Loveville is a free-wheeling town you enter without a seatbelt at 100 miles per hour down the Main Street; going so fast, a clock can’t tick. When you spin off the road you are thrown onto the grass near a signpost. Look up and read it: “Welcome to Loveville-Population: Everyone else in the Universe. “Is this what you want?” you ask yourself.
You want this: You want love in Loveville. You take someone to town but you don’t want to be with her after you arrive. When did this place become so uncomfortable? Don’t come in here!” the statie yells as he pulled you up off the ground. “Hey, you’renot supposed to move the victim,” you tell him immediately. “Don’t talk back,” he says. “I’m not employed by Loveville.”
Loveville takes you on a walk since you have no car. It’s a famous walk. You start in your hometown and don’t stop. You walk fifty miles per day and in less than four months you have crossed the country. Loveville does not exist on the other coast because it is not your home. You walk in the opposite direction.
There are times after you return you settle back into Loveville and are actually comfortable there. There are meals and evenings on the couch with your arms a future there. When you kiss, Loveville kisses back. The clock ticks loud enough so you can hear it and then it’s all that you can hear. It forces you to get out again and you sprint.
Timothy Gager is the author of nine books of short fiction and poetry. He has hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month for the past eleven years and is the co-founder of Somerville News Writers Festival. His work been published over 250 times since 2007 with nine nominations for the Pushcart Prize. His work has been read on National Public Radio.
