From Discarded Chapters, Final Sentences

7. The assassin appeared out of the dark and fired the shotgun through the kitchen door, striking him from below, in the back, under his shoulder.

8. Birds flying off into the sunset like red numbers.

9. His name when he was born had been Doroteo Arango.

11. Ah.

12. The embankment was so steep it was almost impossible to climb. But at the top, the desert stretched to the horizon.

13. I went down to the river, which always has a little water in it.

14. The mosquitoes finally drove them inside.

15. All the papers were piled into cardboard boxes.

16. Carlos bought an RV, moved into it and rented out his house to a woman and her son. He never returned to live in it.

17. It was red on the side you could see, but no one ever checked.

19. The lights shone on the lawn. Sometime after midnight, the house went dark.

20. Rolling north in the wet night, we crossed the Columbia on the high bridge with our headlights sweeping across the rainy dark.