved to the Yankee North, we camped out with fellow re-enactors at the Ukranian Camp not far from here. Our round, pop up tent was set up in the middle of a woodlot. That night the cicadas climbed the slopes of Mount Nylon and waited for daylight. When we woke, my wife saw the silhouettes of many moving critters on the outside of the nylon. Every B-grade, fear-driven horror flick that ever terrified her as a child detonated in her fertile mind, right behind her phobia of things that go buzz (a yellowjacket tangled in her hair when she was a Brownie

Doc Ward is right. That IS impressive!!

Utah Bob is right. It's all good! Our local IGA carries it!

Sounds like you made a wise choice: You married your best friend. Well done. Lead on!

Two thousand pound of beef on the hoof ... ... ONE TON OF SELF PROPELLED MOMENTUM ... I've long been impressed by the creatures. Seeing this, I am not only impressed, but guaranteed to give them a wiiiiide berth!

Somehow I just knew you were younger, smarter and better lookin' than me! (Not necessarily in that order) (insert innocent expression here!) (you have to understand ... I've been practicing that innocent expression for a very long time, and it hasn't worked, not even once, but I keep trying!)