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# Night Stations
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/night-stations/
- Published: 2015-11-04T11:00:42.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:51:01.000Z
- Author: James A. Reeves

Sometimes a Waffle House is a home. I found salvation in a pool of sodium light twenty-three miles east of Rapid City. She had a perpetually pissed-off supervisor who told her to quit digging for her rock bottom. I stood in line at the Gas ‘n Go behind a furious man with a pistol tucked into the elastic waistband of his sweatpants, yelling that the cashier only gave him three Powerball tickets when he should’ve gotten four.

 “What time is checkout?” I asked. The clerk shrugged. An old noir flickered on the old black-and-white in the corner, *Out of the Past* from ’47 with Robert Mitchum’s hungover eyes and Jane Greer’s Mona Lisa smile. They watched the roulette wheel spin. She asked if there was a way to win and Mitchum told her there’s only a way to lose more slowly.

![](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Waffle-House-1-867x650.jpg)

Christmas Eve in Kentucky

![](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Express-867x650.jpg)

Rapid City, South Dakota

![](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Melancholy-Steak-1200x900.jpg)

Highway 51, Missouri

![](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Mountain-Motel-1-1200x900.jpg)

Montana