Windy Town

prologue

Have you ever lived in a world where it's never not windy?

Last month it took the neighbour's cat. The month before, the butcher's dog. This constant whirlwind that sweeps and destroys everything in it's part. It hardly ever takes humans though because we have learnt to adapt. To be prepared for it. But animals aren't that smart. You could tell by the way 'lame Joe', the hunter's dog is always falling into the holes its owner dug out to catch other animals.

It's constantly windy in windy town. But it was also where our world began and ended. No body leaves, nothing comes in or goes out. Our life support is made here. Our doctors and engineers educated here. But it was just a little town. Nobody remembers anyone ever leaving, Except Nana the blind, slightly insane old lady who lives in a ramshackled hut the other side of the lane. Nana said a boy went away once. She said his name was botcher. She said he was the most jovial, fun and kindest creature ever. But he never came back.

Of course nobody remembers Botcher. It was impossible to leave the town they said. Nana's stories lacks credibility. She was afterall insane. Nana is the oldest in the town, aged a hundred and sixty and she said she had no intention of leaving just yet. Not till her work is done. I often wondered what it was or perhaps she was waiting for Botcher's return. She always has that slightly insane faraway look in her unseeing eyes. When she tells her tales it twinkles with wonder which always entrances me. I loved staring into Nana's deathless eyes. We the children love her stories but my parents don't care for them. They get angry when instead of storing the food crops safely and secure in the store room in preparation for the whirlwind I chose to join the other children in listening to Nana's stories.

You see, the whirlwind didn't just take animals and sometimes humans, it takes everything in it's path. Like my favorite hair brush and my blue socks. Mother said it was a good thing they were taken because I was forever running that 'god forsaken brush' like she liked to call it, through my hair instead of doing meaningful things around the house. And the socks wasn't much of any use she said; because they had big holes in them. It didn't help against the winter.

You would think that as constantly windy as the town was we do not have winters. We have winters. Scary, windy and cold! And it was worst when the whirlwind came. It comes anytime without warning. Last year, it took Mira the Trenton's only child. She was just seven. The couple has never recovered from the blow. Mira had snuck out of her room against her parent's orders wanting to go look at the wild daisies her father planted at the back of their house. When the whirlwind came, her parents thought she was safely tucked up in bed in her room. That was how they left her, reading her favorite bed time story. The little pigs. Well Mira and her little pigs story was blown away by the whirlwind, never to be seen again. Her father destroyed the flower garden.

But the strangest thing happened two days back. I found Mira's worn out almost destroyed, three pigs story. This will start a chain of invent I think I'll be happy to talk about. And perhaps it would change the fate of our dear old town. And perhaps it would no longer only be known as windy town.