closed-up

When the last bit of business was done, the parking lot emptied and the Sons drove home, past a closed-up downtown and fields that stretched quietly to the mountains.

Across from a closed-up snack cart, I knelt until the cold concrete prickled my knees.

If my soul had gone out of my body, I’d have left the rolling of the ship, the stench in the closed-up ’tween deck, the rats that sometimes scuttle over my face in the night.

We’ve fried eggs on the sidewalk since my kids can remember, baked cookies and cakes on the dashboards of our closed-up summer cars.

The house already had a closed-up feeling to it, as if it had been empty for days, not just a matter of hours.