MALAKAI

Prologue

Bumbling down the lane Mrs. Fletcher motioned with a slow sway of her wrist towards the new stores and single apartment building marring the mountain landscape. Garish spring yellow support beams and eaves stretched out to hold aloft the roof, while a nearly neon purple descended the railings and doors, the rest composed of midnight black and cemetery gray. Only two stories tall, the county had decided to build it to bring in new tenants.

Five thousand people in the town and barely enough to work the odd job around incurred three legitimate tenants, two the grocer Tom and his wife, separated, and the landlord Miss Davis. Being an out of towner herself, Miss Davis had moved to Nook following her recently diagnosed terminally ill husband, Mr. Davis, who passed away shortly after their arrival. Ashamed of the town's gossip she paid attention where she should've covered her ears and was dismayed into funding the building of the complex with most of her husband's meager profits; he had been a cattle rancher until he'd gotten sick and moved to the city for treatment, and then moved back home where he met his untimely end.
Traipsing alongside her with her groceries I kept my mouth shut. This town talked enough on its own. And yet, Mrs. Fletcher could keep a conversation with the wall of the complex easily.
"Y'see, Rome, there's no reason to get all excited over some bull that, at the end of the day, is landfill material and looks like they let baby Zeke pick out its colors, " continuing to ramble on about the baby and his family's problems. Her house was just beyond the new development, explaining her inherent dislike of the structure. Following her down the stone path to her door she was onto the concept of the young people around town who had been married and moved away or stayed to take on their family's business. Toeing off my boots on the porch she continued inside to the kitchen where she laid out her cargo and turned to me with a sigh.
"Have you had any luck with the ladies around here?" She was giving me a soft, almost pitying stare, barely managing to meet my eyes before I ducked my head and mumbled a negatory. "Well, at least you're not the only one."
She started putting the food away and I took that as my cue to leave, wondering but also  doubting who in town, if anyone, had the same reasons for not having such luck.

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