Tale #1: Passing Through

Tale #2: Two Dreams

Tale #3: Granddaddy & Me

Tale #4: Three Days at Sunset

Tale #5: My Father's Promise
Two Dreams & Other Tales

Tale #1: Passing Through
(excerpt)

Texas, August 2013

  You could tell how hot it was by looking at the heat rising off the highway up ahead. Temperatures often topped 100 degrees on the Texas plains during this part of summer. Many times, those baking conditions gave way in the afternoon to storms sweeping in from the west with rain, lightning, and the occasional twister. On this day, however, it was sunny and hot with no forecast of bad weather.

  I was traveling east on State Highway 631, about an hour east of Dallas. My destination was a small town called Hillman, which was the seat of a county of the same name. Hillman sits in the middle of an extensive area of large farms and oil fields worked by small, independent operators. The land is flat and devoid of trees, making it possible to see for miles in all directions. Along that stretch of highway that day, what I saw the most of was wheat and the occasional oil field. In many of the fields, the derricks were not only silent, but abandoned. It was a troubling sign that the small operators had pulled out and didn't even take their equipment with them.

  I passed a sign informing me I was six miles from my destination. Just barely visible was the water tower that dominated the sky at the northern end of town, right where this same highway crossed over Main Street. Signs of life began to appear. I passed a grain elevator on the right, followed by a heavy equipment depot full of large farming and earth moving trucks, tractors, and other vehicles. A few minutes later, I saw trees and houses. As I came to the town limits, I passed a sign that said:

WELCOME TO HILLMAN
Population: 897

It seemed unlikely that the population of the town had not changed in the fourteen years since I had last been there. Perhaps the locals had more pressing matters to deal with than keeping that sign up to date. It was there at the town limits that State Highway 631 became Huntington Avenue. I passed a couple of small businesses and a side street with a residential neighborhood as I approached Main Street. I would need to get gas before heading back to Dallas, so I stopped at the convenience mart at the corner of Huntington and Main and pulled over to the pumps.

  As the gas flowed, I looked around me, taking in some old familiar sights. It felt strange to be back in my hometown, a place I once thought I would never see again. The county public works garage stood on the opposite corner of the intersection. It was home to the crews and equipment that maintained county roads, the municipal water district, and the grounds of public facilities like the courthouse and the schools. Next door to the garage was one of three county fire stations. What was not visible from where I stood was the fenced-in area behind the garage where the water tower stood. It rose through the trees high enough to make it visible along the full length of Main Street. I recalled that this tower, which bore the name HILLMAN, was also visible from my bedroom window when I was a boy. My childhood home--which was no longer standing--had been close by.

  I was born in Hillman in February 1981, the eldest child of George and Patty Welles. My given name is George Jr., but to avoid confusion over identities, my family called me Byron.

Text Copyright, G. S. Treakle, 2023