The Happy Happy Village

Ms. Mercedes (Part-1)

-Welcome to The Village!-

I hadn't even stepped onto the granite and I already had a bad vibe about the village. Those smiles, they just weren't right, they weren't natural. These people had smiles that rivaled toothpaste ads, they were ridiculous and I refused to move another step. It wasn't just the smiles that caught my eye, the attire that the people wore looked rather uniform and dirty. The men and women wore white shirts that have been stained with dirt and dust, and black pants and skirts with endless wrinkles. The hair for the men was cut short while the women had their hair in either a pony tail, long braids, or a bun. Hair, eyes, and face (and hopefully name) were the features that set everyone apart. As friendly and simple the town looked, I wasn't exactly too fond of what I was getting myself into.

But I had to do it, I wasn't going to find help standing outside the town. I was just nervous, that's all, really nervous. As long as I didn't bring any attention to myself, and just minded my own business, everything would turn out O.K. I could only take these people by how I saw them, the happiest most polite people in the world... hopefully.

I took my first few steps into the strange village, putting one foot in front of the other. When I was about 10 steps down the road, people began to take notice quickly. Every villager I was passing turned their smiling glares to the stranger who was walking down their street. The farther I walked down, the more people began to notice. Some of the villagers were already starting to follow me from behind. Then it was the people ahead of me who were beginning to watch.

"Welcome!" said one of the men in a friendly tone.

"Welcome!" said a women rocking in a chair on the porch.

"Welcome!" said another man.

"Welcome!" said another woman.

And these people continued to welcome me like they did. I was really starting to feel all of the unwanted attention, but it ended up being soothed with music. I took note of the many green radios stationed on every porch, playing the same exact station with the same song throughout the village. But the music could only sooth my tension for so long as the unwanted attention only grew. I tried my best to ignore the smiles, but there were so many of them. They were beginning to close in.

"Welcome!"

I wanted to try asking these people for help, or at least where exactly I could find some sort of official who runs the place, but I couldn't. These people made me too nervous to speak, and that I would only be making things worse if I did. But it was already worse for me, villagers had blockaded me off with their own beings as they approached me. I looked over my own shoulder to find that everyone had been following me since I stepped on the gravel. I was surrounded by big happy smiles, all around me.

"Welcome!"

The villagers continued to welcome me, and soon they were making excited sounding whispers among one another. I was trapped inside with no privacy, all eyes on me as people looked over each other to catch a glimpse of me. I was only given less than 2 yards of breathing room, the space seemed like it was shriveling up. I was a bit of a claustrophobic in case you couldn't tell, it fueled my nervousness very well like gas on fire. These people couldn't get much closer than this. So much for trying to not bring attention to myself.

"Excuse me?" someone then called out from among the villagers, "Pardon us everyone, but what seems to be all the commotion here?." The villagers began to politely clear way for two young clean men, both of which wore black vests over their clean white shirts. The man on the left had short red hair and freckles while the other had black hair and a smooth white face. They both stood straight up at the same height and smiled at me. They looked like they were related, exact twins almost.