pataskaville

[pataskaville]

The corn is ripening. The days of harvest dawn upon the town.

Wild teens don’t know it, though - they rip past the fields the same as they did all summer, their beater cars disrupting the quiet with the roaring of ancient exhausts.

On the corner, Billy Germain makes a quiet oath to himself: maybe it’s finally time to stop stealing catalytic converters, if only to preserve the peace.

[pataskaville]

The tornado sirens rip through a still night, cutting the air between dark cumulonimbus. Is there a green tinge to them?

He’s on his porch already - Jim Houston, his too-tanned skin still leathery from Key Biscayne - lighting a cowboy killer clenched between his yellow teeth. You’re all out on your porches. It’s the Midwestern way. Barb has the coffee pot sitting on her wicker table, and Louise is next to her in an oversized sweatshirt. CLASS OF 1982, the sweatshirt says. No one else says anything, except for the siren, which roars and roars.

“Think we’ll see a big one?” you call to Jim.

Jim smokes a cigarette like he’s giving a performance, giving it a deep drag, accumulating cinders as the cherry ember climbs toward his lip. He flicks the ash.

“‘Course not. There’s never any tornados. They just want us to go inside.”

[pataskaville]

The Brick Factory is looking for several hardworking, passionate new brick makers to add to our team!

First shift: 6am - Purple Hour. Lunch. 12pm - 2pm

Second shift: 2:03 pm - 5pm. Favorable Snacking Hour. 6pm - 7pm (Slinky shift, with flex hour on alternating days).

Third shift: 7pm - Witching Hour (Slinky shift, following second shift’s flex hour). No lunch hour due to the Noises.

We offer an exciting range of benefits, including two weeks of fade vacation, 7 paid statewide holidays (Ohio location ONLY), sick leave, health insurance, free snacks on the clock, and Bones. Third shift employees are also eligible to receive Witching Hour pay, life insurance, and Gun, due to the Noises.

[pataskaville]

In the quiet of the uptown, the small museum stands. A teenager in a Forest Hills Frogman baseball cap leaves via the back door, and her breathing is hard and ragged. What is in her small green satchel? Why do her eyes look wild? What flavor is her bubble gum? Will the curator notice what is missing?