The Alderman?s Story

I think it?s about time that I told my side of things. Let it be known: I do this not out of a need to justify myself. No one should ever have to explain his actions, or so I?ve been told. Yet, it has come to my attention, over the past few years, that there has been much aspersion cast toward me in this publication. Heretofore, I have had no impetus for rebuttal, as I considered it beneath my station to exchange barbs with parties of an uncouth nature. But now, feeling slightly lighter of head ? and of soul, I will open a few doors to the gelid wind of this season. Let these breezes whistle through the fixtures of my residence. It is with generosity not vindictiveness, dear reader, that I invite you across the threshold.

My life has been a sort of circular maze, a structure mirrored by this town. Tell me, has anyone ever been able to leave? We amble, shuffle, or stride down the avenue, but never reach its terminus. There is always another block, heavy-lidded with amber beauty. How many secrets mumbled behind half-drawn shades dangle in the web of TV static, the low mum of wasted hours? For most of my life, I kept dragons inside me, repressing them with law, formality, and a secular meanness. In short, this town made me what I am. It brought me up on its shoulders so that I could spell its doom.

As a child, I am sitting in my nursery on the wooden floor staring at nothing, listening ? waiting. alone. The smog-mellowed sunshine lolls through the leaded window like warm tongue. Presently, I hear a scratching sound and peer towards a crack in the wall. Out steps a tiny man dressed in an impeccable suit. On seeing me, this small man tips his hat. ?Hi? he says. ?You must be the special kid! I can tell by the way the sunlight loves you.? ?Oh, the sunlight loves you!? he sang. ?Let me climb up to your ear and tell you a secret? He scampered up my arm. Numb with surprise, I listened as he told me that I would one day be a very important person, that I was destined for great things. ?We, the people in the wall, will look after you and take care of you, we will protect you with our special magic. You?re the sunshine kid we?ve been dreaming of.? With that, he scampered back down my arm and towards the crack in the wall. As a diaphanous cloud passed momentarily before the afternoon light, I saw his motion continued by a boneless pink tail disappearing into a wedge of shadow.

So from that moment on I knew that I was the chosen one of a secret civilization that teemed through the unreachable spaces in the house. Many a time I was chided by my parents for standing with my ear to the wall, waiting for another secret message from my exuberant friend. My folks were even less thrilled by my hobby of taking in sick or injured rats and nursing back to health in covert boxes. As the years passed, I despaired of hearing more from the little man in the impeccable suit. Had it all been a dream? I thought that my veterinarian efforts would surely be rewarded with another visit. The sun seemed to shine on me less and less and, somehow, I lost the happiness that is every child?s natural gift. I watched my mother and father look at each other darkly and heard them speak in low tones behind closed doors. It was not long after, in the week following my tenth birthday, that they sent me to the Institute.

And what happened there, dear reader, is the beginning of madness. But, the rest of my tail will have to wait. I grow weary as the dawn rises. Forgive an old man, for I shall continue to explicate in the next erratic publication of this broadsheet.