The Meadow 167 too often. Jim picked up a load of Holstein cows early this morning. He liked to be on the road by 6:00 a.m. to avoid the heat. It wasn’t even noon yet and by the shimmer of the highway, he could tell it was blistering out. He decided to pull over at the Buttonwillow rest stop to stretch his legs and get a Coke. He hoisted himself out of the frosty, air-conditioned cab into air that felt thick and fuzzy. The skin on his bare arms prickled in shock. He pulled up his jeans and walked past his trailer, a long silver bullet punched with rows of holes that framed pieces of the cows milling within—a white circle, a black circle, a piece of tail, the number that hung from the cow’s ear, and finally, a moist black eye staring back at him. “Is it hot in there?” he asked the eye. The Coke machines were out of order and the bathrooms were filthy, so he walked out into the field behind the building and pissed there. He’d cross this rest stop off his list. This was a perfect example of what was wrong with America. This rest stop used to be one of the nice ones. The toilets were flushed, the floors weren’t covered in used paper towels, and the counters were dry. After he used the facility, Jim would wipe the seat and sink and make sure his garbage made it into the can in order to leave it nice for the next guy. Nobody cared about the next guy anymore. People didn’t take pride in anything. Jim suspected it was because most of the people in California weren’t from California. They had no ownership. He headed back to the cab. The cow eye was still watching him. “What?” He stood on his tiptoes to see the cow’s number. “2456. What’s your story?” 2456 blinked. Jim could see his own reflection in the eyeball—a distorted, fish-eye view of his face. Jim sat in the air-conditioned cab and watched several families herd their eager kids back into minivans, probably headed for Disneyland. He’d never got around to taking Jimmy, although in retrospect, he could easily have combined a trip there with work, stopping in LA on his way back with the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQ3NA==