A Story of Panton

​The epitome of average is Tuesday. It's not Monday, the beginning of the week, not Wednesday in the middle of the weekly drama, just Tuesday. It was summer break and the kitchen counter wasn't even close to being spotless as usual, random items scattered across the surface. But something caught my eye, something that wasn't there before. There was a postcard sitting peacefully on a small patch of clear counter. It was addressed to our house but there was no return address, no message, and no date. 

   The picture portrayed a simple village with a market on a cobblestone road. Above sat a sky so blue it could have rivaled a fresh blueberry.

Dad came home from the night shift, staring at his phone while trying to pour coffee. He wasn't doing a very good job though and soon he was heading downstairs to try to scrub the coffee stains out of his clothes. When he finally reappeared I held up the postcard. 

   “Have you seen this?” I asked, extending my arms. My Dad squinted,

   “It seems familiar but I don't think so, ''he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “It certainly looks like a nice place to live, who sent it?”

   “It doesn't say…” I mumble

   “Sounds like a mystery for you to solve!” Dad chuckled. 

   “But it’s summer break!” I whine, “I don't want to work now!”

   “Sometimes it's not always up to us,” He replied. I knew he was right, I just didn't want him to be.“Listen, I'll make it fun. We can take a special family vacation!” He smiles at me. I try my hardest not to groan, I can tell he’s trying his hardest. I give a weak smile.

   “Yaaay… Ummmm,” I read the card “Panton, Oregon”

   “Then Pack a suitcase!” He exclaims, “we're heading to Panton!”

   I know he wouldn’t be doing this if he wasn’t trying to make me happy. I suddenly feel better about this trip.

   Two days later, We’re in the car. I watch the cityscape slowly melt into fields and rolling hills. I already miss the busy streets and the noise of San Francisco. I turn on my phone desperately trying to find something to do. I jam in some earbuds and play music until the sun begins to set and I feel like I could sleep for days. Then my phone shut off. I knew it hadn't died, I had been charging it in the carport. The screen seems milky white and black at the same time, something I had never seen before. The power button seemed to have decided it wasn't going to work anymore so I gave up pressing it. 

That's when I notice the wall. It reached so high it cut through clouds. It surrounded such a large area I couldn’t see the ends of it and I had to force myself back in my seat to give up. It was made of a thick metal framing, something that could withstand tornadoes. 

The car lurched to a stop and no matter how hard dad tried, it wouldn’t start again. Two figures appeared out of a hatch in the wall that I hadn't noticed before. They were big burly men in velvet suits, a shade of navy so dark they were almost black. 

They came up to our car and one of the two pulled down the window with his bare hands. 

   “Who are you and what are you doing to my car!?” Shouted dad ” I’ll call 911” I knew he was bluffing, his phone had also gone black and white with the same milkiness dancing across the screen.

   “That won’t be necessary” The other grumbled in the most monotone voice I’d ever heard, “We are agents with the US Government. You have been summoned here to partake in Experiment #763 Course #44. Follow us” Now knowing how unsafe we were, we had no choice but to climb out of the car and follow them. We stepped cautiously over the threshold of the hatch. 

   The wall must have been really thick because there seemed to be a whole facility inside. As far as I could tell, the busy room stretched throughout the entire inside of the wall. We followed the men past thousands of computers all with people typing away, all wearing the same velvet suits. 

“What could be so important that the government needed us here?” I whispered. Dad didn't answer. He was staring straight ahead, barely shuffling along. He was probably in shock, He had been expecting a nice, quiet vacation and now he had to deal with this. I felt bad for him. I was scared too, but not as scared as I was excited. I was practically blocking everything out as the Mission Impossible theme ran in circles in my head. 

We were led to a small room with two chairs. The walls were stark white, the floor the same. A shade so bright it almost glowed. The two men indicated for us to sit. As soon as we touched the chairs bright white cushions erupted from the seat, and I could feel myself sinking. The far wall faded into a black screen and one one the men took a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. 

The inky darkness instantly came to life and a scene began to form. A harsh red background housed nothing but a simple podium, painted white. An impossibly skinny woman sashayed into view. She gripped the podium with long nails and readjusted her dress which was an orange so bright it was almost fluorescent so it clashed horribly with the backdrop. I tried to ignore her terrible fashion sense as she opened her thin lips and spoke.

