Mass Hysteria in Maysville

An invasion of tourists and the army

Sizzling heat did not keep the tourists away. Neither did the haze of smoke that blanketed the valley. Neither did the lack of available lodging. Everyone wanted to see the new attraction with their own eyes. And everyone it seemed had a camera.

Rumors were spreading that people were being healed just from touching the object. Many people burst into tears upon seeing it. The object glowed and emitted a soft humming sound. It left everyone speechless.

The mayor of the nearby town of Maysville declared a state of emergency. The little town simply could not handle the influx of so many pilgrims and tourists. The shelves in the one small grocery store had been stripped bare. Despite tripling the price of gas, the owner of the one gas station ran out of gas and had to close down. TV news crews were everywhere interviewing people while ignoring the big news about the nearby forest fire. Children were sent home from school so that the school buildings could be used to house tourists.

Then a long convoy of military vehicles came through town on its way to the object. The mayor hoped that the military would take the unidentified object away so that life in the town could return to normal.

And that is exactly what the military intended to do but they soon learned that the object was simply too heavy to be moved. All of their best equipment could not budge it.

No one’s life was more uprooted than that of farmer Clarence Johnson. It was in Clarence’s cornfield that the object landed after falling out of the sky. His little farm was devastated by the mobs of tourists. All his crops were trampled and the front door to his home had been torn out by tourists needing to use his bathroom. Clarence had not been able to get a moment of sleep since it happened. Finally, he took to drinking and passed out in the rows of trampled corn.

Birdsong was the first thing farmer Johnson heard upon awakening the next morning. As he opened his eyes small chunks of dirt fell off his eyelashes. As he struggled to get up he realized that there was an almost empty bottle of tequila in his left hand. He immediately let go of it.

Although it was eerily quiet, once Clarence got to his feet he saw hundreds of tourists standing in a big circle around the object. None of them were speaking.

Clarence headed toward the crowd. Making his way through the people he soon saw that all the people were staring down into the impact crater where the object had been. But the object was gone! Apparently, sometime during the night the object disappeared, vanishing into thin air.

Making his way back outside of the circle of people Clarence pulled his cell phone out of the pocket in his overalls and called the mayor, “Mayor, this is Clarence. I’ve got good news. The object is gone. Just disappeared.”

“Oh, thank God!” said the mayor. “Maybe everything will return to normal now.”

But things did not return to normal. The tourists kept coming. Even though they could no longer see the object they still came to see the hole in the ground where the object had been.

A couple of months later Clarence was reading a magazine in the game room of a nearby mental hospital when the mayor — also a patient there — came over and sat in a chair next to Clarence, “Well, it looks like we finally found some peace.”

Clarence looked up from the magazine, “Yeah, sorta. Of course I still see the damn thing in my dreams.”

The mayor lowered his head, “Yeah, me, too.”

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction.

Speaking of farmers…