Saltine

Fiction. Humor. California Interest. Libby strolls Saltine's old rail spur picking up flotsam. One morning she finds a man lying face-down and unconscious with a bleatless goat tied to his wrist. She takes the man home in a wheelbarrow, raising the former borax-mining town of Saltine's population to two hundred and ninety-four. Libby supplies her amnesiac find with a name--Peyton, a history, and a future. They marry in the shadow of Salvation Mountain and, after the nuptials, Peyton kills Libby's daddy. Deputy Schotz, heartbroken over losing Libby--the love of his fantasy life--to the now fully-conscious Peyton, and certain of the stranger's foul play, Schotz quits his job, cashes-in his tanking Salton Sea Tilapia Farm investments, buys a used Barracuda, and sets out in every direction but the right one to find the truth. The truth does emerge, but not until the characters have engaged Replicants, packs of feral chihuahuas, slab-city life, transgender surprises, sex, death, chemical run-off, UFO abduction insurance, and benevolent ghosts.