Cover Of The Moon

by Robert Mitchell

About the Author: Robert Mitchell is a retired film and television producer and director. He has also appeared on screen and stage as an actor and directed many theatrical productions. He has three published novels, and as a playwright has had a play produced internationally. He has also written many short stories.

Excerpt

Funny how it is. Some folks run away from problems. Me, I figured I would just go where they weren’t. Sometimes it worked. I stirred what was left of the campfire. Little sparks sprang into the air, wavered for a moment, then disappeared. Those with me now had drifted off into the shadows to sleep. We, ourselves were shadows, seldom seen. Tramps, hobos, drifters, they called us, although we never used the words ourselves.

We traveled the country riding the rails, working odd jobs sharpening knives and scissors, mowing lawns, and weeding flower beds and gardens in exchange for table scraps and a glass of cool water. And I was grateful for it.

I hadn’t been home in nearly six years, and our country still wasn’t fully out of the Depression, but now, I was going back to the place I used to call home. My sister got word to me that Pa had died. So the next day, I hopped the first freight train headed anywhere in the general direction of Hogg Bend, Kentucky.

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