Emerging Writers. The Dusty Town He Never Knew.
The Dusty Town He Never Knew
A story of reconnecting, and seeing it all over again, for the first time. Episode 1.
Jacob Strong jumped down off the stagecoach and immediately his fine city clothes were covered in dust. Same old dusty town, he muttered under his breath in disgust. As he attempted to brush the dust off his clothes, to no avail, his eye caught Mr. Nelson at the general store just as Nelson was looking in Jacob’s direction.
“Jake, is that you?” Nelson called out from the wooden sidewalk outside his store. As he did every day for the past 30 years, there was Caleb Nelson sweeping the dust out of his store back into the street, also to no avail.
“Hi Mr. Nelson! Still sweeping I see. Nothing changes around here, does it? Doesn’t the world ever beckon to you Mr. Nelson, ever?”
“Well, Jake, truth be told…” and Nelson stepped into the street with his broom, stood beside Jacob, and spoke in a low voice, “…Son, of course it has! But you know what? I learned a long time ago that life was good here and here was where I stayed. Reckon you will realize that too if you ever give this old town half a chance.”
And in an equally low voice Jacob replied, “Don’t know about that Mr. Nelson, you crazy old man!” And they both had a good laugh.
Jacob Strong had left town about 20 years ago as soon as he was all grown up and free of his mother’s apron strings and his father’s iron hand. He just had to leave that town and all that dust, it was all over everything, it got in his lungs and he was certain it was fixing to choke all the life out of him. He made sure he took off before it could. The world was calling him and he was happy to leave that town that never changed, except when one died or one was born, every day was the same, same people, same dust. How did this place survive all these years, Jacob mused, as he looked around and remembered his days here growing up and how it all still looked the same, trapped in time even as the world changed all around it.
Jacob kicked up plenty of dust as he took the mile walk to the old homestead outside of town. His father was dying and his mother needed his help to put things in order, so there Jacob was again, after all those years. Still the same place, he kept saying, over and over to himself as he walked, as Mr. Nelson’s sweeping continued to echo in his ears.
