Growing up the youngest of five kids, his siblings had left home long before he was born. He had been his parents ‘surprise’ baby. Raised like an only child on the backside of the Ozarks, Duke had few friends and kept to himself. He enjoyed people and he wasn’t shy by any means. He just didn’t need people. And that’s where he found himself again. Alone. His third long drive in as many days. He passed by the local tavern a couple of times and considered pulling into the parking lot. Maybe just feel the warmth of the neon for a few minutes, it didn’t mean he’d have to go inside. He’d shake off the feeling and continue driving. The drive was always the same. Long. Lonely. Unchanging. He never saw anything he hadn’t seen a thousand times before. He passed all the same little cabins and ‘no trespassing’ signs that had always been there. Now, it was starting to snow. Not regular snow. Big, thick, lazy snow. The kind that would pile into slush on the ground, quickly making driving conditions more treacherous.
