The Valley of the Redheads

I had been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what I should do with my life, ever since I got home. After the war I just wanted to return back to my wife Abagnale in good old Lewisville, Texas. During the war I had missed her kind smile and her long beautiful brown hair. I remember thinking of life to come in the train on my way home. When I finally got home, I found out she had left. I thought to myself she had perhaps gone to the store or was out running some errands. I figured I’d surprise her when she got home. The car was still in our driveaway, “perhaps she got a lift from a friend” I told myself. It was after waiting for three days for her return that I figured she had left me for good. So, there I was. 28 years old, abandoned by my wife, and fighting my dark thoughts that I had got while serving in France. I tried to make it work in Lewisville, but I soon came to the realization that there was nothing for me there. I decided that I would go live with one of my buddies from overseas. Paul Zussman his name was. He had always seemed like bit of coward, but he was a decent guy either way. While in France when we were nearing the Ardennes, he had told that if we got out of this alive, he would want me to visit him in Tennessee when we got home. With my life being in the state it was, I figured what the hell. I had nothing else to do, and no one else to see. I sold the house and drove my car to Tennessee in the attempt to find him. Eventually I when got there, I found out that he had committed suicide just three weeks after he got off the boat. It was definitely a low point for me. I had had enough. I planned to go to California and start all over there. The car ride had been completely fine up until New Mexico. I had forgotten my map while getting gas, so I took the wrong turn. After getting nowhere for what seemed like hours, I realized that I was running low on gas. I didn’t believe it at first. I went out of my car to check to gas tank. Low and behold it had a cut in it. Gas was pouring out and I could only stand there and watch. With no gas left, I took my wallet from my car, and decided that I would try to find help. I walked for multiple hours when all of the sudden I felt a sting in my shoulder. I was so exhausted and thought it was some bug. I checked my shoulder and could not believe my eyes when I saw a needle imbedded in my shoulder. I became very dizzy, and at last I passed out. The next thing I remember I woke up in some sort of hut surrounded by six people with hair red like a firetruck. I asked where I was, but nobody answered. Once again, I asked if I had been in an accident, but yet again, silence. Being freaked out, I pushed one lady aside and ran out of the hut. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was all of the sudden in some kind of old town, with only redheads in it. I ran about the town screaming “WHERE AM I?”. Again, absolute silence. It looked like a western town, straight out of a movie. It was as if I had traveled back in time to the days of the wild west and for some weird reason it was run by only beautiful redheads with amazingly red hair. I heard a voice suddenly. A large man with a rifle looked upon me. “Come here son” he said. I followed him in the sheriff’s station. He sat me down and explained that what had happened to me was very rare. He told me that I had been selected to reunite his people with the Commonwealth, and break the curse brought upon his city. Apparently, the town had been built in 1898 on top of a native American graveyard. And it had become invisible for the outside world. I asked him why he and his people desired to become part of the Commonwealth once again. He said that they felt entrapped and needed to experience how wonderful the world had gotten ever since the curse fell on the town. I explained him that perhaps the world was not so wonderful as he would think. I told him about both the war and the severe poverty the people had lived through in 1928 and the following years. He was shocked. He couldn’t believe that the world had come to this. After hearing what I told him, he began to appreciate to utopia that he and his people lived in. I told him that I needed to get back to the real world. He laughed at me. I asked angrily “why are you laughing?”. “Son, once you get here you can never leave. It was exactly this moment that I woke up. I was back in Lewisville, in my old bed. I got up at entered the kitchen to see my wife there. Beautiful as how I remembered her. However now she had red hair. I asked her what had happened to her hair. She didn’t understand. I’ve always had this hair darling…