The End Of The Town Where All Things Are Possible
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In The Town Where All Things Are Possible, tree branches rustled lazily with the breeze, casting shadows across a cobblestone pathway that wound through the town’s park and ended at the iron door. Alexandria pulled The Man’s arm back over her shoulder and they stepped out into the sunlight. She scanned the trees, then saw the ice rink in the distance.
A group of boys appeared up the path, running and laughing as a black-and-brown mutt followed close behind. The boys turned and one of them threw a tennis ball along the path. The dog sped after it. The ball hopped awkwardly across the cobblestones and rolled to a stop a few feet from the Man. The dog slowed as he saw the pair. He stepped toward the Man and sniffed at his hurt leg.
“Tobey!” the boy called.
The dog backed from the Man, snatched the ball in his mouth and returned to the pack to drop the ball at the boys’ feet. They ignored the dog as they watched the Man and Alexandria.
“Is everyone okay?” the Man called to the boys.
The boys looked at one another.
“Yeah,” one of them replied. “What happened to you?”
Alexandria could see the Man’s confusion. He was looking out across the park toward the town as if expecting to find a mushroom cloud or some other magnificent calamity.
“Can someone go find us some help?” Alexandria asked as she began helping the Man up the path.
The boys leapt into action, running back out of view. The dog barked back down to the Man, retrieved his tennis ball, then sprinted off into the boys’ wake.
As Alexandria led the Man to the ice rink, she glanced down at his leg and found the blood still flowing. She lowered him down onto the bleachers.
“Hold on,” Alexandria told him. She looked over the leg, but couldn’t decide what to do. So she leaned over his face, brushed his messy hair away from his eyes, and kissed his lips.
A herd of townspeople rushed toward the ice rink. The mayor carried her high heels in one hand as she led the way, barefoot.
“Where is he?” the mayor called.
“Dead,” the Man said. “It’s all over.”
Leo rushed out ahead of the crowd and reached them first. He began examining the Man’s leg, then waved to a woman in the crowd.
“Beth, go get your truck, we need to get him to the clinic!”
Beth turned and ran back towards downtown.
“You’re gonna be okay, Jeffrey,” Leo said as he ripped the pant leg around the wound to get a better look.
The Man gazed across the crowd, then to downtown, toward God’s Blowhole. She could see the light dimming in his eyes. He was fighting, but the blood loss was pulling him under.
“Did anything happen?” the Man asked the mayor.
“When? What do you mean?” The mayor grimaced at a flash of bone protruding from the Man’s thigh.
“Did anything unusual happen?” the Man asked.
“No,” the mayor answered. “We were all worried sick about what was happening down below.”
A humming engine approached. The crowd parted to make room for a truck backing towards the bleachers. It stopped a few feet away.
“I grabbed a plank to use as a stretcher,” Beth called as she climbed out of the driver’s side and opened the truck bed. Gerald appeared out of the crowd and helped her bring the plank. Leo, Gerald, the Beth, and Alexandria transferred the Man to the plank and carried him to the truck. Alexandria rode in the back, holding the Man’s hand as they passed downtown.
“Stop!” the Man shouted. He banged against the truck bed. The truck eased to a stop beside the flagpole.
“What’s wrong?” Leo called from the passenger side.
“Help me up,” the Man said to Alexandria.
He began pushing himself up to see over the bed of the truck. She reluctantly helped him up by his elbow. He looked down at the grate covering God’s Blowhole. He studied it.
“What’s happening?” Leo asked.
“Ssh,” Alexandria responded.
She watched the grate with him.
“Nothing happened,” the Man said.
“Buddy, we have to get you to a doctor,” Leo urged.
The Man sighed, shook his head, then allowed Alexandria to ease him back down on the plank.
***
A rap on the door brought Alexandria out of her nap. She straightened in the hardwood chair. Her eyes fluttered open and found the Man sleeping heavily, his leg fixed in a cast, his shoulder and arm wrapped. A muted television looked down on the clinic’s only overnight room. Alexandria stretched and walked to the door.
She opened it to find Mrs. Gratherson and Tessa. The old woman motioned for Alexandria to join them in the hall.
