Richard Braden

Lori's Jeep Richard Braden

LORIS JEEPApril 2000This is a story about a thirtyish woman, Lori Bearden, and her eight year old son. They live in a town south of Denver, Colorado that has been engulfed by the population that continues to pour into the Rocky Mountains Front Range every year from the West and East Coasts. Better employment is the name of her game, and she lands a job in the U. S. Postal Service delivering mail to the farmers and landed gentry on the eastern plains of Colorado. She buys an old, forlorn postal jeep to make her appointed rounds on the plains, and later meets a man who makes his living repairing these ancient jeeps. They soon discover that they need one-another. Then Lori discovers that her jeep repairman, Rafael Hernandez, has a second occupation much different from his first occupation, and she learns to understand and cherish a man who lives two lives.