Independence

A weird little short story that I wrote in my spare time. Note that this is entirely a work of fiction, and not based on anything in my actual life.

Independence. That was the name of the small town I'd lived in for so many years. It wasn't easy to find on a map, it was surrounded by a vast desert on all sides, with the next town a half hour drive away. Some people might say it’s a lonely town, but I found it cozy, comforting. Now, most people would assume that this was just some small desert town, like any other, and that there wasn’t anything to make it stand out. That’s not the case at all, there was one thing, one single detail that made Independence different from all the other small towns out there, rockets. There was a launching area just outside of town where various space or technology corporations would send rockets into space every so often, and I always got a front row seat. I remember one time when I was a teenager that I wanted to have a slightly different kind of launch viewing, and I decided to climb the water tower on the outskirts of town to see the launch from high up. The blazing sun beat down on the desert around us and stepping on the sand felt like hot coals, and if you weren’t expecting it it’d hit you like a ton of bricks. Sure, the heat was a pain for a while, but you eventually get used to it. Once I reached the tower, I began climbing up the metal ladder, sunbeams in my eyes, and at that moment, I had never felt more alive, it was glorious. The rocket didn’t launch until twilight, and as the sun was setting on the horizon, the sky turned pink, and an ocean of colour washed over the desert. You could see the whole town’s shadow as the first parts of the sky started to turn black. I had never truly appreciated my town before that day, I always thought it was just a town like any other, but it was so much more than that. As the sun became nothing more than a faint glimmer of light on the horizon, I began to feel the earth tremble beneath me, and I knew exactly what was happening. The rocket's engine’s turned on, and clouds of smoke and flames poured out in all directions before takeoff finally commenced. I saw the rocket’s shadow fly across what little light was left in the sky, and drift away to parts unknown. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like in space, I dreamed about it as a kid, but nowadays I feel like it would get pretty lonely up there, every other human millions of miles away, that kinda stuff can drive a man insane. I’ve lived on the coast for ten years know, and I decided it was about time that I give old Independence a visit again, so last summer, I made up my mind and booked a train ticket. It hasn’t changed much, all the local businesses are still active, and my old stomping ground is the same way it always was, but the new thing about it that surprised me was that another town had been built what seemed like next door to mine. It seemed to me like they wanted to make Independence 2.0, so the town was aptly named “Freedom”. I could tell you about Freedom, but I wouldn’t want to bore you too much, more than anything it’s just an expansion of independence, and there isn’t a whole lot to it. Some might say that this small town life could bore a man to tears, but it was just fine with me, and sure, the town had flaws, but nobody, and certainly no town is perfect. Everyone’s flawed in one way or another, and flaws are really what make us human, right? If you ever happen to pass through Independence, and you want to stop by, see if you can do it on a launch day, trust me, you won’t regret it.