Burnt Prairie

Kyle waited until the town disappeared behind us.

nice people he said yeah very i thought they were gonna beat us to death uh they absolutely were a mile later we passed a school bus heading back toward town and the driver waved and again every child inside turned to look at us The first strange thing about Burnt Prairie was that I actually wanted to see it.

I'd never heard of the place and didn't know a thing about it.

My friend and I were heading west on Interstate 64 in August of 1980 when we saw this exit sign.

It was an ordinary green highway sign against that washed-out Illinois sky.

Nothing unusual about that except the name, Burnt Prairie.

I read the name out loud and said, ''We gotta go there, just to see what it looks like, right?'' My friend glanced over at me.

Uh, why? And I couldn't give him a really good answer.