[Write the Story] A Babysitter Snoops and Finds Something Unexpected
Prompt: On Main Street in a Small Town
Words: square, separate, type, truculent, preach, wilderness, pang, façade, pawn, pavement
Story
Pay no attention to the “city limit” sign on the edge of town. The welcome to Grover Corner is a façade at best. But don’t take my word for it. Make your own judgements, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The city square is a truculent hold out to Old World architecture. Spires and stained glass juxtaposed with weeds and wild crepe myrtles along the foundation. But standing tall at the other end of the cracked pavement stands the Church of Grover Corner. No denomination. No type. Just a church with a rotating cycle of tired old men scheduled to preach to the handful of people who show up each week.
It’s with a slight pang of regret that I watch our dwindling population go about their separate lives in some deluded hope of a future. One that will never be. For we are all just pawns in a grander scheme of the universe, and none of us any the wiser to the Big Picture.
So, we battle back against the wilderness that ever encroaches on our dying but never quite dead town. Waiting for the sliver of hope that may one day release us from this place, but until they are done with us all we can do is endure. They won’t allow us anything else. They need us for as long as they can keep us alive. Some days that’s easier than others. Let’s hope today is not that day.
Word Count: 243
Written: 10/3/17