And here are my five:
The sons and daughters of the men who’d worked the mine had almost all packed up and left town as soon as they could get away. A few families remained, mostly working digging up and sorting and selling gravel. The old hotel still stood, and a few men rented rooms there by the month. Gangly, pimply Thornby, son of the town’s Postmistress and the foreman at the gravel plant, worked the cash register at the gas station by the highway offramp, and it was he who spray-painted the word Mordor on a beam at the mouth of the mine. Thornby was homeschooled and passably well-read and would attend the state university that coming fall, meet a quirky, mousy, bookish young woman, marry, take his Bachelor of Arts degree and teach middle school English in his new wife’s hometown upstate.
That was interesting! I would like to know more.
ReplyDelete"Good food leaves you hungry" maybe? :)
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ReplyDeleteI love how you unfold Thornby's whole life in last sentence so matter of factly. And the idea of him spraying Mordor over the entrance of the mine was inspired.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of story in those five sentences and I enjoyed it - thanks!
A beautiful tale of mining country, so well written ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhen a town dies, everyone holds on to the memories it has as long as possible until they too succumb to the need to leave and to move on with their lives. Well written
ReplyDeleteLove the Mordor reference! Some lovely description and an easy vision of the abandoned town.
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