Folks in Brimfield, Massachusetts talk much of the year about little other than their legendary summer flea markets. When a quarter of a million people leave the area, returning the local population to under 4000, the general state of exhaustion and silence is akin to that following the end of Woodstock, only more so.
And then winter sets in and Emma Walther goes ice fishing. She becomes the subject of frequent conversations as she walks by the local diner. Imagine, a girl.
Emma works on weekends in nearby Sturbridge Village as an actress in a living history museum. It is generally frowned upon to express frustration with tourists and their occasionally bad behavior, but bumper stickers that state, “We’re not on your vacation” can be seen on the outskirts of town. Eyes secretly roll at the sound of a Chicagoan asking how to get to Wore-Chester. Emma has been told not to make corrections, but finds it difficult to let it go. “Oh, Woostah, here, let me get you a map.”
“Dad, I’m goin’ fishing!” Emma yells on her way out the back door.
The garage stores too much stuff to also fit a car, and she struggles around collections of treasures for next summer’s flea, trying not to upset anything breakable. A bucket, makeshift pole and small tackle box are wedged between tables and trinkets, lanterns and pewter milk jugs. Tourists just love milk jugs.
Emma slides down the icy driveway with her gear, turns toward town and then down Brookfield Road to the Lake Sherman conservation area. The small lake is one of several in the area, stocked with trout and bass in the spring, and fishable during the short, frigid ice fishing season. She passes the police department, the cemetery and her old elementary school.
“Hey, school,” she says, her frosty breath trailing behind her, and then yells “Hey Stube!” to a friend across the street.
“McKay!” shouts Doug Stuben. Eliza McKay is the fictional character Emma plays in Sturbridge, churning imaginary butter and sweeping floors in the refurbished “original” home of the town pastor. The hourly rate is decent, but the work is pure drudgery. Sitting on a frozen lake with a line in the water is more to her liking.
To read the rest of this story and more than fifty others, please consider buying "Natural Selections," at Amazon.com.
😎
If you like fiction and you're in the mood for over 50 short stories, please consider buying "Natural Selections," at Amazon.com.
Or if you'd prefer seventy non-fiction stories inspired by a town in Illinois, please consider buying Park Ridge Memories also on Amazon. Click on the image below.
