-It’s 3 in the afternoon. There’s no train. There hasn’t been a train on any side of town since noon. The cops don’t have anyone pulled over. There’s no fenderbender ahead of you. It’s a Tuesday. Why have you had to sit through 3 light cycles to go 2 blocks?
-The newcomers don’t know about it. It’s better that they don’t know about it. That stretch of town in the old swampland between 77th and 81st called “Frogtown”. It’s better to just pretend those people are normal. Don’t get me wrong. They aren’t bad folk. But everyone that’s been here long enough knows that they ain’t normal.
-The deer are wandering the subdivision again. They see you driving up. You slow down as to not spook them and cause them to dart in the road trying to avoid you. You see them staring at you, eyes burning yellow in the reflection of your headlights. Where do they keep coming from? The more fences they build in this town, the more deer seem to materialize. The more we try to keep them out, the more show up.. Are they really deer, or something else?
-It’s midnight. Like most places in America, the Mickey D’s and Wendy’s drive-throughs are the only thing open right now. You’re hungry and want a cheeseburger. That’s it. Just a cheeseburger. You choose Mickey D’s. You pull up. You’re the only one in line. The voice comes through the box. You place your order. You pull up to the first window. There is no cashier. You wait. And wait. And wait some more. After 3 minutes that feels more like 45 years, you stretch your head out to look inside. There is no cashier. From what you can see, there is no kitchen staff. You think you hear a conversation, but when you really listen to it, it’s just an ad on the radio that’s always 600x’s louder outside than it ever is in the lobby. There is no one here. You put your head down for just a second to consider if you should cross the street and try Wendy’s. A voice tells you it’ll be a dollar. You look up. There’s the cashier. You hear voices inside. You hand over the money, hands shaking nervously She hands you your receipt. You pull up to the second window. The place is bustling with activity. Not even 30 seconds ago it was completely abandoned. A woman of about 47 hands you your order, sneering at you like you smell like dog vomit and she can’t stand to be near you. You take the food and GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!
-Something lives in the woods on 81st/Steger Road heading into Illinois. You’ve caught a glimpse of it driving home. You’re not sure what it is. You never see it fully. But it’s unspeakably thin, and has to be nearly 30 feet tall. You hate this stretch of road, and hope that if you ever break down on it, you can outrun the thing to the horse farm up the road. It never seems to go past the farm. The farm is your only hope.
-That shape you saw dart out in front of the car…you’re not sure if it’s a coyote, a dog, or a meth head.
-You don’t like going near the hospital. The walking trail behind it still smells like antiseptic and latex gloves, despite being a nice wooded little trail. The parking lot is ALWAYS full (we aren’t the biggest town in America. Do we really have THAT MANY sick and injured?). And you swear you’ve seen…something…peering into the 6th floor windows before.
-Sometimes, a fog descends over the old cemetery between the middle school and the Catholic church. And ONLY over the old cemetery. No one can adequately explain it. No one even tries. You think it might be the ghost of the middle school’s namesake, Ms. Kahler. They say she still haunts the school. But then again, you get the sense that no matter how long you live here, this town has secrets you don’t know about…so your guess is as good as any.
-When they built the skate park by the pond a few years ago, every kid in town was using it. Now, you’re lucky if you see 1 or 2 kids there…every other month. It’s not like there’s no kids here. What the fuck happened?
-Why does the town only allow smoke shops, churches, banks, gas stations, and restaurants to be built here? You can’t recall the last new business outside of the meat market to be built here that wasn’t one of those.
-Something slams into your window on a warm summer night. You open your blinds. There is a large moth slamming into the window trying to get in. Or maybe it’s a June Bug. Or even a cicada. You think that must be it. Until you realize that what you heard sounded much, much heavier.
-That faint static sound you here at night. Is that the symphony of the crickets? The orchestra of the cicadas? Or something else entirely?
-You know what an alligator snapper looks like. The one that lives in the pond has been there since you were a kid. Since your parents were kids. Since your grandparents were kids. It’s probably been here before the town was built. You’re certain it will be here long after we’ve all died.
-Every basement is the same. You don’t go down any of them after midnight. You’re not sure what lives down there, but you’re certain you don’t want to meet it.
-No one parks their car in their garage. And every house has a garage. What goes on in there? Do you even want to know?
-You’ve walked through the living room at night to get a drink, and looked out the front window to see them. Kids, but not any of the kids you know from the neighborhood. And you know they know you saw them. You know because the whispers started not long after that. Now you sleep with a weapon near you, even though you know it won’t be enough.