A Quick Life

Back in the late forties and early fifties we had this fellow here in Harper name of Speedy Barkley. Speedy was real big on adventure. His daddy bought him an old Chevrolet and Speedy read books and got advice from a local mechanic on how to speed it up. He got it going real fast and won several impromptu races. His daddy threatened to take his car away if he didn't slow down and he did, as far as his daddy knew. But late at night Speedy would race his car around all the road of Harper County. One foggy night he made a turn on this little gravel road. I reckon he didn't know that was the road leading to the one and only gravel pit in the county. Well, he ran over the side and down into the pit and the car burst into flames. He was killed. I remember hearing old sheriff Dolittle talking about it. He said, "We only got one cliff in Harper County and damn if he didn't find it." At his service one of his teachers read a poem about living a full live. Seemed she wanted to say he made the most of the time he had. I never quite saw it that way.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle