[D2, LA} Is Isaac Croner Out There Somewhere?

[Tiffani Noelle]

"Statistically, in a town like this, there may be a single murder every century - in some cases, even longer. It's extremely difficult to get away with a crime in a town like this where everyone is up into everyone else's business. You can't even take out the garbage without everyone in town knowing what's in the bag."

There was the faintest hint of disdain in her voice as she talked about the close-knit ways of a small town. But there was more to her tone than just that. Was it ... longing?

"Anyway, yeah ... it's funny. Did you know in places like Belgium they don't eat corn at all? They think corn is only good for feeding livestock. Think about that the next time you shovel a spoolful of corn into your mouth."

Tiffani giggled a little at such a thought. She turned to the southwest and watched as the waning sun began to sink ever closer to the horizon. She had yet to beg and plead with the local priest for a place to stay tonight - and given the weirdness of this place, she was a bit nervous that this particular priest wouldn't be very charitable.

"Hey, are you going to that corn festival thing they're having tomorrow? Complete with rigged games, 99 foods made from corn, and all kinds of prizes that will, no doubt, have something to do with corn? I'm guessing the whole thing will be ... rather corny."

She grinned at Imogen. "Okay, that was a horrible pun - even as puns usually go. But I couldn't resist."

[Imogen Baker]

"Statistically, hm?" Imogen turned to face Tiffani curiously. "I think we might have defiled statistic already when it comes to number of Lost in one place. It also doesn't help us when it murder happens and the outsiders look more suspicious than the residents. I tried taking a stroll around town yesterday and I failed to find any sort of old country charm that usually makes places like this tolerable."

"I've always gotten the feeling that many things won't make the cut overseas," she said, taking a moment to consider Tiffani's accent and origin. "I'm pretty sure there are enough things here that don't exactly make the cut elsewhere. Things like...unlimited fountain drinks, I believe?"

Imogen gave a slow nod at the mention of the corn festival. "I think I saw a mention of that on the bulletin message boards here, like the ones where they actually pin the message on the board. I mean, it's something, especially when there are people around here and plenty of opportunities for photo ops. I might be able to snag a few good wholesome family fun shots. That alone might be able to cover my stay here. I might even go wild and have one corndog, regardless of what the Belgians might think," She grinned on that note.

[Tiffani Noelle]

Tiffani snaps her fingers in the way people do when they just thought of something or reached a certain conclusion.

"You know ... that's it. That's what I've been trying to figure out since I got here - that lack of charm, that Americana feeling. You know, the whole Main Street USA feeling? I've had to travel through a lot of small towns and I always envied the people there in a way. I wish I had their roots, so to speak, their connections to other people, that sense of belonging to a larger community."

She gave the cornfield another long, lingering look. "But this place? If it wasn't so late in the day, I would sling my pack over my shoulder and just keep walking. Whether there's anything to it or not, this place is just ... creepy."

[Imogen Baker]

"Main Street USA?" Imogen said curiously as she looked about, this was certainly not Main Street USA, so to speak. Even back in town, the main street would hardly even qualify as a side street in Los Angeles. "I think I could recommend other places. You're probably looking for a place where they actually have a Wal-Mart but nothing else, a place where truckers actually go to on their long hauls because there's a dinner those serves the best....or barely passable sweet potato pie. Where there are old folks on lawns and rebellious kids who pretend that they were living in the city."

"This is probably as real as it gets, however. They look like they are committed to their way of life and nothing else. I'm almost sure the gas station even closes at 10pm here, which is something else," she sighed and shook her head. "But for now, I don't think it's so much creepy as just the aesthetics. The locals might be a good indicator if we should raise concern, especially as prude as they are."

[Tiffani Noelle]

"I'm not really sure what I'm looking for." Tiffani shrugged and hugged herself against the cold. "I always hoped I would know it when I found it - not that I have a lot of options at the moment. I'm no expert on the way things are today - but from snippets I've heard from locals in half-abandoned ghost towns, it is Wal-Mart that destroyed Main Street USA - and stores like them. I don't know if that's true or not, but it struck me when you mentioned a town with a Wal-Mart and nothing else. It does make me wonder why there is nothing else, ya know?"

Tiffani paces around a little, deciding that a little movement might help against the dropping temperatures and a dying sun. "Maybe places like you describe don't really exist anymore except within the memories of those old enough to remember a time when they did."

"Anyhow, I'm going to talk to the priest later ...a Father Henshall I think his name was. Usually local churches are charitable - they'll usually let me have a room in the rectory for a night. I'll see what he's like and maybe ask him some direct questions."

She spins around slowly looking at everything as she does. "I have nothing against their way of life, but how can they stand it? Sure, I come from a little town, as well - really not much bigger than Maize. However, Bedford was just down the road. My friends and I used to grab the train to London every weekend. It wasn't like we were isolated or a bunch of ... oh, how do you Americans put it? Like ... bumpkins." She grins slightly. "Though there were some kids in high school who acted like you say ... pretending to be both from and in the city. As if our town was a part of London or something. It was pretty lame."

[Imogen Baker]

Imogen gave a slow nod at that. "No, you're right. I think Wal-Mart is usually the beginning of the end for places like this, although I think that lawn chairs and TVs from China are seemingly become the most American fixtures around here. I guess that's the standard but not necessarily the most down to earth, maybe? I thought those places are gone. I suppose places like this are what you're looking for but it's not exactly as shining as you expect. Not exactly what I expect, now that you've mentioned it. The real deal almost looks alien."

"Is that the Catholic Church or the other one?" She said questioningly. "Have you met Sleeping Beauty around here yet? He might judge you and your soul to where you commit yourself too. He must have been a French crusader or something."

