"Yeah. I didn't want to let an opportunity to blow this pop stand go to waste," Dan says, feeling a bit sad about both the missed opportunity to escape and about the fact that it would mean leaving behind the handful of people he's made connections with. But, Dan thinks, he isn't such an important fixture in those people's lives here that they would miss him terribly, and while he'd miss them, he'll make connections elsewhere. This town is a death trap to him, all too eager to send him swimming against the current down the drain. "I would have could said goodbye but it was sort of an impulsive thing."
He nods. He's aware of the dynamic between Goluboy and Aster, and it bothers Dan, as someone whose home was ripped away from him. "Aster was just going to help me on the way out. He can't leave without that land getting stole."
Which is what Dan considers the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of regulations and citations Goluboy punishes the townsfolk with: outright theft.
Dan sits where he can see the screen as the drone flies. At first, there's nothing unusual, just the road and the woods and cloud-like blobs of mist, occasional birds and insects and at one point a fisher scrambling into some undergrowth. The drone follows the line of the road, passing a spruce tree with two lovers' names carved into it and a heart, a creek, an outcropping of rocks in the shape of a couch, another creek, a spruce tree with two lovers' names carved into it and a heart, a creek, an outcropping...
"Ain't we seen that tree with the carving in it twice already?" Dan says the third time the drone passes RL + AM etched into spruce bark. "And the road's stayed to our left this whole time."
no subject
He nods. He's aware of the dynamic between Goluboy and Aster, and it bothers Dan, as someone whose home was ripped away from him. "Aster was just going to help me on the way out. He can't leave without that land getting stole."
Which is what Dan considers the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of regulations and citations Goluboy punishes the townsfolk with: outright theft.
Dan sits where he can see the screen as the drone flies. At first, there's nothing unusual, just the road and the woods and cloud-like blobs of mist, occasional birds and insects and at one point a fisher scrambling into some undergrowth. The drone follows the line of the road, passing a spruce tree with two lovers' names carved into it and a heart, a creek, an outcropping of rocks in the shape of a couch, another creek, a spruce tree with two lovers' names carved into it and a heart, a creek, an outcropping...
"Ain't we seen that tree with the carving in it twice already?" Dan says the third time the drone passes RL + AM etched into spruce bark. "And the road's stayed to our left this whole time."