“You have been selected to participate in experiment #763” she pushed the words out of her mouth with such resistance that it seemed like she was forcing them out. “The US government is experimenting with technological advancements. What happens if electrical technology is introduced by outsiders rather than discovered. It’s your job to pretend you have come to the artificial town of Panton and plant the Idea in residents' heads.” She stared into the camera with black beady eyes and almost spat out her instructions. “You must be vague. You must be discreet. You must be fast. Any failure to do so, or revealing the truth behind the village will be cause for an automatic total reset.”

My chair suddenly didn't seem so comfortable, what did that mean? I tried to calm down, assuring myself that we’d simply be sent home. I remembered what the men had said, ‘trial 44’... Was this the forty-fourth time they had done this? 

“You and your party will assume new identities for three weeks. Your process begins now.” At that moment the screen shuts off and the chairs begin to lower back into the floor. I leap up with a yelp and the two burly men are gone. In their place are a man and a woman holding out neatly folded packages wrapped in black tissue paper. We are led to two changing rooms where I tug at the velvet string on the package, it falls open to reveal a sunflower yellow fit n’ flare style dress as well as a more formal floor-length olive green dress. A pair of brown Mary Jane shoes are slipped through a small doggy door. I quickly dress and notice my suitcase in the corner. I look at my old clothes in my hand and realize its purpose. 

I step out of the room with the green dress over my arm and notice blue smoke tumbling across the floor. I hear a thud and I spin around. I see my dad's blond flyaway hair dance around as the smoke plays with it. I try to run to him but suddenly my legs feel like lead and I fall to the ground.

I woke up in bed. Not my bed, but a bed. I felt stiff, I roll over and find a piece of straw poking up out of an old cotton sheet. At first, I’m confused, almost scared. But then all of the events of last night come flooding back. My heels feel like someone rubbed rugs against them for five hours straight. I must have been dragged all the way here. The green dress is laid neatly across the back of a wooden chair.

I stare out of an iron-framed window. I knew that Panton was supposed to look older, but I was confused. Sure there were cobblestone streets, but there were also plastic rain gutters. Sure there was no screen in sight but there was a basketball court in a park right at the end of the street. Panton was a hodgepodge of time periods and I didn't know how to make sense of it. I could hear dad snoring through the wall and I laughed to myself. I brush my hair through with a wooden comb I find on a dresser and walk out of the bedroom. That's when I realize I have no idea how to get out of this house.

I find a door that looks a little more presentable. I tug at the handle and It swings open. Bright light sweeps my face and I take a deep breath. I scan my surroundings, I pretend I'm a hawk flying over busy streets. But in reality, I'm on a porch, on the ground, in some sleepy town, that’s not even a real town. 

A girl with curly blonde hair runs up to the porch stairs I'm sitting on. She looks about my age, but a lot happier than I am right now. 

“I heard there were new neighbors moving into this house! ”she squeals” It’s so odd, the people who live here never seem to stay long. It's almost like they’re on a timer!” she giggles as she says it, so much so it's hard to understand her. She has some sort of accent but I can't tell what it is.

“Yeah… almost” I avoid her eyes. 

“Listen,” she says, her eyes focused on me, a blue light glinting off them, unmoving “I'm going to give you a tour, and you… are going to love it!” Once I can tell she’s joking I calm down and follow her. I don’t notice how she’s wearing a hoop skirt under her ruffled dress and a scrunchie on her wrist at the same time. 

I learn a lot of things on this tour. Like how it never rains, and how all the food just shows up in boxes in the grocery backroom, and no one knows where it comes from. 

I stop walking and turn on my heels

“What's your name?, I’m Quinn and I just realized I haven't asked an-”

“Jenna,” She says curtly and continues to tell me about the mayor's favorite bowtie collection. As she rambles on about stripes and polka dots and the difference between Red from Cameron Red I study her eyes. They are brown now, how is that possible? I step forward and clear my throat.

“Well since we're going to live near each other now, what do you do for fun around here? What did you do last week?” 

“Well I-” Jenna goes stiff, her head turns. Her bubbly attitude seems gone, she just looks terrified. “I- I can’t remember! It's just blank! I don't know why! Then her eyes freeze forward, and an icy blue frost creeps over them. Soon her eyes are as blue as toilet water. Her voice falls out of her mouth, it sounds cold, there is no feeling in it. 

   “Participant #257, you have illegally investigated private matters and have been charged with meddling. If you mention forbidden topics a second time, it will be cause for total Mind Reset” No one passing us seemed to have noticed Jenna getting possessed by a government official. In fact, they seem to be looking away. The blue glaze pulls itself away from her eyes and Jenna falls to the ground in a heap, gasping. “I want it to end!’ she sobs “It happens every time!”

