Time Between Trains

by Anthony Bukoski

Welcome to Superior, Wisconsin, the westernmost port on the Great Lakes, home to a declining population, often-dismal weather, and dying ethnic communities. Despite the biting winter winds and the ore dust blanketing the city, miracles occur here. In the title story, the only Jewish track inspector for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe system discovers a magical place behind the drab house of a lonely Polish schoolteacher: in “Closing Time”, an accordion player working the bar of the local VFW finds an appreciative audience in a disillusioned German war bride; in “The Moon of the Grass Fires”, a retired flour mill worker has a vision of ultimate goodness and the meaning of his life one beautiful autumn evening as, covered with wheat dust, he takes a walk near the East End’s abandoned ore docks.