Trafford Publishing: Reflections of Life in Our Town: A Book of Stories

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Reflections of Life in Our Town: A Book of Stories

by James

181 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1468; ISBN 1-4120-1099-3; US$18.50, C$21.65, EUR15.50, £11.00

Welcome to Our Town, America, population unknown. Please join me, if you are not too faint-hearted or too uptight, as I take a casual stroll down memory lane...

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about the book about the author excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

Reflections of Life in Our Town is a satirical look at life and values in small town America. The book is occasionally absurd, occasionally offensive, sometimes sensitive, but mostly just funny. Our Town does not exist in a time, nor does it really inhabit a specific place, though most of it's inhabitants believe that they are somewhere in Ohio, and all agree that they are definitely on the planet Earth. The citizens of Our Town live life pretty much as any Americans do, dealing with such issues as the spread of communism, the rise of the superstore, and rampaging ogres at the end of the street (?), as we all would.
The cast of characters in Our Town is wildly varied, from the senile village elder, Grandpa Genkaku, to the physically indescribable Laughlin twins. There is a child prodigy with a fish bowl on her head, a many tentacled alien from the dark side of Saturn, and of course, the aforementioned ogres. Though varied, together they form a relatively tight community trying to cope with the trials of everyday life.
And everyday life in Our Town is pretty much like life in any town. You have your good days and your bad; your successes and your failures. One day, a wandering band of angels is scandalizing the local women, the next day, the circus comes to town. Life is kind of like a roller coaster that way. The citizens of Our Town also offer forays into outer space in order to rediscover previously discovered planets, and a quest for god while in pursuit of a red balloon. While life in Our Town may not be quite as exciting as life in places like Toledo, we generally manage to fill our days quite well.
So, these are my reflections of life in Our Town. While some may seem a bit bizarre at first glance, upon closer inspection, they really are not that much different from the things most people experience in life. After all, its about values, and an appreciation for the things which we hold most dear. So, join me as I take a stroll down memory lane. Relax, and have a laugh, just be careful not to step in any ogre $#!?...

About the Author

James was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in 1971. After a hazy adolescence, he began attending Kent State University, in 1989. In 1996, after many divergent wanderings, he finally earned his degree in English Literature. Since that time, much to his parents' dismay, he has done little with that degree. He currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he drives a cab and drinks lots of beer, though not at the same time, of course.

