West of the ninety-ninth meridian the land opens into Roger Mills County, and Cheyenne sits between the Washita River and the shinnery oak of the Black Kettle grassland. Wind is a fact of life here; it arrives at midday with the whole plains behind it and does not apologize. All Lawn Services mows into it — mowing, trimming, edging, and moving the cuttings before they scatter across a neighbor's drive. A yard held tight against country this big reads as a kind of quiet accomplishment. With the grass down and the lines straight, the courthouse blocks look like a town again rather than a clearing.