Eleven-year-old Levi and his six-year-old brother, Reuben, are on the run from the government agent. As with the entire book, there is no narrator, just the characters speaking. In this passage, Levi and Reuben are looking for a place to spend the night after a day of running through the heat and dust of the open prairie. Reuben is singing to keep from being afraid. Levi, trying to be brave, has promised Reuben that tonight they would sleep in a house.
I was right about a house. We walked until the long shadow time. Then I saw one in the distance, all broken down and gray and leaning like it was half blown over. There was no glass in the windows. It looked like no one had lived there for a long time.
I pointed at it and made Reuben look. He was still singing.
“See? I told you we’d sleep in a house,” I said.
He made a snarl face.
“I don’t want that house,” he said.
“This is the only one we’ve found.”
“I want a different kind of house,” he said. “A house with people, not a ghost house.”
“There aren’t any ghosts there,” I said.
I didn’t like it when Reuben talked about ghosts. That was white people talk and it scared me. Grandpa talked about spirits all the time, but they were like the memories of people who had died and stayed around to watch us and help us. But ghosts were something else, like something that scared you and did bad things to you. They were like a white people idea because white people thought dying was the end of everything and there was a god waiting who would do bad things to you if he didn’t like you. That’s what they taught me in the school. Grandpa told me not to listen to them. He said dying was just crossing over to another place. He said the spirits you meet there are friends, not ghosts.
I finally got Reuben to go in. It was all dusty and smelled bad.
I cleaned off a place on the floor and laid out our jackets to make a bed.
“Here, lay here next to me,” I said. The wind was starting to blow hard outside. It was a dust wind.
“I don’t like it here,” Reuben said.
“I don’t like it here, either,” I said.
Read more from Levi and the other characters who are part of the boys’ journey by purchasing the book when it becomes available on May 20th.
I’m nearly finished reading the book and at this point can hardly stop reading. Your way of speaking the voice of the people speaking is transformative. “I thought to …” “She had kind eyes …” “… to move his mind to something else …” I’m planning to visit on one of your bookstore stops. It will be nice to see you again. We first met in a coffee shop in LO with my friend Mark Alter a few years ago.
Would be good to say “hello” again. Looking forward to it. Please write your thoughts on Goodreads. This book is going to have to make its way by word of mouth, and readers trust the thoughtful insights of other readers.
Yes!
Well, tomorrow is the day, is it not? I refer to he release of “Lone Dog Road.” Big, hearty congratulations to Kent and to all his readers and friends. This book is so needed now during the current times of information degradation and the loss of integrity in government all around.
Of course, “Lone Dog” is a great read. That goes without saying. We have come to expect this from Kent. What isn’t as obvious is the wisdom that flows through the story and its characters. As I see it, this book is nothing less than one long comment on human nature, with and without integrity, with and without the responsibilities of being human, and always inspired by reality as it actually is. I encourage my fellow readers to experience “Lone Dog” with these things in mind. Thank you Kent.
PS: Intending to make it to one of your gigs with my friend, Steve Reynolds. You saw both of us earlier this year in Bemidji.
Note: I notice that the @ sign is missing in my email. Hope this finds its way to the comments. CAS