GAME ENTRY 1 // "CALM BEFORE THE STORM" // OCT 22 - 28, 2007

[cougar_ridge_v2]

The more things change, the more they stay the same, goes the old saying. In Cougar Ridge, that can't be more true. It's been nearly two years since the disastrous incidents that left the town a bullet riddled mess, but life does move on. However, it moves on in ways that people rarely expect. Many of those who were at the center of the strangeness

Comments

[abe_hochschild]

Another nasty one today. Not a good time to go out but I'm out of cigarettes. I should have picked up some at General Store last night but, of course, it slipped my mind. When I was young I never could understand that. How can old people be so forgetful? Now I'm lucky if I can recall where I put my reading glasses.

It only sounds funny until it's you.

Age hasn't helped me with the cold either. Makes me achy. So, even if it's only mid-October, I throw on a winter coat and scarf before I go out. The fewer trips to Berkland's clinic, the better. I never did like doctors. It's not the profession of a normal man in my opinion. Who wants to spend so much time with the sick and infirm? You've got to be a little sick yourself, I think.

I drive my white Impala up Cypress, finding the traffic sparse this early in the afternoon. Everyone's at work or doing something useful with their time. Me--I'm buying cigarettes. I guess that's useful too. Half the state government probably runs off the taxes on the damn things.

A lot of the houses have put up their Halloween junk, ghosts and goblins and plastic blow-up crap. I used to love it when I was young. Of course, it was different back then. Halloween was a big deal. There was an excitement for a kid. Now, not so much. Kids got better things to do than trick or treat, and nobody trusts anybody these days. They think they're going to put a razorblade in your candy bar or something. What a world we've made.

Still, I like it better than all the Vote Thwaidey signs. Some kid tried to get me to put one in my front yard the other day. Like hell. I never really was one for politics but I've lived long enough to know they're the worst sort of cons. Small town, big town, makes no difference.

I pull into the lot of the General Store and find it near empty. Not a lot of business this time of day. Across the street is that queer bookstore, What the Moon Brings. What kind of name is that? What is wrong with people these days? I slam the door of my Impala and scurry inside.

I wonder idly if the afternoon will bring rain.