Hitting It Big

Texans are as diverse as their landscape, but their stories don’t cover the grand sweeping subjects of history. They are concerned with whether Anger is one of the Seven Deadly Sins; whether anyone can love a man with a cowlick; whether the image on a dryer door is the Virgin Mary; whether an Enron victim can find happiness as a middle-aged rocker; what is the secret ingredient in a woman’s candy; whether an abused girl can commit an unthinkable act, would a whole town turn out to welcome home its mentally challenged native son; whether an unemployed socialite can keep up appearances while secretly working across town in a fast-foods booth; whether there is a fool-proof method of hitting it big. Texans are black, white, brown and yellow. They are from the Piney Woods, Panhandle and Valley; their dialogue is rich in the vernacular of their region. They are both noble and ridiculous, but they are real. Only one of the previously published stories is true, but all of them might have been.