The Cursed Town

“Hey, Mike, where are you?” – Mary couldn’t get rid of the thought that she won’t be able to find the brother. She has been looking for him since the morning and it was already 4pm and still no sign of a little devil. When Mike doesn’t want to be found nobody will manage to find him. Nobody except may be Mary, his twin-sister. They say it right; twins have this special connection with each other and can feel each other better than anyone else can do. But today this connection just didn’t work. Mary wasn’t able to find her brother. And exactly today was the day when she needed to do it quickly, their family was leaving the city.

In fact their family was one of the last still staying in the city and Mary was pretty much scared because she didn’t know what to expect. Life has changed recently, everyone was scared, people kept saying that the city was cursed. Cursed…. When Mary though about it she considered it might be the truth. Weird things started happen in the city. It began about 2 weeks ago. When the little child of the Strawns got sick and they had to get him to the hospital. Nobody paid attention, really. Children are children. They eat forbidden stuff, play in cold water and do each and everything to make themselves sick.  That’s why nobody cared when this little imp got into the hospital. Actually at first people even didn’t notice.

The rumours started later. When other children in the town also got sick. First they thought, nothing serious, epidemic. Then, the old Marcus Timbald died. Of course, you can say he was old and it was his time. But he never had any health problems and could live at least one hundred years more. Just one day he didn’t come out of his nice white house and nobody even cared what happened until someone (who was it by the way? no, Mary couldn’t remember now) found the dead body of Marcus. And even then people didn’t talk much about this. They only whispered that’s it is not that much good when too many bad things happen at once. 

And then it started. If someone fell down he immediately broke an arm or a leg. If someone had to drive a car, he got into accidence. If people planned picnics outside there was a storm. If children went to a playground it was surely destroyed and absolutely not possible to be used. People started to talk about it, first only with their family members, sharing their fears and doubts, then with neighbours, then with friends, with the friends of friends and soon the whole city was humming, trying not to get too much scared, not to panic.

But where is unexplained matter there is is a newspaper hunting for sensations. And where is newpaper with “The City is Cursed” – Title on its front page, there is panic. People got scared and didn’t care that they leave everything behind. All they wanted to do was to move out as soon as possible, to leave this city, to start a new life in a less dangerous place. In their hurry they only argued, fought and made everything worse. Not a single good word has been heard in this city in the last couple of weeks. Not that it was there ever before. People just stopped being nice to each other, to save their own lives was the only thing that mattered.

Mary and Mike’s family was one of the last who still were staying in the city and probably the only one which didn’t suffer from all this weird happenings. Nobody broke any part of the body, nobody got into accidence, nobody was sick.  Happily for them. Though depends on the point of view. Other citizens also noticed that the luck was with this family and came out with the suggestion that it was them who cursed the city. “Rubbish talk”, thought Mary. – “Why should they, and more than that how could they possibly do this?” But it wasn’t the problem now, all she should do now was to find Mike.

“Mike!” – she kept shouting. “Come on, we need to get home, it’s about time.” Suddenly she saw a move, a few feet away from her someone was hiding behind the tree. Could be a cat or a dog, thought Mary, but then remembered that the pets left the city even earlier. When she thought about it, she realized  it was even before this whole “cursed”-thing had started. “Weird,” – thought Mary, but couldn’t make this thought keep there for a while because she finally saw her twin-brother.
“There you are, Mike” – she cried. “I’ve been looking for you since morning. Come on, we need to get out of here. The city is cursed”
“It is not, sis. And I won’t go anywhere. We are perfectly safe here”
“Hey, dumbo, haven’t you heard that this city isn’t for living anymore, people leave it, we need too. It is cursed.”
But Mike was stubborn. “I know what I am talking about. This city is fine. It is all about people”
“What is about people? Mike, what are you talking about, we need to get out of here”

But Mike even didn’t move. He sat down under the tree and prepared for the long talk. Mary didn’t like it. She knew that when Mike had such a face expression it wasn’t good. Well, it was good because it meant he had a point to discuss and had his arguments. But it wasn’t good right now when she was so scared and wanted to leave this place. But she knew her brother and knew he won’t even move until they have the talk. Looking into his face now she suddenly felt good. He seemed to be sure about all this, like he knew they were not in any danger. And she believed him. May be it was because of this special twin-connection, or because of the love they all shared in their family but she felt she is safe now and was thankful to her brother for giving her this feeling of security.

But the talk was still due. She sighed but sat down near her brother. “Ok, now say,” – she demanded. Mike looked at her curiously as if checking is she ready for a serious talk or not. Finally he broke silence.
“Do you remember how it all started?”
“Sure, I do, this small child got sick and then…”
“No, no, no”, - Mike interrupted her impatiently. – “Think, it was even before. What happened before?”
“I don’t understand,” – Mary spoke  perplexedly.
“Dogs…. and cats”, he tried to give her a hint.
“What’s wrong with them?” – wondered Mary. Then she realized. “They left the city even before their owners! But why?” – she looked curiously at brother waiting for an answer but the boy didn’t hurry up to help her with that. Realizing he won’t give her much help here she started to think aloud. “People make pets. Why? Because they feel lonely, or because they need to share their love with someone and because they want their children to play with them. That’s all about care, and care is all about love. Why do the pets leave their homes? Because they don’t get what they need anymore. And what is this thing they don’t get? Hmm… that’s a bit tough. Oh Nooo!! that’s not tough at all,” – exclaimed she. – “They missed on love. They don’t get love and then they go elsewhere to look for it”. She again glanced at her brother only to make sure her guess was a right one. And it was!

Her brother smiled at her. “Look,” – he said. - “The city has been missing on love, everyone has become too selfish, they even didn’t care about their own children. When the old Marcus died, nobody even cared and he knew everyone here, he went to school with ones, played football with others, told stories to the kids. He was the heart of this city and when he died they even didn’t notice!”
“But then all these accidences, illness, it can’t be because of love only.  Or rather the lack of it”
“Think, my dear sister, think. When did you heard last time the nice friendly word in this city? When did you see the friends talking cheerfully and playing pranks on each other, when did you see people smiling at you, sharing anything positive with you?? No love, no smiles, no positiveness. Everything is black. Animals felt it before us and left. People try to leave the city but it won’t change anything, their minds should be changed, the way they feel.”
“But…. how?” – Mary was confused.
“If it is not a curse, then it can be changed, right, sweetheart?” – Mike stood up, and headed into direction of their house.
Mary hurried up after him crying “How?”
He turned back and smiled: “There is the only way”
“Which way?”
“Love can grow only by sharing” – the answer was.
Mary smiled, may be for the first time in the last few months and noticed that the few of left in the city people smiled back at her.
“Love can only grow by sharing” the repeated and knew exactly what it meant.