Thursday 29 December 2011

The Mousetrap: A Small Town Twilight Zone

I’ve spent most of my summer vacation in a small mining town named Fochville. It’s a nice town, but I always have this feeling something is wrong. This, is the new twilight zone.

You may be thinking that I'm a sensationalist, or that I'm insane. But after years of coming here I know that its different. If I can start by discussing the weather I will explain how.

Fochville, to its residents, is famous for crazy weather. The one day it would almost be a hurricane, then sweltering heat the next.Not the strange part yet, but here it is. If you wake up in Fochville it could be raining something awful. So you dress appropriately for the weather. And as soon as you pass the halfway mark to any of the surrounding towns, there will be sunny skies. Grumbling a little (or a lot) you shed the many layers you had on. But sure enough when you head back to Fochville you shiver in cold from the rain, and where does the rain start? Right over the halfway mark back to Fochville.

There is also the problem with time. Time does not exist here. I see days go by, but I don’t know where they go. Clocks are liars, showing that while you thought it was 10:00, its 18:30. The only way to see the passing of time is to stick your nose out your front door and see if its dark or not.

The people. They aren't as they appear.Seeing them, they are farmers, miners, wives, who all live in a tight knit little community. What you don’t see runs much deeper. How many of the men could be wife beaters, rapists or paedophiles? How many women are manic depressive, suicidal or murderers? I'm not saying everyone is, there are some really nice people. But then there are these dark souls, actors who wear masks of smiling faces. And everyone knows everything about each other. The people here, aren't necessarily people.

People who move to this town, or have children here become entrapped. They don’t leave this community, and neither do their children. The little ones grow up to do their parents jobs, thus, it’s a never ending cycle.

Nothing is as it seems here.

Welcome to the new twilight zone.

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