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aldersprigFor ellenmillion's prompt
I think this is in the same setting as Loaves (LJ), which, then, I think is in the same setting as Strange Neighbors (LJ) and the Fairy Road (here on LJ) and thus The Beggars (LJ).
This, ah, wasn't *supposed* to be creepy... eep. Sorry?
In June, every June, for a week (the same week every year, whatever Sunday-through-Saturday had the 21st in it), the City went on vacation. The whole city. Everything shut down. The busses didn't run. Trash wasn't picked up. The radio stations played "best of." The libraries and parks were on skeleton staff, getting time-and-a-half. Even the police and firemen were down to minimum numbers, but that was okay. Crime didn't happen during The Holiday. If it did, the goblins dealt with it.
It was hard to get used to, for new people. People who had lived there a couple years knew to plan for it, knew to leave their garbage in and not expect the bus to pick them up, took the extra week of paid vacation and ran with it. But every year, there'd be some new guy in the neighborhood, some poor lost family that didn't understand.
Judy and Mark got in the habit of wandering the neighborhoods, especially once their kids were grown, looking for the lost people with their cans on the curb, waiting for the pick-up, not understanding. They were third-generation themselves, born and raised in the City and, to hear Mark tell it, with a bit of goblin blood on his side, and some fairy wandering around in her bloodstream. They'd knock on the doors, carrying a casserole dish, a nice retiree couple, and when the family let them in, they'd explain the way things were.
The city shut down for a week every June. Everything shut down. Even crime. If you didn't respect that, the goblins and the fairies got you.
ellenmillion's promptI think this is in the same setting as Loaves (LJ), which, then, I think is in the same setting as Strange Neighbors (LJ) and the Fairy Road (here on LJ) and thus The Beggars (LJ).
This, ah, wasn't *supposed* to be creepy... eep. Sorry?
In June, every June, for a week (the same week every year, whatever Sunday-through-Saturday had the 21st in it), the City went on vacation. The whole city. Everything shut down. The busses didn't run. Trash wasn't picked up. The radio stations played "best of." The libraries and parks were on skeleton staff, getting time-and-a-half. Even the police and firemen were down to minimum numbers, but that was okay. Crime didn't happen during The Holiday. If it did, the goblins dealt with it.
It was hard to get used to, for new people. People who had lived there a couple years knew to plan for it, knew to leave their garbage in and not expect the bus to pick them up, took the extra week of paid vacation and ran with it. But every year, there'd be some new guy in the neighborhood, some poor lost family that didn't understand.
Judy and Mark got in the habit of wandering the neighborhoods, especially once their kids were grown, looking for the lost people with their cans on the curb, waiting for the pick-up, not understanding. They were third-generation themselves, born and raised in the City and, to hear Mark tell it, with a bit of goblin blood on his side, and some fairy wandering around in her bloodstream. They'd knock on the doors, carrying a casserole dish, a nice retiree couple, and when the family let them in, they'd explain the way things were.
The city shut down for a week every June. Everything shut down. Even crime. If you didn't respect that, the goblins and the fairies got you.
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Date: 2012-01-28 07:20 pm (UTC)It's almost not creepy, interestingly. It would be not-creepy if not for the boogeyman-will-get-you bits.
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Date: 2012-01-28 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 12:47 am (UTC)Hee hee, go goblins and faeries! Can't have crime on Midsummer, huh?
Not sure if this is a typo or what but I don't understand it: "people with their cans on the curb"
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Date: 2012-01-29 12:48 am (UTC)Garbage cans out on the curb waiting for pick-up
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Date: 2012-01-29 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 03:31 pm (UTC)