Alexandria softly closed the door behind her. Mrs. Gratherson watched Alexandria with a cold glare.
“You will never speak of what happened in those tunnels,” she said. “Ever. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” Alexandria answered.
Mrs. Gratherson turned and clicked her walker along the clinic’s linoleum tile floor.
Tessa lifted up a potted plant with a single blue flower sprouting up. The same flower from the roadside. The same flower that Tessa used against the killer.
“A welcome gift to our town’s newest resident,” Tessa said.
Alexandria hesitated taking it.
“Don’t worry, it will listen to you.”
Alexandria accepted the pot, arms out extended as if receiving a soiled infant. Tessa chuckled and turned to follow the old woman. The mayor stood at the far end of the hallway waiting for the two women. Alexandria met the mayor’s eyes and the mayor managed a rigid smile. Alexandria returned to the room, closed the door behind her with her foot and placed the plant on the windowsill. She considered for a moment, then moved it into the bathroom and shut it inside.
***
The Man Who Held The Town Together returned to his job once he woke the next day. Alexandria pushed his wheelchair down to God’s Blowhole. He held three cards between his palms, whispered to them, then leaned down from his chair, straining to reach the grate. He dropped the cards down into the hole.
Without a word, Alexandria pushed him back up to the small office. This continued throughout the Man’s recuperation, Alexandria visiting him every morning and evening as he ran his errands, but never with the same urgency as before.
Alexandria began reorganizing the shelves of The Wider World Books And Novelties, clearing off the clutter from the front and stationing the blue flower near the front window like a watchdog. She was beginning to see herself in the store. She still felt trapped and conspicuous inside the town, but less and less like a stranger.
Once the Man graduated to a cane, he told Alexandria she was free to skip her trips up to his office on the hill. But she still came twice a day, for she saw a sadness filling him. Day by day, she was losing him.
On a fall afternoon, nearly five months removed from the death of Alexandria’s would-be killer, she found the Man sitting beside his desk, cards strewn about the office. He wore a dark scowl.
“Darling,” she began.
“I’m not going,” he cut her off. “None of this matters.”
Alexandria stepped toward an upended box and knelt beside it.
“Leave it,” he said.
Alexandria paused, then righted the box and began putting the cards back in.
“It doesn’t matter,” the Man said. “None of this matters. It was never about the cards. The Town simply does what it wants to do. We have no control over any of this.”
“You don’t know that,” Alexandria responded, her voice calm and patient while she worked.
“You proved it by tossing that box in,” the Man responded. “Something should have happened.”
Alexandria put the last card back in and replaced the lid. She stood up.
“Something did happen,” Alexandria said. “Nothing. And the man that would have killed me killed himself instead.”
The Man looked away.
“I’m not going,” he said. “I’m done with this.”
Alexandria stood up and watched the Man. He was diminished and it broke her heart. The end of the cards might mean the possibility of a normal life. She knew this. She’d long hoped for it.
But it would also be the end of a part of him.
“We could try to leave the Town again,” the Man said. He leaned on his cane and struggled to his feet. “We could try every day in every direction until we find a way out.”
She turned from him and looked through the window to the sprawling countryside creeping up to the cliffs. They could run. Perhaps the Town would follow them, like he once believed. Some dark magic would chase them to the ends of the Earth, punishing them for their escape.
Or they would leave and nothing would happen. The Town would forget the lovers as they found a new life.
Alexandria walked back to the box, opened the lid and looked through the cards. She picked one out, grabbed a pencil from the desk and wrote on the back of it.
“One more,” she said, folding the card so that her new wish was hidden from the Man.
“One more wish and, if this comes true, we stay,” she said. “If it doesn’t, we leave.”
The Man took the card from her, but she held his hand.
“Don’t read it,” she said.
“How will I know if it comes true?”
“You will,” Alexandria said. “Trust me, you will.”
She lowered her hands and held her eyes on his.
“Okay,” he said. “One more wish.”
She laced her arm around his elbow and they walked through the door, down the hill, and toward the heart of The Town Where All Things Are Possible.
THE END
