Part I - Chapter 1

I can’t decide just how much the town has changed over the years. The backdrop of buildings looks and feels familiar, but I am aware that certain details have altered the complexion of the area. For example, I clearly remember many of the buildings on Main Street, but most now stand vacant and in disrepair. The five-and-dime is still open, and the hardware store next to it seems little changed. The same two churches still flank the square, one I particularly remember well ablaze with a fresh coat of white paint. A telltale spattered ladder still leans against the entrance; only the steeple remains untouched. It seems to me that they should have started at the top and worked their way down, but then again, I’ve never painted a church. Across the well-kept square, punctuated with its beds of geraniums blooming between marble benches and the once bubbling pool, the other church squats on weathered haunches, as if to hide its chipping paint and exposed splinters from the stare of its cousin. Beyond the square, the Rex Movie Theater marquee touts some coming attraction, no doubt long since come and gone. All that remains of its name are a few random vowels and nonsensical consonants, signifying nothing.

My next–to-last trip to Ellyson was the last time I saw my grandmother alive, and back then I took little notice of this town, too young to consider it of any importance. . .

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