MO Camo

State Highway 52
Morgan County, Missouri

The apparition speaks

Are you his people?

I was at home that day, the day it happened. I was waiting on my son to come by to carry me up to St. Joe to my sister’s funeral. I’d just lost my husband, you see, and wasn’t up to the drive.

Those two cars hit, and there was a fire and that boy and his little dog died. You could hear the dog, too, for a minute, but it seemed a lot longer. An ambulance came of course – the closest one is from Sedalia – but by then it was just too late.

His people do come by, sometimes, and put out new flowers. I get my grandson to mow around it.

No, it doesn’t bother me to have this outside my window.

But I can still remember that little dog’s howl.

US 65
Benton County, Missouri

Danielle

State Highway 19
Crawford County, Missouri

Chad

State Highway 19
Crawford County, Missouri

Dean

This one leans away from oncoming traffic, settling comfortably back against the soft hill. A tulle bow explodes from the center, a feminine, childish ornament for Dean, who was almost 54.

Highway 54
Callaway County, Missouri

Incongruously cheerful

US 63

Callaway County, Missouri

Ribbons and a pinwheel

A skinny cross, its fabric held on with satin ribbons, is decorated with laminated placards, carefully lettered bulletins about who, and when.

Another cross has ornaments - a red velvet evening bag, a tattered cross, tinny windchimes.

Behind, at the edge of the woods, four one-gallon plastic jugs are barely concealed in the low leaves.

Highway 58

Johnson County, Missouri