Excerpts

Ilyosha
Back in the old days, when I was still but a child, there was another boy in Our Town, of roughly the same age as myself, by the name of Ilyosha. He was a normal boy, in that all of his limbs were present, and he behaved pretty much the same as any other boy that age behaved. What set him apart, though, was that the entire town despised him.
Immediately, you must think that there was some quality about Ilyosha that made us despise him, some general personality flaw, or some aberration in his behavior that would make an entire town despise him. Looking back, that was never really the case. He possessed no grotesquities, unlike the Laughlin twins (whom, I might add, everyone quite seemed to like), nor was he particularly insolent for a boy his age. In every fact of the matter, he was just a normal boy. I honestly don't know why we despised him, but we did. He was about my size, had dark hair fashioned in what is almost universally considered a "boyish cut", and had deep, blue eyes that sparkled with the luster of youth. In fact, it is completely conceivable that someone from another town, not knowing just how much we despised Ilyosha could describe him as "a handsome, bright, young lad." But the fact remains, we despised him.
Of course, I don't expect you to believe that we began despising Ilyosha right from the moment of his birth, as if being born were sufficient reason for an entire town to despise a person. When Ilyosha was born, we merely disdained him. It was not until a couple of years later, when Ilyosha began to talk and enter into various social situations that we truly began to despise him.
You must, by now, be wondering in what manner did we despise Ilyosha? Similar to our reasons for despising him, this is not a matter easily defined. Certainly, there were other boys in the neighborhood who received far more open ridicule and abuse than Ilyosha, but there was a degree of levity and camaraderie in our abuse. With Ilyosha, it was different. With him, there was no levity, and there certainly wasn't any trace of camaraderie. When he would approach a game of kickball in the schoolyard, with nether actions nor words, we would simply, but intently, despise him. It was as if by some combined force of wills, so strong that it was almost a physical substance, we could shun him and drive him away. And, as an unspoken law of the town, we all knew that it would be inconceivable to share as much as a greeting with Ilyosha, the breech of which would invite such a state of social exile, the likes from which it would be impossible to recover. And you must not think that despising Ilyosha was just some cruel torture practiced by us school children. In fact, it is quite possible that the older townsfolk despised him even more than we did.
On the rare occasions that Ilyosha's unfortunate mother had to send him on errands in town, many shops preferred to close down for the day rather than transact with him. On the Sunday of his first communion, even the church would not open its doors, Father Donhey citing a papal emergency as the official reason. No one in Our Town wanted anything to do with Ilyosha, so greatly did we despise him. Indeed, it was a deep rooted fear, similar to getting warts from a toad, that any contact with Ilyosha would bring misfortune and ill-omens. And his poor mother? It is often rumored that she perhaps despised him most of all.
In retrospect, if not for the fact that I also despised Ilyosha as much as anyone else, I could have perhaps felt pity for him. I can picture him now, skipping merrily to school, books tucked under one arm, seemingly oblivious to the deep feelings which the town harbored against him. I must add that, while not a true genius like Nancy Wallham, Ilyosha was a particularly good student, always receiving good marks, despite the teacher's contempt for him. He probably would have made a good study partner, and even a fine friend, had anyone ever given him the chance. But, as it was necessary to despise him, I doubt if the idea ever even occurred to anyone. It may seem a bit extraordinary to describe someone as being "necessary to despise," but in Our town, that was certainly the case with Ilyosha.
Back in those days, every couple of years, the angels would come to Our Town. Their purpose in coming was to perform miracles of faith for the believers, and for the nonbelievers, they would mathematically prove the existence of God and perform other miraculous parlor tricks. As I later discovered was the normal procedure, news of their impending arrival reached us two days prior on the breathless lips of a messenger from the town of Bashlura. As this was to be the first time in my short life that the angels had come to Our Town, I was quite nervous and excited at the prospect. Immediately after the messenger left, the whole town ignited in a blaze of energy. There was much planning for the customary parade and festival to be done. For many of us children, this was to be our first coming of the angels, and we bounced around like charged electrons, our minds awash with visions of the miracles to come. Tommy Fitzsimmons, who claimed to have been around the last time that the angels came to Our Town, casually proclaimed that they were nothing to get worked up over.
Ilyosha, however, saw the angels' arrival as an incredible opportunity, and began cooking up a plot in his head. Little did the people of Our Town realize, Ilyosha was not content with his status of being "the despised." Secretly, he harbored an overwhelming desire to be liked, perhaps even loved, and, as long as he was fantasizing, maybe even adored by the people of Our town. He figured that if he could in some way get the angels to acknowledge his virtues, or even simply to not despise him, then surely the people of Our Town would have to alter their judgment of him.
The day that the angels were to come to Our Town finally arrived, and all of the town's politicians and leaders of finance were gathered in the positions of prominence along the town square, dressed in the finest suits they could muster. Their wives, alongside them, sparkled in the finest dresses and jewelry that money could buy. There was a tension in the air of a consistency similar to that of tapioca pudding. Everyone in the town was there, gathered anxiously with jaws tightly clenched from long hours of anticipation.
Suddenly, we knew that they were coming. The air was filled with the electricity of the magic that was about to occur. It began as a cloud of dust upon the far horizon, similar to the ones caused by the great cattle drives of days past. Within moments, they were within visible distance. Everyone stood at attention as the winged column approached. As they neared the threshold, the high school marching band began to play.
Without warning, Ilyosha broke from the crowd. Displaying an amazing burst of speed none of us ever imagined that he possessed, he raced towards the angels in order to be the first of Our Town to greet them. The crowd looked on in horror. It was simply unthinkable that Ilyosha, the despised, should be the one to welcome the heavenly angels into Our Town.

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