CHAPTER TWELVELarry Haden
Larry had hated the drive across the desert country, but as he followed Horace’s Peugeot into the green country of East Texas he found himself relaxing. The trees in patches of woodland were fresh and the grass alongside the Interstate was trimmed to emerald velvet. Wildflowers, evidently replanted there after the road was constructed, brightened the way as well.
When he took this job, he had feared he would land in the Texas of the movie Giant, but that sort of landscape was far behind as he followed Horace into an Albertson’s parking lot and shut off the engine. The town in which he had landed was full of flower gardens, and he had seen a sign that proclaimed Tyler, Texas, as the Rose Capital of the World.
When his caretaking job ended with the return of the
