Orleans

A trailer sits in Orleans among the trees. On its side is written, "Economics Laboratory Inc." The trailer is a cipher for the town. Rooms are $ .00 and up. The gas is old time. Information is blank. Brown patches dot the sides of the low mountains around the town. Orleans has a park on a bluff above the Klamath River. A cat the color of dried pine needles crossed the road and entered the park. It climbed up on some benches that circled a firepit left over from a ceremony already performed. The shadow of a vulture glided by on outstretched wings, and a breeze blew a soft whistle through dead ponderosa pines. It was as if all was going down a brown hole. But don't get me wrong. Orleans is my favorite town nestled in the forests of far northern California.