In twenty-three years the town of Piddhe had barely changed. The ramshackle town was as it always was. The dry, dusty streets were filled to the brim with people bustling about their daily errands. Children raced about the streets chasing each other or the local flea-bitten dogs.
A young woman stared out the window next to her bank teller booth. She brushed her long, dark hair out of her sparkling blue eyes. She remembered when she ran around the town laughing and playing, but that was a long time ago. Sylvie sighed and turned away from the window and the gorgeous blue-skied day. Work came before fun and daydreaming. If you didn't work you didn't get paid. That was something her step-father had told her since she was ten. Whenever her mind wandered, she thought about what he had said.
The ancient computer sitting on the cluttered desk beeped loudly, drawing Sylvie's attention back to it. A message popped up on the screen, Sylvie read it with a smile. It was from her friend Michelle who worked at a bank teller booth on the other side of the room. The message was simplistic and broken but legible.
Lunch. You and me. OK? Boss coming. Bye.
Sylvie exited the message and looked out into the bank to find a long winding line of impatient people. "Next!" Sylvie called out and a handsome woman in her middle years stepped up to the booth and smiled.
"Hello, Sylvie!" she said brightly.
"Hi, Mrs. Smith!" Sylvie replied.
"I'd like to deposit some money." Mrs. Smith said, handing Sylvie her bank book and money. Sylvie was just about finished depositing the money when Mrs. Smith spoke. "Have you heard the news?"
"What news?" Sylvie asked, her head shooting up from the computer.
"About the legendary outlaw, of course." Mrs. Smith said.
"Vash The Stampede? I haven't heard anything about him lately." Sylvie said.
"They said the he's real close to here or he was." Mrs. Smith said.
"Was?" Sylvie said in shock, nearly dropping the bank book as she was handing it back to Mrs. Smith.
"Well, they say that he's disappeared. No one knows where he's gone off to." Mrs. Smith said pocketing her bank book. "I think that horrible fiend should be strung up somewhere where everyone can see him. A man like that shouldn't be around killing people and destroying cities like July and Augusta."
"He definitely scares a lot of people on this planet. I just don't know how one man could destroy two cities as big as that." Sylvie said.
"I don't know how but I know that that fiend did it and that he should pay." Mrs. Smith said. "We'll, I've kept you way too long, my dear. Take care, Sylvie."
"You too, Mrs. Smith." Sylvie said before yelling, "Next!"