Imogen nodded slowly at the mention of her experience in the United Kingdom. "I don't think we're as far close together as the UK. We've got a ton of space here and probably very little in between in the mid-West, which is how you've find places like this still existing. The train system isn't as great as over there, as much as you might complain about it."

[Tiffani Noelle]

"Eh, I dunnae, Imogen. With all the newfound freedom of being out of Arcadia, the rigors of being on the road, and the strange intrigue of this town, I almost forgot that the holiday season is almost here." Tiffani continues pacing a semi-circular route so as not to take her too far from Imogen. "Of course Guy Fawkes day has come and gone already - but you guys have Thanksgiving pretty soon. And then Christmas. This'll be my first Christmas in the mortal world since ... 1984."

She stops pacing then, looking down at the snow sparkling in the light of the setting sun. "I guess all this talk of small towns and whatnot just ... kind of reminded me of that. I used to adore Christmas. There were two penultimate days in the year: Christmas and the last day of school when summer vacation started. Now, neither one of them have any significance for me."

"Oh, to answer your question, the Catholic one. Uh, St. Andrews or something. Heh, believe me, I'm as far from being a Catholic as earth is from the edge of the universe, but the priest won't know that. Sometimes I have to go through the motions of a confession ... 'forgive me father for I have sinned' and all of that. But it's worth it to avoid sleeping in someone's unlocked lawn mower shed."

"If you don't mind me asking, are you at all religious? I know, that can be kind of private for some people so you don't have to answer if you don't want to. And speaking of sleeping in sheds, uh, no ... I don't think I've met Sleeping Beauty. That ... uh, isn't the name he's actually going by, is it? Anyway, he can judge me all he wants, he won't be able to convert me to anything if that's his angle. You know, I should try one of the protestant churches sometime. Maybe they won't have me repeating hail Marys or some other ancient ritual ... I just worry they'll have me out picking litter off the street or some other bit of community service."

[Imogen Baker]

"That's right, Thanksgiving Day is next week Thursday," she nodded at that, more making a note to herself. Thanksgiving Day wasn't exactly a big holiday of note as her family never brought her up to celebrate it, having immigrated here themselves. "And Black Friday too, of course. I guess we won't really see much of that here without a Wal-Mart for sure."

There was a tilt of her head at the mention of the year. At the very least, 1984 was far better than whatever year Jean was from. "But being out of school must be pretty great, eh? I know for many years, I would have killed to be out of school."

"Hah, nope." She grinned at the question, shaking her head that someone would think that about her, even for a moment. "I think it was Jacque, Jacqueline...Jean, right. He's a big Catholic guy, easily thinks he's in purgatory and constantly talks about devil, you know...his actual kin in the Lost. It's no wonder he got booted out of the Freeholds he was previously at. Maybe he could stay here, he should feel right at home."

Seeing Tiffani was keeping mobile, Imogen slowly tried to guide the conversation back toward her camera stand where she could check everything was in order.

[Tiffani Noelle]

"Ah yes, Black Friday - the only holiday when good Christians celebrate a holiday to the god Mammon - who presides over greed, avarice, and money. Fortunately I never went shopping on Black Friday myself. I was always afraid of getting trampled to death so that someone can save a few dollars ... or pounds ... on a television set. " Tiffani made a face that indicated she wasn't at all happy with the day. But the irritation passed quickly, her pacing seeming to circle Imogen's camera stand so that she's never all that far away.

"I'm going to miss it," she seemed to blurt - as if the admission was completely against her will. "Christmas, I mean. The smell of home made pies in the oven, the sound of carols played really low from the stereo in the sitting room. The colored lights hung over the arch between the kitchen and dining room as well as the ones that ran down the bannister. And I'll never forget how the whole house smelled of pine needles and scotch tape - yeah, tape - because of so much gift wrapping." She stopped pacing for a few moments as she silently remembered those good years - years she knew were gone forever.

"Heh, I guess I'll end up as one of those people sitting in a shadowy corner of a dive bar on Christmas Eve, nursing a beer and watching a parade on the television over the bar." She laughed at that, but it was a bitter, almost angry laugh.

"Anyway ..." she said as she resumed her slow, circular walk, "I suppose it's a little liberating to be out of school, at least ... though I should be attending Oxford or Cambridge right now studying particle physics and quantum mechanics, not walking and hitching my way across the country by day and sleeping in churches at night. If someone told me, 'Hey Tiff, did you know in 34 years you're going to be homeless?' I would have laughed in their face."

Tiffani blew into her hands to warm them up. "Well, enough of that. The only other person I've met since coming to Maize so far was this bloke named Marlowe - he bought me breakfast this morning. He really didn't seem like a Catholic and never mentioned the devil - thankfully. I usually don't tell anyone since I know how threatened some people can be, but I've been an atheist all my life. I keep that to myself, though, unless someone really pushes, ya know? Sounds like this Sleeping Beauty character and I will get on famously." She chuckles at that, knowing that the opposite will most likely be true. "I'll keep my eye out for a big Catholic bloke. "

[Imogen Baker]

Imogen couldn't help but glance around as a few things that Tiffani mentioned. While she wasn't religious herself, she knew that America's heartland wasn't exactly populated by people who were so liberal about their beliefs. "You know, those things still exist here. Christmas and all the cheesy things you think about it. I suppose not in the same way as your old life but that doesn't stop you from making it possible yourself. I've seen others find a new family, so to speak."

She casually pivoted her camera on the stand and snapped a picture of her without asking. "What makes you think that you're going to be a physicist anyway? Then again, I thought I would be a movie star by now."

"I personally don't know how I'll act if I see him again, Sleeping Beauty. Between groaning and pity, I'll have to pick one. Apparently, he's been gone for several centuries."