by Jody A. Harmon
Chapter One
Once upon a time, nestled into a small green valley between tall mountains, there existed a village called Sunville.
Sunville was an extraordinary town. Sunlight bathed the village in brightness and warmth every single day of every week of every year.
Sunville was not a village where people complained, “Oh, it’s so hot. I wish it would cool down a bit or rain.” It was not that kind of a sun-beaten-down town at all. Every day, the temperature was just right.
The townspeople loved their village. They loved one another. They were happy and cheerful and courteous and good to each other.
The Corner Store sat across from the snowy white-spiraled church, which was next to the green park where children played and dogs bounded for joy with their tongues lolling out to the side.
People lounged on the corner store’s expansive porch, lazily sprawled in easy chairs, sipping iced tea or reading books with their legs out, and chatting with one another about this or that and asking if they’d seen so and so, and talking about their kids’ schoolwork and who was marrying who.
No one paid any special attention to the smiling old woman hobbling along the sidewalks, carrying her bag on her back on twice-daily rounds. They greeted her with a hand wave and a smile like everyone greeted everyone else in Sunville.
After school, groups of children, pulling at least one rusted squeaking wagon, and flanked always by two or three mongrels, would head for the creek that chattered merrily down steep banks along the road and then curled through the park. There the children would wade and toss stones and build forts from sticks at the edges of the clear flowing stream.
Cats chased their tails and cleaned themselves diligently, and then stretched out in the sun to nap, balanced precariously on porch rails.
Mothers and fathers and single people and old people worked the day through at their tasks slowly and easily. Day’s end would find the people of Sunville relaxed with their neighbors and families, playing board games or ball games or reading or chatting softly as the light died from the sky and sleep came over their eyes.
All of Sunville’s residents seemed to have everything they needed.
Sunville was indeed a splendid place to call home.
But, over time, as things sometimes do, Sunville began to change.
Some of the villagers became cocky about their wonderful sunny town.
It began this way.
Chapter Two
Mr. Huffnpuff, who was a buyer for the corner store and liked to wear gray suit coats with a pin-striped vest showing, had ambitions.
One morning, he approached Piola, who stocked shelves at the store, and said this: “You know, Piola, I was talking to some folks at the warehouse over in Gentry and telling them about our little town and how the sun always shines here….and…”
At this point, Piola looked up and batted her eyes and said “Mr. Huffnpuff, are you getting those big ideas again about being on a national morning TV show and making Sunville famous?” She rolled her big brown eyes in exaggeration, as if Mr. Huffnpuff might be the dumbest man in the entire world.
You see, Piola had no proper ambitions, as Mr. Huffnpuff privately assessed. She wanted nothing more than to marry Johnny Seasons, create children, write a couple of good books, compose songs and concoct fantastic potions to cure everything that ails anything. And that, mused Mr. Huffnpuff, privately of course, was ambition of pure nonsensical nature.
So Mr. Huffnpuff made his overtures to someone of more sense. He went to the banker, Buckaroo Seasons, who was also Johnny Seasons’ grandfather.
The bank Buckaroo owned and ran wasn’t much of a bank. If people wanted to save a bit of money, they turned it over to Buckaroo who then opened a big metal door on a room in the back of his house, and put their money into a shoebox with that person’s name written in felt tip marker upon the top of the box.
Oh sure, sometimes he took money from one shoebox to add to another, if a townsperson needed a bit more, temporarily, than was in his own shoebox of savings. And Buckaroo would remember that and when the person who borrowed, paid back, plus a bit for the privilege, then Buckaroo reinstated the funds in all the proper shoeboxes.
This system worked very splendidly for Buckaroo Seasons and the citizens of Sunville. No one was in deep debt at all. And for Buckaroo’s effort in maintaining the shoeboxes, he took a coin from each shoebox each month so he could have what he needed to live.
Mr. Huffnpuff knew Buckaroo Seasons was getting a little confused over small things now and then due to his advanced age. Maybe Buck’s trusting and a-little-bit-forgetful nature would finally grant Huffnpuff the persuasive edge he was looking for.
“We’ve got to make advancements, Buckaroo, so the children, like Johnny, can have better opportunities.” That was Mr. Huffnpuff’s golden egg argument. “You’re not going to hold back the children, are you Buck?”
Mr. Huffnpuff made this final argument after tiring Buckaroo out with three hours of unrelated conversation. Buck had lost focus completely. Huffnpuffs' droning had put him to staring at one particular spot on the wall. He was by this time actually dreaming about something pleasant that had happened twenty years before.
Mr. Huffnpuff had to kick Buckaroo’s chair to get a response. Buckaroo startled, as if awakened from a nap, and declared, “Oh, no, no. We couldn’t hurt the children. Wouldn’t be right at all. Go ahead. Implement the plan.” Buckaroo promptly fell back to dreaming.
The “Plan” had been created long ago by Mr. Huffnpuff’s father and presented over and over to the town council and town leaders by Huffnpuff senior and junior. Its implementation had always been denied. Buckaroo Seasons was the town council President and finally, Huffnpuff had been granted permission to implement. Oh, how grand and important he felt now.
Mr. Huffnpuff immediately created a tourist bureau and placed himself as CEO. If Huffnpuff had seemed full of himself before, he now literally drooled with self-delight. As he walked down the cobbled sidewalks of Sunville, he stopped to tousle children’s hair and smile down on them. He would then say things like “Wait until you see what I am doing for you!”
The tourist bureau produced smart posters and catchy slogans about the town and how it was so much better to live in Sunville than anywhere else. “It’s just another Sunny Day in Sunville” was one of the slogans. “Smile. You’re in Sunville” was another. The posters led to TV commercials. The little town’s mayor and Mr. Huffnpuff were given a free trip to New York, paid for by a sunscreen manufacturer, and they were heard boasting proudly about Sunville’s merits on national TV.
All the publicity soon went to the townspeople’s heads.
Several industrial plants relocated their businesses to Sunville, including manufacturers of swimming suits, sunglasses, sun tanning lotion, and tiny decorative plastic palm trees.
The young people bought expensive sunglasses to wear and roared around town in fast shiny sports cars. People without expensive sunglasses were ridiculed soundly and called mean names.
The little local hardware store was torn down and a bar was built in its place. A forty-foot tall flashing neon sun-shaped sign, with a blinking green cocktail glass, announced the name of the bar as “Sundouse.”
The white-spiraled church was no longer full on Sunday. The preacher himself got expensive sunglasses, thinking he better fit in or the pews and the collection plate would remain empty.
The town tore down the animal shelter because they needed space for a bigger better tourist bureau and no one said anything. Mr. Huffnpuff himself drove all the animals, including his own dog, one mile out of town and dumped them into a field. He drove off and did not look back at the wide-eyed cats and dogs left without anyone to love them or give them food.
About the only person who stayed the same, with all these changes going on, was the old woman. She still hobbled on her twice-daily rounds, waving to the villagers and smiling. She was not wearing sunglasses at all. Little kids now sometimes threw rocks at her and their parents said nothing. They were too busy, you see.
After the mayor was on the national TV morning show, the town had become famous worldwide. Busloads of people came to visit Sunville from all over the world. They piled out of tourist vans with expensive cameras hanging around their necks and took pictures of everything.
Business was booming in Sunville. People were making money.
When people make a lot of money or think they can, things change very quickly.
(to be continued in the July issue of EAP…)