Honor System

One quarter is good for one soda pop. Every house knows your mother save the two at the end of the avenue. Their fruit baskets have fermented, but we do not judge them. They may hold different customs or work really tight schedules. No matter the case, they are only a county fair away from being baked into our community. They will be drawn out by a fall festival or parade. Mrs. Brummer has lemon squares at her ready. Three minutes of her chit-chat and you are guaranteed new aunts and uncles. I'm not sure why we boil our water when we have no intention of cooking. The old folks have their superstitions I guess. Perhaps they think it will ward off the nose bleeds some of the kids are starting to have. Turns out these new homes are more of a front office of sorts. Maybe a home dentistry. Symitrex Rx seem to bring a lot of out-of-towners to their doorstep. They don't advertise all the other local shops. No flyers, no free shirts, or posters. Fences have gone up around the parks. Most passed it off as temporary safety measures. The funny thing is that there is no construction. Not one jackhammer or cement mixer is in sight. It almost feels like a crime when we cut through. Whoever they are, their logo is splattered across Mayor Buck's re-election lecterns. A friend of Buck is a friend of ours! Yet we do need him to explain these letters about selling out houses. It's not real neighborly to proposition folks you haven't even meet eye to eye. Semtrix Rx says we can let our dog's into the fenced area. We complained to Mayor Buck, but he insisted that we are all on Team Semtrix. The Daily Quill laid off half their workers. Marsha's family were absolutely furious one minute and hysterical with tears the next. They said it was payback for some story they shouldn't have printed. I only know that the door to their vending machine does not open up when customers insert their fifty cents. Instead, it sets off some kind of silent alarm, and a person walks out to hand you one. We started to draw our curtains when the Semtrix guys would walk around taking pictures of our properties. Then came locks on all the store fronts. This odd move did not comport with our low crime rate. We can't fish all year round. Apparently they don't lay eggs with the same frequency they did before Mayor Bucks new friends got in his ear. They did improve our school lunches. So there is that, but the nurse's office is pushy now. We never used to take medicine for stomach aches. We would put our heads on our desks until the feeling passed. Now we have to swallow two blue tablets and a small round pink one. Mayor Buck insisted on parental consent. After the last election, the grownups just call him Mr. Buck.