The Town Read online

  Chapter 2: Max

  No one had ever questioned the rules and structure of the town or how it was established. That is, until little Max came along. Once he started to talk and walked to school with his older sister Betty, he would ask, ”Why do I have to go to school Betty? I want to go swimming!” She would always reassure him by saying, “That’s not your purpose Max. But you can do as much swimming as you like on the seventh day of the week.”

  When he thought about his future he would blurt out, “But I don’t want to be a Milkman like dad. I want to be a truck driver and leave this place!” His sister would smile and keep telling him that wasn’t his purpose and eventually Max would stop complaining.

  His parents began to notice that little Max would often complain about the food he was served. He would shout, ”I don’t want eggs for breakfast, I want pancakes!” “But Max,” his mother would whisper, “You already had pancakes on the fourth day. You get to enjoy your eggs on the sixth.”

  Max was often angry or confused because he couldn’t make any food choices. Everything had to be eaten according to the seven-day meal plan handed out by the market. He didn’t want to accept the fact that he must become a Milkman like his father, and that he could only go swimming on the seventh day. But Max was smart, he realized objecting would do him no good.

  So one day he decided to make an oath and said to himself, “Once I become a Milkman I’ll take the van they give me and drive it right out of the town!” The more he thought about it, he decided he would wait to carry out his plan until he was seventeen, when his father would allow him to start practice driving. From that moment on, Max never questioned anything again, out loud. His parents were relieved, having no idea what the real reason was for Max’s good behavior. Every day, Max patiently ate his food without arguing, went to school, and got to bed on time. As Max watched his family relax around him, he thought he was in the clear, that nobody was suspicious. He was almost correct, but one person knew something was different about Max. That person was his older sister Betty. She knew he had changed, but couldn’t figure out why. She would ask Max from time to time why he didn’t question things anymore. He would smile at her and simply say, “It’s not my purpose Betty. Even you know that.”

  After several months of this behavior Betty became very worried for her brother. She found her mother cooking and said, “Mom, Max used to ask me questions every day, but now he never says anything or questions anybody.”

  “Oh Betty, Max was just in a little phase that’s all.” Betty shrugged and decided it was time to accept her brother had changed.

   A few days later, Betty was taking a walk around the town on the seventh day. As she was walking she saw Max sitting on a tree branch looking out over the black wall that surrounded the town. It looked like he was watching the trucks go in and out of the town. She ran behind a small bush and hid, watching Max’s every move. After a few minutes, she saw Max drawing something but she couldn’t make out what it was. Max looked excited as he drew, and then, after about twenty minutes, he jumped off the tree and started heading toward the town wall. He pulled out his paper and started writing something down. Betty had no clue what he could be doing, so she followed him home and decided to wait until nightfall. Once she thought Max was asleep, she slowly snuck into his room and saw a huge poster rolled up tightly with a rubber band at one end of the room. She grabbed it and took off the elastic band as quietly as possible. Max didn’t budge. Then Betty turned on her tiny flashlight and pointed it at the poster, and what she saw scared the living daylights out of her.