“Good evening… Yes, most of the town’s settled down for the night, Simon,” Mr. Webb spoke again, “I guess we better do the same. Can I walk along a ways with you?” I started plodding down the street, still ignoring the poor fellow. I thought about my life for a moment. In Grover’s Corners, everyone knew that I, Simon Stimson, lived as the saddest and the bitterest person of all; however, no one knew why he did so. I suppose I should at least explain why I lived that way before I leave …show more content…
My father had disappeared before my birth, and my mother never mentioned a single thing about him. Whenever she mentioned him, she did so out of spite and resentment. My mother and I lived happily together, singing and laughing at the things Grover’s Corners had for us. As I grew up, however, my mother changed from the sweet, kind person I had known to a cynical old woman who smoked cigarettes constantly. The mother I used to sing church hymns with had long disappeared, replaced by a vicious woman who considered her son as nothing more than a hindrance. By the time I graduated from high school and became a part of the church’s choir in 1860, she uttered her last words for …show more content…
I’d like to describe our meeting as love at first sight; but in hindsight, I wonder if Carol felt that way as well. We married in the spring of 1882, and we lived in the happiness and quietude of Grover’s Corners. I had become a choir director by then, as I always wanted to from a young age. A year from then, we had our first child in the middle of December. Carol and I cherished every moment with our child, pouring all our time and love into our daughter. In those moments, I found happiness and joy in my life again. A few months after her birth, on a warm summer morning, I heard Carol screaming. I rushed over to see her standing at the crib, staring down at the unusually still baby. A grim silence hung heavy in the house. I felt the world around me falling apart, the life I had finally built up slowly starting to crumble on top of me, slowly choking the happiness out of me. In the years following 1901, I relied on alcohol to sustain myself each day. From that particular incident, Carol and I no longer felt the same love we felt years ago. We rarely talked, becoming strangers who did not even bother to greet each other on Main Street. Everywhere I looked in Grover’s Corners, everything reminded me of the happiness Carol and I lost. Every day, life had started to tighten its hold on me, taking away all my