He had been searching since dawn for the origin of the small dark plume of smoke and by breakfast Eldon Painter found it: an abandoned campsite at the back of his property, a dell thick with basswood and hackberry and bur oak. All that was left were the smoldering charcoals of browned fallen brush stuffed in an old Folgers’ can—an Army trick — and a couple fast food wrappers half-buried nearby. The site had been pitched under a cluster of knotty honey locust whose branches roped together about fifteen feet up creating a natural covering from any inclement weather. He could just about make out indentations in the ground where two bodies—boys, possibly—had been arranged.
Buffalo Almanack is quickly becoming one of my favorite new journals, and I’m honored to be included in this issue alongside the wildly talented Jared Yates Saxton and many, many others. You can read the thing in its entirety here, which I highly recommend.
Also, they do illustrations for every piece they publish—which are always great—and the image for my story is below. I love it.
