Part Three Though Amanthra was quite sociable, her homes remained vacant of any being other than her own. At one point, she had family members beg her to move back to where it was safe and cozy, in Templeton, Ohio, but the thought of moving back to a place where she wasn’t as successful knocking on doors and saying hello made her face sag like an old lady elbow. Templeton lacked pretty much everything a town needed to survive save for a suffocating pond in the middle valley of Nash where a few emaciated deer slurped down the remaining thimbles of clean water.
This pond was her only oasis away from cantankerous librarians, teachers, and gas station attendants, dilapidated strip malls, and a general plethora of broken glory.
And what was it about Templeton Ohio that did this to people? Perhaps it was the looming threat of the nuclear power plant exploding eyes, arms, and knees all over the place, or maybe the 10-old-people-to-1-young-person ratio, made each day seem drearily lackluster. Either way, Templeton sucked the life out of Amanthra and she vowed she would never go back unless someone died, which, due to the over population of elderly folk, happened to be frequently.
It might be hard to imagine a soul such as Amanthra being embittered by any place at all; especially her home sweet home of Templeton, Ohio, but even the most courageous, genuine, and loving folks in the world are embittered by something.