   “Listen, we're going to get through this,” I say, pulling her up from the ground. “Meet me at my house at 9 am tomorrow.” I walk away, my heart beating furiously. If I was a cartoon character, steam would be coming out of my ears. They were erasing their minds, innocent people! This was going too far for an experiment, and I needed to put a stop to it.

   For the next week, Jenna and I did tests, dancing around the taboo trigger words and helping to restore her brain. Trying to help her remember who she was, and what she liked. I even wrote out everything I knew about Panton on paper, so it can't be considered an offense. As her memory returned and she claimed she felt more like herself, dad was the opposite. He barely got out of bed, his face looked sunken, he didn't bathe, he didn't eat. I had to force him to drink. Townspeople were starting to wonder if I was an orphan. And the villagers, they were a whole matter altogether, sometimes it seemed like they were aware the sky was fake, and sometimes it seemed like they were clueless.

   After we had lived in Panton for a few weeks, I'm eating some oatmeal at our 60’s style diner island that sits under our Victorian mansion-style chandelier. Someone rings the doorbell and I slide off the stool to answer the door. A man with a bushy beard and VERY brightly colored bow tie is standing on the porch and smiling at me. He hands me a highlighter yellow envelope, tips his hat, and leaves. I am a little baffled by the odd encounter but I open the envelope anyway. I read in bold letters;

   Mayor Rumpfort Invites You To His Bowtie Themed Birthday Party

I silently scold myself for not making the bowtie connection and head back inside. Jenna comes over later to complain that she has nothing new to wear to the mayor's party. I toss her my green dress and explain I'm going to wear one of my dad's suits instead because I'm sick of wearing dresses. 

   That night, Jenna and I walked together to the mayor's castle-penthouse suite. As we walk inside, the first thing I notice is that there are bowties everywhere, there is music playing and cakes laid out across a banquet table. In a corner, I can see my dad bouncing his head to the music. 

   “Wow, this is a pretty good party for a fake town” I laughed

   “Yeah, you're right,” Jenna joins in. But then she stops suddenly, and so do I. We exchange glances and for a second, I can't tell who looks more horrified, But then I don't have any more time to wonder, because everyone in the room is staring at us with a blue glaze in their eyes as blue smoke crawls from the vents. And we all hit the floor.

   I wake up in a chair, it's hard metal, like the dentist's office but 10,000 times worse. There’s rope tying my hands to the arms of the chair. I’m confused for a moment, but I realize that if the town is under mind control, there would be no need for proper restraints. I look up and find the most terrifying machine I've ever seen. I can only assume it's to wipe my brain or possibly kill me. To my right, I see Jenna in the same predicament as me. 

   I feel like vomit. It’s my fault she’s here. I start to cry, and I clench my fists ready to accept my fate,

   “OW!” I shout into the giant white room, (By now you’d think I would have lowered my expectations for the government's interior decorating skills) I look at my palms and see a few drops of blood rolling down my skin. Then I noticed my jagged chewed fingernails. I knew I'd been nervous lately, but I had no idea it had gotten this bad. I have an Idea. 

   I fold my hands back and rub them back and forth until the ropes are cut through and they break. Then I run to Jenna and untie her. We're free! 

We run into the hallway and hear voices. We can't get caught, or this situation will find a way to get worse. We slide into a laundry chute and land in a pile of velvet cloth. Jenna starts to pull on a jacket and tilts her head for me to do the same.  

Soon we’re creeping through hallways with our new suits when we hear loud noises coming from behind a door. Jenna turns the doorknob to find the entire town population trapped in the tiny room.

We silently agree that ‘accidentally’ on purpose leaving the door open would be a good enough distraction to get us out of here. 

We are no farther than six feet from the open doorway when we hear a stampede behind us. We slip into the crowd and drop our suits, running in the regular clothes we had on underneath. 

I notice a water jug and lift it over my shoulder, Jenna notices and hoists it up as well, she follows me to a door with a large plaque that reads ‘Server Room’. We dump the contents all over important-looking pieces of equipment and glowing dashboards.

We race out of the room as we hear a sizzle. The lights go out, and the front hatch bursts open. Everyone runs outside. Jenna stops me. She looks into my eyes, 

“Thank you”, she says “For everything” I’m smiling so hard I feel like my face is going to fall off. And then we’re off.