untitled short story
“Don’t you know who George’s father is?” she breathed.
“No,” I whispered back.
“He’s the one that found the stone.”
It had only been a couple months since I had moved to town. I was
the new girl and, in a small town, that got a lot of attention.
I’d heard the stories. Everyone had heard the stories. But I’d never given it much thought.
It was the kind of little town where everyone had known each
other growing up, since they were babies, and their parents and
grandparents had been friends before them. Nobody came and nobody left,
so our arrival stirred almost as much excitement as the incident two
years ago.
“Have you met the new girl?” they’d say. It was as though I came
from another planet and not another province. Their stares bored into me
and I wanted nothing more than to leave this tiny, little backwards town.
Then I met her. “Hi,” she breathed, smiling up at me. “My name’s Sandra. Let’s be friends.”
I smiled back at her. It was the first time someone had been nice
to me in this town. Always whispering around me, as though I couldn’t
hear.
“Sure.”
“What’s your name?”
“Emily,” I said.
“Where are you from?”
I told her. She gawked at me like I was a god. “Wow,” she said.
“That’s so far away and such a big city. Why did you move here?”
I could tell this was what she was looking for, the reason she
was talking to me. It was the question on everyone’s lips. In a world
moving forward so fast, why would anyone move to such a backwards,
little town?
“It was my parents’ idea,” I whispered. Definitely not mine.
“What’s the city like?” she asked, failing to hide a sheepish
little smile. “I’ve never been to a city. I’ve never been anywhere but
here.”
I stared at her for a moment. We lived in a world of jumbo jets
and fancy cars. How was it possible she’d never been as far as the
closest city, barely two hours away?
“It’s like on TV,” I shrugged.
“We don’t own a TV,” she explained. “I’ve never seen one in my life.”
I hesitated, unsure how to go on. “It’s big, busy, complicated. It’s the opposite of here.”
“Things here are complicated, too,” she responded and I wondered
how that could be. In a town with two streets and little contact with
the outside world, how could anything be complicated?
We’d made friends. She was my best friend and I was hanging out
with her every day. I wasn’t surprised she’d come forward to meet me
once I got to know her: we were the only two our age in town. The only
two girls, that is.
I didn’t meet George right away. He was shy, sitting at the back
of class, avoiding everyone’s stares. People picked on him. They
ignored him and, when they spoke to him, it was with words as sharp as
knives.
I’d seen this all before, in elementary school where people were idiots. I couldn’t stand a bully.
So I talked to him.
“Hello,” I said, smiling at him. “What’s your name?”
He blinked at me as though he’d seen a ghost. Was it so unusual
for anyone to talk to him? Or was it because I was new?
“George,” he said, gathering his breath. “You’re Emily, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, grinning back. “It’s amazing how news travels in a small town.”
He laughed, but it was a laugh laced with misery. “I want to
escape this place so badly. It’s a dungeon; you’re born into it and
there’s no way out. People know you; they know your parents and your
grandparents. They judge you based on them, like this was the middle
ages or something. I hate it so badly.” He smiled at me. “Tell me,
what’s it like where you come from?”
I smiled back. “Not like that,” I said. “Towns like this, I
didn’t think they existed anymore. In the city there are thousands
upon millions of people. Nobody knows you until they meet you and they
judge you based on who you are, not on who your parents are. This
bloody town is so backwards, like it comes out of another time.”
He laughed at me, that gruff laugh laced with something else I
couldn’t place. “But you can’t escape it.” He sighed. “There’s no way
out. As far as we’re concerned here, the rest of the world doesn’t
exist.”
“It’s not that far to the city,” I said. “Only a couple hours'
drive. I’ll take you some day. Perhaps after graduation we can go away
to uni together and then you can move away and get a job.”
He smiled at me, his first real smile, but then it faded, as
though a hand had wiped it clean. “But things like that don’t happen,”
he said. “People here don’t escape it. Nothing ever changes in this
town. People are born and people die, but one generation is replaced by
the next and things carry on much the same as they’ve been for
centuries.”
