Rumored

That the local supermarket is now haunted by my uncle’s ex-wife, that when she burned up in the parking lot all those years ago, her spirit stayed behind. That a paranormal team came in & did some tests & determined that yes, she was there & yes, for a small fee they could get rid of her. That the hardware store by the lumber place is shutting down at the end of the month, fifty years in the same family but that new Lowe’s in the next town is hurting business too much & no one wants to pay fifty cents for a nail when you get can get them ten for two there. That some house in Shady Acres got raided. That they found one of the largest meth labs in Texas inside. That I used to know a guy that lived down there with his mom & they both liked doing meth too much & this was probably where they got it from. That everyone dies somehow. That they’re finally putting a Starbucks in close to us, twelve miles away in the parking lot of the mall. That the Chinese buffet across from it was closed for the last week, health code violations. That years ago, my grandmother rented a room in her house to a woman & her child & once they told us about the maggots in their food from there. That I didn’t want to go back but there weren’t enough options.