Jack Clark

There’s never a cab when you want one but there it was, a Sky Blue Taxi sitting in front of the courthouse at 26th and California. I parked in a metered spot, walked back, and pointed at the white guy behind the wheel. “You waiting for somebody?” “I’ve been waiting for you.” He waved me […]

TWENTY The truck Jesse Lopez had been driving was registered to West End Trucking on Blue Island Avenue in Chicago. But all I found at the address was a poor man’s bank: a 24-hour currency exchange. The woman behind the bulletproof glass said she’d never heard of the trucking company, Mr. Morales, Jesse Lopez, or […]

NINETEEN I took a nap with the balcony doors open. When I woke, it was dark. Out on the pier, the Ferris wheel was moving, and there was another ride next to it, both decked out with fancy carnival lights. I could almost hear the laughter, smell the popcorn and the cotton candy. I ordered […]

EIGHTEEN I dialed the McKinley Truck Stop and asked for Maddy Miller. “Who?” “Sorry. Peggy Miller.” I was in the trailer of an Allied Van Line rig, parked just off the shoulder of the Pacific Coast Highway–all six doors open to the ocean breeze–about a quarter mile from where Topanga Canyon Road curved down to […]

SEVENTEEN The Vibrant Produce Company was in downtown LA, in an industrial area off Central Avenue. I crossed the Los Angeles River more than once searching for the place. I found streets with names like Industrial and Terminal, Market and Produce, but it took a while to find Vibrant Avenue. When I pulled up around […]

SIXTEEN Lonnie’s voice came up the stairs ahead of him. “Bruce, you have any idea what time I gotta be up in the morning?” “Lonnie, this man came all the way from Chicago.” “Is that so?” He was a big black guy, six-four or so, and muscular. But he walked a bit sideways, one leg […]

FIFTEEN I went back the way I’d come, over the highway, and then pulled into the truck stop. There was a restaurant inside and a “travel store.” But the place was quieter than I’d expected at that time of night. It was a bit past 11. I found an empty game room along a hallway […]

FOURTEEN The Fairmont Hotel was at the very end of Wilshire Boulevard, high on a bluff above the coast highway. The woman behind the front desk said she’d be delighted to give me an ocean view. When the bellman parted the drapes a few minutes later, there it was, the biggest pond in the world, […]