“Then make a change,” I suggested. "Isn’t there a quote, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world?’ There’s nothing stopping you from leaving.”
He sighed, an exasperated sigh. “But that’s what you don’t understand,” he said. “Everything is.”
The next day we were given a group assignment. A presentation on
the outside world. Like it was some faraway distant land.
“You wanna come by my place after class?” she asked me, not
bothering to ask if we’d work together. Things like that were taken for
granted in this town.
“Sure,” I responded.
I caught George’s glance across the room, but it didn’t hold a
second. He knew that I’d go with her; he knew that he’d be left to work
alone. My arrival was a change in this town, but for him, it wouldn’t
change a thing.
I sighed in frustration.
“What’s that about?” she asked in her chirpy voice. She was so oblivious to everything.
“Nothing,” I responded. I forced a smile on my lips and she believed it.
“Hey George,” I called out after class.
He turned to look at me, shock written across his face, as though
he’d expected me to forget him after yesterday’s conversation.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“D’you wanna work with Sandra and I?” I asked.
For a second a smile spread across his face, then it faded. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked. “D’you not want to work with me?” I felt a stab to my heart, to my pride.
“No, of course not,” he said. “I’m just not sure that’d be a good idea.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s up to you, but we’re meeting at Sandra’s place at four.”
He nodded. There was no need to explain where she lived. Everyone knew where everyone lived in this town.
“See you then?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders, an awkward motion as though the weight of the world sat upon them. “I’ll think about it.”
“See you then,” I said, turning to run home for a quick snack before heading over to Sandra’s.
“Hey,” Sandra said with a smile when I arrived. “How are you?”
“Good. Is George here?” I asked, hoping he’d show up.
“No,” she responded with a frown. “Why would he be here?” She stepped aside to let me into the house.
“I invited him to work with us,” I said with a shrug. “He didn’t have a group.”
She stared at me as though I were a ghost.
“Don’t you know who he is?” she asked.
I didn’t answer.
“Don’t you know who George’s father is?” she breathed.
“No,” I whispered back.
“He’s the one that found the stone.”
I was silent for a moment, absorbing what she’d said. George’s
father was the one who found the stone. The hermit from this ghostly
town who’d made the discovery of the century.
“So?” I asked.
She stared at me in awe. “Didn’t you hear the stories?” she said. “I thought they got news coverage everywhere.”
“They did.” I’d read them, but hadn’t paid much attention to them
at the time. It was hard to ignore what was blaring on your news,
though. Ancient stone found, hieroglyphical writings, the key to an
ancient culture. I remembered.
So didn’t that make George’s father a hero, and not a martyr? Or
was sharing some part of their town with the outside world a sin?
“We don’t talk to George’s father,” she said; “we don’t talk to George.”
“But why not?”
She rolled her eyes, as though it was so obvious. “He’s the
hermit in the woods. They live in a little shack a mile or so away.
The only person he ever talks to is George. It’s been that way since
George’s mother died. He’s hiding away from the world.”
“And that’s why you don’t talk to him?” I asked, sensing an irony in her story that she’d never understand.
“When he found the stone, we thought things had changed. We
thought he was a genius because he knew of its importance before anyone
else had seen it. He left his hut, he left this town and took it to the
city. We thought things had changed, that the hermit in the woods was
finally stepping outside of his bubble, but he hasn’t. After his grand
adventure, he returned to his cabin and no one’s seen him since.”
“And what’s this got to do with George?” I asked.
“It’s his father,” she said, staring at me in disbelief. “He
lives with him, out in that shack in the woods. They keep away from the
world. George only leaves for school and his father never leaves at
all. They’ve got their own garden and his father hunts for meat.
They’re pagan.”
I laughed at her words. “But look around you,” I said. “This
whole place is so backwards. Can’t you see the irony in what you just
said?”
She stared at my blankly.
I sighed. I would never make her understand.
George never showed up to work with us that day. He wanted to see
a change, but he would never make one. He was right: in this town,
nothing ever changed.