Funny Town, Crazy Town

It’s a worldwide known truth that there’s no funnier place to live than a small town. Do you think I lost my mind? I can show you how right my words are. Where else can you change from a “weird, independent woman” to a “poor abandoned girl” and then again to a “tart” in just a few days? Isn’t this your idea of a funny life? You are right, maybe, it’s just crazy but, you have to admit it’s really entertaining!

As you all know, my boyfriend left the country over a month now and I had to face my neighbours’ comments on my strange decision of staying in Spain. However, not all of you know that, suddenly, just a week afterwards, I became the “poor abandoned girl”, what turned to be even worse! Can you imagine suffering from the continuous pity looks, the whisperings predicting you will become a spinster -‘just as her friends’, they used to say -, the phone calls from people who usually don’t talk to you, just to be sure you are fine, which actually means: ‘you are not going to commit suicide because of your loneliness, are you?’,  and, of course, we cannot forget the surprise visits to check your mood and criticize your boyfriend for leaving you alone. Yes, my dear friends just imagine how much fun I enjoyed those days!

However, and just in case I thought things couldn’t be worse, my lovely town has taught me they could. One more time this week, my dear neighbours started to look at me with different eyes… Can you believe I dare to go out? How could I think of doing such a great deed? Well, I suppose I’m crazy but I did it. I went out with my friends and…Can you guess it? I had fun! God forsake me, it seems my town won’t!

That’s it, my dear readers, I spent a great night out with my friends instead of being at home watching old films and crying for having been abandoned. I even met some guys and I was talking to them - something unforgiveable! I enjoyed so much that next morning the whole town had decided that I was such an insolent girl that they were ashamed for having felt compassion for me once. So, they didn’t anymore. They decided I was such a shameless girl that I just deserve their contempt.

And here I am, shocked for my neighbours’ attitude once more. Feeling that I live in a puritan town, being pointed at, just as HesterPrynne in The Scarlet Letter . And I can’t help but wonder, is it normal to feel like that after so much time between us? Is this a kind of intrinsic feature of small towns and we, poor of their inhabitants, are doomed to live with it?

I suppose a town is a town and it will always be but, don’t misunderstand me please, I really like my town. Call it absurdity or call it nonsense but, isn’t it exciting to wonder everyday what extraordinary idea will your neighbours surprise you with? I suppose that’s the real magic of small towns, no matter how many years can pass by, their old-fashioned ideas always remain in their people’s hearts and, foolish as they might seem, they are just our neighbours’ way to show their concern about us. So that’s the essence of my town, a crazy town, my funny town.