A Place Far Away from There

Fog arrives in Essex, Connecticut almost unnoticed. It greets the sun in the early morning hours, slowly building all night until it blankets everything in a melancholy blur of gold, and visibility is reduced to a few dozen feet. Dawn is silent at first, with isolated birds calling out, and little traffic to speak of. Many of the buildings rest and creak on the waterfront’s edge, waiting for fishermen and transporters to arrive and walk the wooden decks to well-worn boats. The entire town fits within roughly twelve square miles, and in its center is a sign that reads, “The Best Small Town in America!”

Winters are only for the strong, with snow beginning to fall in November and lasting through March. The Fir trees snap and pop under the blanketing weight, and all is white and pure for a season, with the wildlife waking in the spring and rushing for sunlight like a starved garrison finding food. People there know every family and look after one another. No one talks about things they shouldn’t, and everyone is respectfully uninterested in private or personal matters. Social media’s reach never grasped the quiet streets, and if people wanted to share news, they still picked up the phone and called one another.

Therefore, it did turn a few heads in Essex when one day, a few years ago, two mysterious young men arrived in the city with a small girl, far too old to be their daughter. The young men, boys really, had a weight and pain on them that made their presence feel like their souls were decades older than the plainly handsome, youthful bodies they were in.

The lean one in particular, with short hair, angular features, and dark yet expressive eyes, seemed never to look at people directly. There was something very alive and dangerous about him, yet most of all, he seemed broken and vulnerable. There was a scar on his left cheekbone, remnants of some sort of burn. When his eyes did meet someone else’s, it was as though he looked right through them. His speech was intelligent and well thought out but succinct, with a slight impediment that sounded as though his teeth were concealing a slight snarl.

The larger young man had thick, unkempt hair that ran down to his broad shoulders. He spoke more and seemed as though his thoughts were always somewhere else, making some plan that no one else would ever know. His eyes were kinder yet still carried the same weight as the other, giving his presence the aura of a tired lion. He smiled more, but the smile was never more than a slight part, and when he spoke, his voice always sounded on the edge of being hoarse and silenced.

The little girl, small even for her age, had vibrant purple nail polish the first day they arrived. Her skin was pale as a glass of milk, her hair beautiful and naturally straight. Her eyes were almond-shaped and the same amber shade as the lean boy. Her facial features also matched his. People assumed she was his sister. She was, and the larger boy was her cousin.

Much like the fog, the three of them arrived quietly in Essex one day in the late summer of 2005, unnoticed at first, staying in a hotel, then soon paying cash upfront for an apartment, and in time, creating a home. 

 Weeks became months. The young men got jobs at a small hardware store on the wharf, working for an elderly man with cataracts who never once asked them questions and paid them with cash. In time, the little girl enrolled in school, and only then did most of the people in the city learn their names. People whispered about them in the quiet of their own homes and motioned towards them from diner seats when they passed, but no one ever bothered them or interrogated them with pointless questions. Over time, the young men and the little girl became a part of that quiet, quaint town that nobody in the outside world ever paid attention to.

Time moved like waves. Leaves bled from green to red and brilliant orange, then barren trees bloomed into life once more. The air became thin and frail before returning dense and warm. Cities rose and fell. Nations began and ended. Global economies collapsed in ruin, pulling the world to the brink of oblivion. The harsh and unforgiving monotony of daily life stretched its reach. All the world around changed, but Essex remained the same. And over time, the little town began to forget that the mysterious trio hadn’t been there all along.