I want to thank Juliana Spahr for her thoughtful commentary and suggestions and the encouragement she gave to me during the early stages of this book. I am grateful also to Beatrix Gates who read the very first lines of text and encouraged me to follow up on the ideas that that evolved into The Orange & Blue Drive-In. Thank you Wynn Yarbrough and Gerry Sarnat for your reading skills, your comments, and your encouragement.
Stelli, you have never wavered in your love and support. You are a continuous presence during my work as a writer and I cherish our time together.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHARACTERS
MARCH 1967
(miserable or dead)
(a patch of sand)
(past the ticket window)
(from her bedroom)
(an accident by the evidence)
(massing in the Sinai)
(his mother’s body)
(abandonment in every man)
(between the cracks)
(the only one)
(the first time he kissed)
(strands of blonde hair)
(just to make sure)
(breathing room)
APRIL 1967
(an invitation like that)
(crickets at night)
(Ozzie and Harriet)
(another refugee)
(tilted in every direction)
(the knots)
(pop of blue)
(he watched the shadows)
(the way it is)
(if he would just look)
(where was God)
(the intensity of his faith)
JUNE 1967
(ready for World War III)
(the echo)
(how Morgan looked at her)
(a fact of life)
(reconciled)
(the game)
(then like a weight)
(God is great)
(how to eat and think)
(you smell like oranges)
(having sex)
(invisible to him)
(about to burn bright)
(what people know about you)
(between her stomach and heart)
(wheels in the gravel)
(content with his own death)
(did anyone ever question you)
(fuck you)
(John stood up)
AUGUST 1967
(one leg off a yellow and red grasshopper)
(Cronkite answered him)
(the mosquitoes drove them inside)
(the void in the cavity of his chest)
(he lived here because he worked here)
(everyone’s wish)
(the falling motion)
(the true reflection of the God in her)
(just as soon have died)
(right between the eyes)
(we did not say goodbye)
(the world walked through those doors)
(what he let in that place)
Characters
Timmy – the protagonist, a fifteen-year-old young man
Penney – a thirty-year-old woman living and working with her father at the Orange & Blue Drive-In theater
Morgan – Penney’s father
Melissa – Timmy’s thirteen-year-old ex-girlfriend
David and Gary – friends of Timmy
Sam – Timmy’s father
Anne – Timmy’s mother
Julie – Timmy’s sister
Marie – Morgan’s wife, Penney’s mother
Greg – the pastor of Marie’s church
Rundi – the owner of an antique store, and an immigrant from India
Saira – Rundi’s wife
John – an autistic young man who is a member of Greg’s church
Eddie – a member of the Gainesville Police Department
Note: To keep the line breaks intended by the author, adjust the font size on your e-book reader so the entire sentence below fits one one line:
‘Syria blames Egypt for the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War with Israel . . .’