I live in a trailer out in the carlot near old woman Josie’s house. Occasionally, she will wave at me on the way to the mail or to get more snacks for the angels, occasionally i’ll wave back. Im not a terrible neighbor as far as it goes. At night i will see a red light blinking on and off on the top of the radio tower; a tiny flurry of human activity against the impeccable backdrop that is stars and void. I’ll sit out against the steps of my trailer with my back to the lights of the carlot: watching the tower for hours, but only sometimes. Mostly, i do other things.
This story is about me. I didn’t always live in Night Vale, I lived somewhere else where there were more trees, more water, I wrote direct mail campaigns to companies: selling their products.
“Dear Resident,” I wrote often. “Finally, some good news in this dreary world. At last! a reason not to kill yourself.” Then I would delete that and write something else. Then it would be sent out, and it would not be read by anyone.
You had a friend, and then a girlfriend, and then a fiancé; the same person. She cooked dinner sometimes, and sometimes I cooked. We touched often.
One day I was walking from the glass box of my office to my old Ford probe and a vision came to me.