Quiet Fords
The car died beside a village that is not on any map. The people are kind, the lights are on, there are no children and no mirrors.
- YouThe car died. I am in some village
- ThemDoes it have a name
- YouThe sign says Quiet Fords
- ThemNo such place on the map
- YouI could not find it either. But there are people, lights on
- ThemAsk for help and drive away
- YouThey have already called me in for dinner
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemDo not eat at a stranger’s house
- YouKate, they are all old women. Everyone is smiling
- There is not one child here
- ThemVillages are like that everywhere now
- YouAnd there are no mirrors
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemWhat do you mean no mirrors
- YouNone. Not in the hall, not in the room
- I asked to wash. They gave me a basin and no mirror
- pause 1.8 s
- ThemWalk out
- YouIt is twelve kilometres to the road and it is dark
- ThemWalk out anyway
- YouThe woman says nobody uses the road at night
- ThemOf course that is what she says
- pause 1.5 s
- YouI opened the camera and looked at myself on the screen
- ThemAnd
- YouThere are four other people in this room
- pause 1.2 s
- Three of them were at the table
- ThemSasha
- YouShe noticed me looking at the screen
- pause 1.8 s
- She took the phone. Said we do not do that here
- I am writing from someone else’s
- ThemWhose
- pause 1.5 s
- YouI do not know. It was lying on the table
- Every message in it is someone asking to be collected
How it works
Hospitality here is worse than a threat. The phone camera works as the mirror the house does not have, and that is exactly why the phone is taken away.
How to make it yours
Invent your own village name, but make it peaceful and homely: the gentler it sounds, the worse it gets. Stack the oddities one at a time, first no children, then no mirrors, and explain none of them. The camera scene runs on arithmetic: four more in the room, three at the table, and the viewer works out who is extra. At the end keep the chat header unchanged; the viewer should learn from the text alone that he is writing from someone else’s phone.
Every story here is fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental.
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