Mary + Her Mental Health

Sareth grew up in a town that might as well had gone unnamed. No one who lives there ever travels outside the town limits, there is no outside postal system, no phone towers, and no one born there ever moves away. To oblige a sense of community, however, the early settlers gave their town a name, in 1897, which they they still go by today. The name is Haviland.

Haviland is evergreen, dense, and overcast, all the time. Every year, there is a brief season of rain. It occurs in January, and lasts anywhere between five and twenty-three days. Total rainfall each year is considerable, even an average of six to nine feet. But every year, there is enough to sustain Haviland for eleven more months. Folks who live in Haviland consider this as one of the advantages to living there. Two weeks of rain, and for the rest of the year, they have their beloved gray skies to enjoy.

The houses are mounted on solid pine stilts, high above ground. According to local building codes, all houses are built directly in the center of a thirteen acre plot. Each plot looks like a park; such green, rugged landscape. The kind you see in photographs. But no flowers. And surrounding each house there is a mote, drilled ten-feet deep and twelve-feet wide, with its very own drawbridge. Just like the castles Sareth read about, only more modern. Thus, all the folks of Haviland are situated close enough to feel in company with other households. But not connected. And that is how it is preferred. And they are happy.

so....is it interesting?