The Subsect
This is the middle of my story. But really it's the beginning. I was finally getting the fresh start I was never given. The fresh start I needed. A new town. New people. A new life. A subsect. The Subsect. The most important sub-section of my life. We all have several subsects throughout life. Moving out of home and going away to college is a major subsect for most people. For me, this was it. This subsect would put me on the path that led me to where I am now. I'm thankful. I just didn't know it at the time.
The town my mother shipped me off to was, well, hell. It was so different from what I was used to. And not a good different. I don't even know where to start. Three left turns and you're back in the center of town. Several ceramic cat and unicorn stores. Three too many to be exact. I couldn't help but notice the differences between this small town and the city I'd grown up in. The city was noisy. Bustling. There was bustling here in a small town way. But it was quiet, too quiet. And the people were even worse.
The town was run by a deranged dictator. He was a mad man. Enforcing ridiculous rules and laws. No strolling arm in arm with the opposite sex on a Sunday. The man was crazy. Systematically buying up the whole town. Turning it into Tourist-ville. I mostly avoided him. Messed with him when I was bored. It was just fun to piss him off. He knew it was me. He always did. This town had no crime rate before I moved here. He was the judge, jury and executioner. He liked to think he was the enforcer as well. Thankfully the town was smart enough not to let him have that much power.
The dictator had a right-hand man. But his right-hand man was way more than that. In my opinion, he was the one to watch out for. In a way he was 'systematically buying up the town' in his own way. He worked at every business. No job was beneath him. Or above him for that matter. He was crazier than the dictator. He didn't have the ability to express or deal with emotions. He was like me in that respect. But where I shut people out, he did the complete opposite. He let them in. Sometimes he said the wrong thing. Sometimes he was insensitive. Truthfully, I think he just spoke his mind and we were all jealous of that.
This town had the worst and the best gossip mill I'd even encountered. Two women reigned as queens. Thought there was a third always vying for that top position. She was mysterious. No one knew who she was. Only a name. I've always suspected it wasn't a woman at all. I always thought that it was the dictator. But it was never confirmed. So the two women reigned. Probably still do to this day. Both were overly-friendly, well-rounded women. One had an unhealthy obsession with her cat and several garden gnomes. The other woman was overly-affectionate with people. Of the opposite sex mainly. There wasn't one piece of skin on your body she couldn't pinch. They were both completely harmless though.
One bookstore. And no public library. There were times I wished I'd packed more books then clothes during my move. Thankfully the bookstore owner was one of the few who didn't think I was a juvenile delinquent. He let me use his bookstore as a library. I spent countless hours in between the shelves just reading. He even let me borrow books. I'd return them and he'd just put them back on the shelf to sell. He was the closest friend I had for a time. We hardly spoke. We had more of an unspoken relationship.
And then finally. Well for this chapter at least. There was her. She was an older woman. We never really had a relationship. The closest we came was over day old Chinese food. But I screwed it up. I always did. We got off on the wrong foot. She was trying to be my mother. Trying to look out for me. I didn't need anyone. I didn't want another mother. I didn't want to be let down. Again. I didn't want to let her down. She would become family down the track. One way or another. Even the blind could see the relationship forming between her and my uncle. They were both just too scared to jump in.