This is the place

by Peter Rock

Sixty-four-feet tall and made of metal, the neon giant Wendover Will stands in front of the Stateline casino in Wendover, Nevada, facing east. The sign under him reads "This Is the Place." Over a hundred miles away in Utah, across the salt flats, stands the statue of Brigham Young, atop his monument, also proclaiming "This Is the Place.". In this sinister, heartbreaking story, an aged and lonely blackjack dealer who lives in Wendover becomes obsessed with a nineteen-year-old Mormon girl from Bountiful, Utah. This Is the Place is a tale of love, perhaps doomed, told by an endearing misanthrope who may be delusional, but who has managed to transform his manias into an alternative understanding that lies somewhere between Wendover Will's depravity and Brigham Young's morality.