After word:

History is a slippery thing. I heard it is written by the winner. There is not a word in history about Baby Face Nelson ever being in Oklahoma at this time, though rumors abound about what he did there. There is no information about him being apprehended twice in Oklahoma and escaping from Federal authorities three times in as many months. There is nothing about the town of Hill Oklahoma or anything even to show it existed. So, all this is a just a short novel about the dust bowl days.

Pa and Maggie Corrigan were much closer than I ever dreamed. Her husband was gone and my Mom was sick. She told me much later they had had an affair for two years before Pa was killed. It explained why she was so broke-up at his funeral. I never became a Mason. My new love was a Catholic girl, and her religion bears a grudge against Masons. I became a Catholic to please her and never learned anything else about the Masonic Order.

I will tell you this. My brother Pete Daniels was actually the better shot between me and him. I had several shots at that flock of turkeys and did not shoot for fear of wasting the shells. He came back with a bird his first time out. Later, in World War II, he became a volunteer ball turret gunner in the belly of a bomber. Not only did he survive without a wound, but no person flying in a plane he protected was ever killed or wounded by enemy fire. One of the pilots he served wrote a letter to get Pete a commendation. He said “German fighter pilots died like mosquitoes under Pete Daniels’ withering fire.” He was a brave little sucker and one hell of a shot. But that is another story.

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