[ ELIGH ]
So very much paperwork.
I'd anticipated it, sure, and even practiced my cursive for a few hours a day in preparation for this job. My handwriting, in general, was immaculate, I'd say, but cursive was where I excelled, even if it had fallen out of use in recent times thanks to the rise of the computer and smartphone in our daily lives.
Everything was primarily digital in the modern world.
Unless, of course, you lived in Brickhedge, New Hampshire.
For all that was great about my new home, it felt wholly out of tune with the rest of the country, let alone the world.
For example, they still primarily used fax machines. Granted, it was an excellent fax machine and produced in the last decade at the latest. But it was weird as heck to use and cumbersome as all get out for the sort of work I had to do, which involved a lot of paperwork and communication with numerous local businesses, contractors that were located off the mountain, and numerous other entities that I'm nonplussed to mention right now.
I'll be the first to admit that I am a spiritual beast; I don't necessarily associate with any one religion, but I absolutely believe in the concepts of an afterlife, luck, and fate by relation.
And it is that ladder that I have found myself enduring the current circumstances with the sort of enthusiasm I have. Brigid and I had moved into town at the beginning of spring, and now we were approaching the beginning of summer and in that time, I have certainly made an impact within town hall. We've upgraded from the dial-up modem to a more modern wi-fi connection(complete with heavily encrypted signals).
When asked about the stale state of things within the town, the mayor simply replied, "The beasts are comfortable, so why fix what wasn't broken?" To an extent I did agree with him, and I wasn't about to start a campaign to change anything significant. Yet.
However,
If I were to do my job effectively, I would have to upgrade some things within the building. It was well within the budget, even if Mayor Filbert hesitated initially. It had felt like every chance he got, he would slap me with his "If it ain't broken" line.
After a few weeks of that, we did get a proper internet connection, followed by some slightly better computers as well some nice fans for around the various offices and fixes for the long rundown central AC unit that was supposed to cool the building in the summer.
She never mentioned it, but I could tell that Mrs. Kinkaid was struggling in the heat. Her little desk fan did little in the way of keeping her cool, even in conjunction with the little misting device she sat beside it.
In the face of all the good I was doing within the government building itself, it was outside the walls that I had some real work to do, and something had told me that the residents of Brickhedge were going to be far more standoffish than the mayor or our receptionist might be.
We arrived in Brickhedge a few months ago, and as time went on, the residents became more comfortable with our presence. Probably Brigid more, as she was happy getting out and seeing the town(the coffee shop and the hiking trail in particular).
Whenever I'd go out on the town, walking casually down the street in my usual attire of a heavy hoodie and shorts, beasts would tend to shy away or converse with each other in hushed tones as I walked back.
That sort of behavior wasn't something I was a stranger to; Being a seven-foot-tall grizzly bear was going to get me looks whenever I went somewhere new. It's just that here in this particular town, they weren't used to new faces.
While a lot of the action in town took place on Main Street, there were a lot of less trekked, sparsely populated streets that snaked out of town like the roots of a massive tree. They'd all been, humorously enough, named after different vegetables.
It was on a walk down Turnip Street in early May that I started to notice little signs of others like me here. A little rainbow flag there in the window of a drug store, a trans flag decal on the rear window of a car parked on the side of the road.
After that walk that day, I started to notice more and more just how many little suggestions there were from the residents. No one was openly flamboyant or loud about it, but they were here, and that got me thinking: What if we held a little Pride Month event? It was nothing huge, but enough to get the town residents out and about for some little festivities before the 4th of July rolled around.
Would there be opposition? No doubt, but it was something I felt would be suitable not just for the LGBTQ+ residents here in town but the town as a whole. Looking at the slate of events the mayor had posted in his office, there was nothing outside of the usual major holidays, and even those were subdued in nature.
Things were going to change.
So that following week, at the first town hall meeting of the season, I had taken the seat beside the mayor at the desk of town officials. The treasurer, the postmaster, the local farm owner, K-Mart manager. Faces that kept the town going, you know, the drill.
Still unsure of how the K-Mart manager factored into the grand scheme of things, but I'll find out eventually I'm sure.
When the meeting had been called to, there were some gasps within the audience. There was no doubt in my sheer presence, which loomed over the other beasts that were lined up along the table. Me in my shaggy red beard against the blond fur that covered my body.
One by one, we took turns speaking, and when my turn finally came up and I stepped up to the podium, I was greeted with even more gasps. At the far end of the gymnasium, I could see Brigid giving me two thumbs up, and beside her, holding a red party cup, was a beast I'd felt seen before but couldn't place a claw on, but they seemed to have been in conversation before I took the stage.
Standing there, my deep voice reverberated off every wall in the gymnasium as I spoke; I proposed the concept of a Pride Month event. One that would celebrate not just the beasts of Brickhedge that identified as such, but the town of Brickhedge and a greater acceptance as a whole.
This immediately sparked a hushed conversation amongst the crowd. I could feel my GAD rapidly coming to a boil, even under two bars of Xanax, as discussions ripped through the crowd before me.
The mayor, noticing my fear-struck self, took a stance beside me and spoke into the mic, asking that those in favor of such an event could now raise their hands.
And to my absolute surprise, more than half the crowd's hands had gone up. More than a few had stood up, and flat-out left the gymnasium.
But the vast majority, including those within the leader's panel, all had raised their hands. K-Mart manager included.
"Thank you so much, everyone. As you all know, young Eligh here is our new Town Planner and has been working diligently behind the scenes trying to get things in order and build a bridge between Brickhedge and the modern era. I appreciate all of your cooperation in his first big event proposition." His voice was sure, well-spoken, and clean—no hint of an accent of any kind. The residents hung on to every word, and I could tell they respected him greatly.
"I would ask that everyone that wants to volunteer your time to the event please check back at Town Hall in the coming weeks for further instructions as young Eligh here moves forward with his plans."
The rest of the evening was spent mingling with the town's residents, with some shop owners approaching me with their ideas for decorations. All of which I had given my work email to for further discussions as I expressed with glee my interest in further cooperating with them.
When Brigid and I finally reunited, we scoured the snack table and sampled the various treats the local eateries had donated to this month's town hall meeting.
"So Brigs," I said, "Who was that you were with earlier."
She looked up at me, brushed her bangs from her face, and frowned.
No comments:
Post a Comment