Odd Jobs Sample Chapter

        Will had moved to Buck Hollow, Texas to get away from all the weirdness in the big city. The city was sucking his soul dry, and he just had to be somewhere where he could be in his space.
        In Houston all he had done was sweat, grow stagnate and moldy like everything else. It had begun to show in his work. His stories had no passion, no life. His characters, like himself, became dull reflections of the steel and concrete trap all around him.
        He needed to do something impulsive to reawaken his soul, so...he pull out a map of the state. (He wanted to get away, but wasn't desperate enough to actually leave Texas.) He closed his eyes, dropped the felt tipped marker, and then spent the next twenty minutes trying to find the green smudge. He found it over the little town of Buck Hollow. A quick computer scan told him that Buck Hollow was a town of only eight hundred souls, and a two hour drive to the nearest metropolitan area. Far enough away to be free of the fetid swamp of the city, but close enough to dip in for a splash of culture whenever he felt the whim.
        Another quick search through Yahoo surrendered the name of the only realtor in Mayo County. Cleatus Meckelville had a phone number, but no web site, no E-mail, not even a fax number. Far from being appalled, Will looked at this as a propitious sign. He called immediately.
        Cleatus Mackelville answered the phone with a hearty, "God damn it Louise! I told you not to call me at work no more!"
        "Sir, my name is J. Wilson Madison, the author. You might have heard of me," Will said.
        "Boy, you ain't trying to sell me no damn magazines, are ya?" Cleatus replied.
        Will was more than a little mortified to think that he could be so easily mistaken for a telephone solicitor.
        "No, sir, I am not. Do you always treat potential customers in this manner? I am a published author, and I am looking to relocate to Buck Hollow."
        "Son, you don' wanna move ta Buck Hollow. Ain't nothin' in Buck Hollow except a couple of cows, some cockle burrs, a half-assed Dairy King, and a bunch of old farts sittin' around on the pecker wood bench in front of the post office waitin' for the mail to come in. Which don't happen but once a week."
"That's perfect. Exactly what I'm looking for. I crave the simplicity of small town America. I need something like that to replenish my creative muse."
"Whatever you say, son," Cleatus said. "We got lots of empty houses in Buck Hollow."
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