Thunderhead
Chapter One
The freshly paved road left Santa Fe and arrowed west through pinon
trees. An amber-colored sun was sinking into a scrim of dirty clouds
behind the snowcapped Jemez Mountains, drawing a counterpane of
shade across the landscape. Nora Kelly guided the rattletrap Ford
pickup along the road, down chamisa-covered hills and across the
beds of dry washes. It was the third time she had been out here in
as many months.
As she came up from Buckman's Wash into Jackrabbit Flats-what had
once been Jackrabbit Flats-she saw a shining arc of light beyond the
pinons. A moment later, her truck was speeding past manicured
greens. A nearby sprinkler head winked and nodded in the sun,
jetting water in a regular, palsied cadence. Beyond, on a rise,
stood the new Fox Run clubhouse, a massive structure of fake adobe.
Nora looked away.
The truck rattled over a cattle guard at the far end of Fox Run and
suddenly, the road was washboard dirt. She bounced past a cluster of
ancient mailboxes and the crude, weatherbeaten sign that read RANCHO
DE LAS CABRILLAS. For a moment, the memory of a summer ... read full excerpt from: Thunderhead ebook
