Dashboard Jesus

Abel has returned to central Kansas to bury his father and sell the farm. Walking through the neglected fields he finds a veritable archaeological dig of discarded machinery. In the midst of all the mechanical carnage he finds his first car, rusting and shimmering in the unforgiving climate, calling him with a siren song. As he sits gingerly in the front seat again, he is invaded by the piercing static of a thousand remembered moments, riding the air currents with the incessant droning hum of insects that never seem to die. Still perched proudly on the dashboard is the Jesus statue his
mother once gave him as protection against a misspent youth.

As he rounds the barn he finds his old high school sweetheart, Ellie, waiting in the afternoon sun.. He had abandoned her, alone and pregnant, after graduation, fleeing a life steeped in religious fanaticism, poverty and small town gossip, almost more afraid of
spending eternity in central Kansas than he was of fatherhood.

Now living in Montana, Abel tries to lure Ellie back to him.