"No," said Ashland. "I'm telling you, you would have hated my hometown. It was a real intellectual #desert. The only conversation was gossip about the police chief driving drunk and which members of the select board were embezzling from their own businesses."

Catalina nodded vaguely. Her mind was on deserts, on barrel cacti & creosotebush, kangaroo rats and burrowing owls.

"Maybe there was more there than meets the eye," she suggested. But Ashland was shaking his head.

#wss366 #microfiction