direction.
By now, it was almost dinner time, and I offered to buy him dinner when we reached
what seemed like a nice place to eat. He readily accepted, and we both set out on our quests
together: he looking for work, and I looking for Robin.
Because we were going to be companions for awhile at least, I mentioned that he had not
yet told me his name. I offered my hand and said, AMy name is Adam.@ He laughed and shook
my hand, telling me that his name was David.
We drove a short distance and found a small diner at the edge of town. We stopped, went
in, and seated ourselves at a counter. A man behind the counter eyed us suspiciously. AYou=ve
never been here before, have you?@
ANo,@ I answered, Amy friend and I are both from out of town. We=re going on down the
road now, but we wanted something to eat first.@
AWell, since you=re leaving, I=ll serve you,@ he said as he gave us menus.
I was taken back by the man=s attitude; after all, we were paying him for our dinners. I
turned toward David. ADavid,@ I said, Ait is clear that this town does not like strangers. I
wonder if that is the way it is everywhere, or did something happen here to make the people here
so unfriendly?@
The man behind the countered overheard my question, walked over to us, and studied us
both carefully. AJust passing through, I suppose you never did hear what happened to make us
distrust outsiders.@
ANo,@ I said quickly. AWe have no idea what happened here, but it must have been awful.
Would you tell us about it?@
AWell,@ the man said slowly, as if thinking about whether he should tell us, AI suppose I
will tell you. Order first, and while you=re eating, I=ll give you the story of why the people of this
town don=t like strangers.@
And so the counterman began his story.
The Counterman=s Story
I can still remember the day when they came to town. It was a hot, clear day in the
middle of summer. We had been without rain for some time, but no one was much worried
about it because we had gone for long spells without rain before in summers past.
There were two of them, two men, tall and well-dressed, mind you. One, named Daniel,
was dark haired, and the other man, named Robert, was blond. It was the dark haired one that
did most of the talking with the blond man agreeing with him all the time. We were a welcoming
town then, and we gave them the same warm welcome we gave every visitor.
But these folks were different. They didn=t just come to buy stuff or take in some of the
sites. After visiting many of the business folks in town, they went to city hall and asked to see
the mayor. Joe Higgins was mayor then, may he rest in peace. They say he died of a broken
heart, but you never can be sure about those things. Anyway, he=s dead. Probably better off that
way since life here hasn=t been the same since . . . Oh fuddy, I=m losing my train of thought here.
Anyhow, these men asked the mayor to call a special town board meeting because they
said they had a great deal to offer us. I almost forgot.
Our town was named Henryville then. Henry Johnson was the man who built the first house and store in these parts to serve the farmers here around. Oh fuddy, there I go again running off at the mouth.
Anyhow, as I said, these men claimed they had an offer that the town would be foolish to
refuse because it would make us all rich and provide high paying jobs that would bring in a lot
more folks to settle here.
Well, the mayor thought it couldn=t hurt to hear what they had to say, and the men offered
to buy the town board a handsome dinner they could eat while they made their presentation. So
the mayor called the town board together, and they feasted on shrimp and roast beef with all the
trimmings while the men talked to them B the dark haired man, as I said, did most of the talking B
about what they wanted to do.
I was there at that meeting myself. They had visited my diner and told me how delicious
the food was and how great a cook I was. I was puffed up with pride that outsiders would tell me
such things because I assumed that these men must have eaten at some mighty fine restaurants.
So I was interested in hearing what they were thinking of doing for our town.
I can still remember the speech that the man Daniel gave, and there beside him was
Robert, just grinning and nodding and agreeing with everything that Daniel said. Well, Daniel
told the board members that he really loved this town. He had visited many towns, but this was
the friendliest that he had ever visited. We were so friendly and welcoming that he and his friend
were going to do us a favor and make us all wealthy.
Henryville, Daniel told us, sat on a big pool of oil. The town had been built right over the
oil without anyone even knowing it. Now this oil was worth a lot of money, more money than
anyone in Henryville had ever seen. So, Daniel told us that because we had been so good to him,
he would be good to us. If the board allowed him to pump the oil under the town, he would give
the board half the profits he made, and they could use it to do wonderful things for the town, or
even give every citizen a handsome sum to use as they wanted.
The board and the citizens in attendance were enthusiastic about the whole idea B mainly
the idea of getting rich B and they thought they deserved it because they were so friendly to
strangers.
Now Daniel did put some conditions on the deal, but the board did not give much thought
to them at the time. They were thinking too much about all the money we were going to get.
Anyway, Daniel explained that to get the oil out, he would have to put up rigs to drill wells, and
build storage tanks for the oil that came out of the well, and lay pipes in to move the oil from the
wells to the storage tanks. Then big tankers could come to pick up the oil in the storage tanks to
take it to a big city where it would be turned into gasoline and other stuff.
