Middletown Dreams
The office door swung open revealing a coyote who had seen better days. Oh, how Adam would wish for those hours to pass more quickly while staring blankly at a computer screen and the clock for hours, pretending to work hard when his boss or other workers came to look. And yet it was an open secret that everyone stuck in those cubicles knew- this job was where the sacred dreams and aspirations of youth would die in hours upon hours of needless work.
Adam felt that he had been tricked by the world, by his parents, by his boss into thinking that this would be a challenging and rewarding job with pay and benefits- the learned incompetence, the deepening feeling that the best years of his life were being wasted by an incompetent boss, and the longing to be with his friends told him otherwise. All those long hours with his neck craned over a computer screen gave him constant pains all over and Adam's once-athletic and muscular frame had been wracked by five years of this sedentary hellhole into a paunchy canid with folds of flab where muscle used to be.
And yet in spite of the growing discontent over his job, the coyote continued on this road to advancement, (or road to perdition, Adam could never tell which). As he embarked on his long-awaited daily pilgrimage to the bus station which would send him home to his family, Adam reflecting on the boredom and monotony of his days as a computer programmer said aloud "Another day as drab as today is just more than I could endure."
And Ted thought of how his life started- growing up on a farm in South Dakota he would have been better off tending to his family's farm than here in suburan Chicago. Adam could have been a little less wealthy for his troubles at least in terms of money but much wealthier in spirit, just tending the wheat that his father grew at the Big Sky Country Farm twenty miles east of Sioux Falls but he had to take the bait- like his Biblical namesake, Adam was taken in on the empty promises, the Apple of computers only to find it would lead him down to a road of joyless office work. Those unrealized dreams reached across the heartland and burned the coyote like a blazing fire as he undressed and thought of the monotony of the day which awaited him in ambush the next time the sun rose. Adam knew he would have to leave the suburban paradise of Middletown for another day of this mess, this mistake which stripped him of all joy.
In the fields of early May, a young fox walked with his best friend and neighbor. The fox and the lion, both middle school age walked along the outskirts of town looking for a place to eat. And while they walked across the landscape of small mom-and-pop eateries, video rental stores, and auto shops which made up Middletown these two friends spoke not a word to each other. They shared their secrets yet there was so much more that separated them, so much that kept them apart that even when they gave away intimate knowledge there was still a shroud of secrecy on some issues.
Their dreams and hopes for the future were known but they did not reveal their family's marital status, or the fact that they were living paw-to-mouth. But Alex, the lion knew that someday in a few years he'd climb aboard that bus to the jazz clubs of Chicagoland. And then when they finally did speak Alex confided in him his dream of using music as a ladder out of hell, a path to wealth and fame, and superstardom. Alex knew he would be a star but he would need to finish growing up first- which would take so long.
Alex's dreams transported the desires he had for himself and his family- his talents would ensure that he would not have to perform factory work, as his father had done and the thought of money and fame spurred him even when life got rough. And no disappointment or defeat, nor the fact that his family was so working-class would keep his dream of one day being a great guitarist down.
"Hello. Yes. Maddy Baxter here," the she-panther schoolteacher answered on the phone. Her neighbor who was an otter spoke to her. This middle-aged panther worn out from a day of teaching the children of Middletown how to read, had watched as the best years of her life had come and gone, passing her by. Once she was attractive who dreamed of performing in theater. But those wonderful salad days of her life had as stated before, simply come and gone and she was just a dowdy schoolmarm, the very career she had hoped to avoid. Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, Maddy had watched the seasons pass and guests were seldom seen at her door. She was much like the woman she modeled her life after Emily Dickinson, old lifelong spinster and like her heroine she was a mystic with big dreams. Just like every citizen of Middletown, her golden eyes were now set on something far greater than the status quo. The school where the panther had worked sent her an expensive paint set for her 20th anniversary and she had every intention of using it.
One day, on some bright and sunny afternoon, she would walk out that door of her house and turn her back on the old life- her dream of performing on stage would not be realized. But her other dream, the one she kept secret from all but herself would be realized- Maddy would be the "Painter Panther". Her house was already decorated enough by frescoes and portraits, now the time was right to share these with the world for a handsome price of course. The one thing she always wanted to do was to paint pictures of the skyscrapers of Chicago which captured her imagination so near and yet so far from this suburb. And she knew an artist friend from childhood who owned a loft near Chicago so she too would get on that bus to go and paint her favorite big city from that attic room. Her dreams had told her and would transport her out of town because quite frankly, she needed it more than words could say.
It was understood by Adam, and Alex, and Maddy Baxter, and for that matter every single inhabitant of this peaceful yet static burg. Though they enjoyed the absence of violence in their suburban neighborhood, they all secretly longed to be somewhere else if they could, somewhere fast, somewhere exciting, somewhere with more things to do and places to see and people to talk to. But they were stuck here, in a place wanting to tear out of this unchanging world the same way one would like to take off a strait-jacket Everything in their cheery little home was so far, so good but nothing more- not unpleasant but somewhat boring with all the flat normalcy. Perhaps maybe someday, for at least a few of them, their dreams would propel them onward to greater things and higher altitudes. But for now...
They dream in Middletown.