Sorta A Continuance

If you don't remember, click here.

I'm also tinkering with the town name. So far nothing has grabbed me yet.

Well, on to it!

The killings began in 1969. That was the official stance by those who made the town run would say. Whether or not they believed that is an entirely separate matter and couldn’t possibly be covered here. And even if it could, I wouldn’t want to, because who can truly know what goes on in a person’s head anyway? Do you even know what goes on inside that coconut of yours, definitively? Nope, didn’t think so. The human mind is a complex and confusing place and no need to try and make it more so.

Though I will sit here and fill you in on what gossip generally floats around between the old folks who spent their entire lives planted here in Jonas Gulch. Down at the feed store, they’re likely to tell you it began back in 1945, right after the war. Hal Burton will tell you it must have been one of those boys from up north who got a taste for killin’—which around these parts means Columbus. It must have been some of those city boys, he’ll say, because ain’t no one ‘round here sick enough to do that to one of their own. As soon as he’s finished, Burt Larder will shake his head the way a parent shakes his head at a child who doesn’t know better and say it began a year before D Day and he knows that because the first one turned up the same day Butch the Tabby died. And Butch the Tabby died in 1943, April to be exact, the month the heavy rains washed out the bridge that connected Jonas Gulch with its sister city, Kingston. He’d tell you he knows that day because he remembered how soft the soil had been in his garden when he went to bury poor old Butch the Tabby. Best damn cat God ever made, he’ll say before he’s interrupted by an ancient Del Freeman who’ll call Hal and Burt nimrods before confirming Jonas Gulch was quiet up until the day “that pretty boy stole the election from a tried and true Dick Nixon”. Then he’ll remind Hal and Burt of the lull after that day in Dallas, thus confirming the "Democratic nun fucker" was the root of the entire town’s trouble.

If you listen to the hens down at Fran’s diner they’ll each come up with different recollections of their own. Fran herself will tell you Jonas Gulch has been terrorized since the early 30’s. Hettie Johns’ll ask Fran if she didin’t mean to say the 20’s because her daddy was on the police force back then and she was sure he talked about something similar to her mother long after they thought Hettie and her two sisters were fast asleep. That was the whole reason the Johns sisters weren’t allowed out after dusk. No, no, no, Elly Russick would cluck, shaking her head forcefully from side to side. It really all began in 1909 and she knew that because her mama was the unfortunate soul to stumble upon the first victim. And from then on body counts began to rise in every year ending in a 9. 1919, 1929 (right before all those rich people lost all their money), 1939. (Never you mind 1972 and 1983. The past is subjective and held hostage by those who tell it.)