It all sounded very complicated, but Daniel assured us that he would bring in folks who
knew all about how to do what needed to be done, and the town might be torn up just a little bit
for awhile, but, after all the oil had been pumped out, his workers would take everything down
again and make the town just like new, only a lot richer.
The problem was the town board liked the idea so much that they never asked some
questions they realized later they should have asked. Would the townspeople get jobs? How
much trouble would it cause Henryville to get the oil out of the ground? How could we be sure
that Daniel=s company would clean up whatever mess they made? How could we be sure that
any money the town received was really half the profits that Daniel made?
We were blinded by our greed and the Daniel=s smooth talk. He told us that he really
loved us and cared about us and was doing us a great service. And we believed him because we
wanted to believe. And, to make it worse, we thought we deserved all that he promised us.
But there was one additional condition that Daniel insisted on. Because he was giving the
town so much, he wanted the board to change the name from Henryville to Danieltown. The
board told him that that would involve a lot of trouble and expense. But he assured us that the
expenses involved would only be a small fraction of the oil money, and, to prove his good will,
&
nbsp; he would pay those expenses himself. All the town had to do was to change the name and send
him a bill for all the expenses, and he would pay it.
The board voted to do all that Daniel asked them to do and even more. It was a whole lot
of work to change Henryville to Danieltown. The state and post office both had to approve the
change. I don=t even want to think about it, but we did it. Why did we do it? Because we were
all sure we were going to be rich. And, though we were proud of our town, we knew that
Henryville was not much, and few folks outside of those who lived here knew about Henryville
or cared a hog=s behind about it.
But Daniel was going to make us rich and put us on the map. People would hear about
Danieltown and envy us and the wonderful things we would do with our new wealth: a hospital,
a city park, better schools, the list was endless. I guess you might say that the future blinded us
to the present. Daniel seemed so sincere telling us how much he loved our town, and how much
he was going to do for us, and we believed him . . . I supposed we believed him because we
wanted to believe him. We wanted someone from the outside to love our town and tell us how
wonderful we were, because we truly believed we were wonderful.
The counterman paused a moment, his face a portrait of sadness, a tear running down his
right cheek. After about a minute, he regained control and continued his story.
Well, I suppose you can guess the rest. Daniel brought a lot of outsiders into the town
instead of giving the folks here jobs. He moved in lots of equipment and began to drill oil wells
and to build storage tanks to put the oil in. He tore up our roads and our fields, and his big trucks
kept hauling all the oil out of town.
The town board kept asking for payment, but Daniel kept telling them that his expenses
were high and his profit was low, and there was not much left over for Danieltown after all. And
when the oil ran out, Daniel and his workers left town. They took the valuable equipment with
them and left us with the mess they made. He had taken us for fools, and fools we were.
You might say we were in state of shock, but you might also say that our hearts were
broken. We tried to change the name of the town back to Henryville, but the government would
not let us. They said we might try again in ten years. So we are still Danieltown to remind us of
our folly. We=re so ashamed we don=t even want anyone to know the name of our town.
No, it will take a long time for us to heal. Ten years before we can get our name back.
At least that long to repair all the damage that Daniel did. At least that long to think well of
ourselves again. Maybe that long before we can welcome outsiders and be friendly again. I
guess we have to learn to love ourselves again before we can love others.
Well, that=s the story. I appreciate your listening. It helped me to tell it. Maybe there=s
hope for us yet.
The First Night on the Road
When the counterman finished, David and I sat in silence for almost a minute. Neither of
us could find the right words to say in response to his tragic tale. We had been so absorbed in his
story that we had stopped eating our dinners which sat cold and unfinished.
Finally, I spoke. AHow horrible. I am so sorry about what Daniel did to you and your
city. Didn=t you try to chase him down and get him to pay what he owed you?@
The counterman sighed. AYes, we pursued him, but he was too clever for us. He had
more money, and he knew more important people than we did. In the end, he wore us out. That
made things worse than before.@
AWell,@ I snorted, Aif I ever meet this Daniel, I will spit in his face and tell him what a
thief I think he is.@
The counterman looked at me sympathetically. AYes, I guess we all felt that way after we
realized how Daniel had cheated us. He stole not only our money but our pride, and, worst of all,
our trust in ourselves and others. We talked and talked about what he had done to us, but, in the
end, we realized that we could not take revenge. If we had destroyed him, we would have
destroyed ourselves as well. Somehow we had to forgive him and get on with our lives. We are
still learning how to do that.
AIt is not easy to forgive someone who did what Daniel did. I=m not even sure what
forgiveness means. Maybe it means that if he should
The Magic Mirror Page 5
