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Evening rolled around and A.J. cleaned himself off and made his way, with the rest of the guys, to the meeting hall for dinner. When they arrived it looked drastically different then the night before. Instead a look of elegance, the hall was made to look like a barnyard. Hay was scattered around on the floor with several bales of hay stacked in corners, dried cornstalks were propped up in corners. A.J. had not helped with these decorations so it took him off guard to see them now. He was again handed a number and separated from his friends for the evening’s meal.

The smell of barbeque reached his nose and forced his mouth to water in anticipation. When his table was called he lined-up and helped himself to heaping servings of chicken, potato salad and baked beans. He sat down and started to eat not even noticing the girl from this morning talking animatedly next to him. Her laugh caught his attention and he finally turned towards her.

“So I’ve told you all about myself, tell me about yourself.” He smiled at him.

He grinned a bit embarrassed that he had not heard a word she said earlier. He did not know what to tell her, what does anyone want to know? “There’s nothing to tell.”

She made a disbelieving noise with her mouth. “Tell me about your travels.”

A.J. sighed and started turned towards the young girl to start talking but before he could a loud clattering noise rang out across the meeting hall. Everyone’s eyes turned towards the guests of honor table where the third widow, whom A.J. had not heard the name of yet, sat bawling; apparently she knocked her plate over earlier.

It was at this time that A.J. glimpsed Allison for the first time today. She gave him no impression that she was ill, but earlier he was told she was and when he tried to get her to answer the door while he was working in her fields, she refused to come and get him sick. She helped the woman by fanning her with a napkin while the others consoled the crying woman. Allison’s eyes darted up as she looked around the room anxiously. She spotted A.J. and gave him a quick smile before continuing to search.

It was only seconds until John was at the crying woman’s side whispering in her ear. The tears and wails stopped and the woman sat straight looking out at the crowd. “I’m sorry.” She voiced. “Please let us not ruin this evening.”

Everyone returned to their conversations keeping their eyes averted from the woman who disturbed the evening. A.J. kept his eyes on her a bit longer before moving them to where Allison sat with her eyes on her own plate he knew that she was avoiding his eyes. He turned his attention back to the girl at the table who was talking to him again; he smiled faintly at her before excusing himself.

“I think I’ve just eaten too much food.” He said trying to keep the girl from following him out the door. He did not go back to his room; instead he turned and made his way to Allison’s farm. He did not know what spurred him to go in that direction, but he knew he wanted to be there.

He sat on her front porch and looked towards the sky. The air was calming; he could get used to evenings like these, but definitely could not stand the days of doing nothing but hard labor. He was an entertainer and he would never be able to live in a place like this, especially since he could not get his latte fix.

“Lost?” He heard her voice and he jumped slightly. He had not heard her approach he had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts.

“Your house is out of the way, I wanted to be alone.”

“Oh, if that’s the case I will go back to the dancing.” A small smile played on her lips as she turned to leave A.J. sitting on her porch.

“Alright, you caught me. I wanted to see and speak with you. I knew you would come home eventually so I decided to wait for you.”

She turned back around, a full smile now on her lips. “Well, glad you are learning to be honest. Walk with me?” She started to move in a direction away from the house and away from town. A.J. got off the porch and followed her. The stopped at a small lake A.J. had not seen before.

“Every time I go somewhere in this place it’s somewhere I’ve never seen before.” At this point it was out of habit that A.J. opened his phone to see if he had any cell phone reception. He snapped it shut and shoved it in his pants trying to keep his sigh of frustration as quiet as possible.

“Not enjoying your time here?” Allison asked.

“Just want to get back on the road. I’m sure two of our shows for this week have been cancelled already and that’s quite a few disappointed fans.”

Allison nodded and let A.J. flood her with how he had been feeling since he arrived, he even poured out some of his suspicions about the town to Allison. When she did not laugh at his thoughts about how creepy the town was, he started to worry even more. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his package of cigarettes, something he noticed he had not done in the last few days. He shook it off and lit the cigarette inhaling deeply.

“Don’t be at a rush to get through those.” Allison’s voice calmly started. “Smoking is looked down upon here and you cannot buy any at the general store. There is no form of tobacco at all, and of course, no alcohol.” She laughed. “It’s why my mother was so glad to find this place with my father. Forced him to stop drinking, but could not stop him from hitting her.”

A.J. got quiet; he had no response for this comment. No consoling words came to mind so he only sat smoking.

After a few minutes passed A.J. asked a question that had been on his mind for a time. “Where are all the children in this town?”

Allison shrugged and looked at her feet. “They usually stay at home. This week they’ve been having a sleepover at the schoolhouse. Happens every year for the Widow’s Walk. The adults celebrate the widow’s and the children have their own little party. Could you see them at these kinds of dinners for a week?” She chuckled uneasily.

“Do you have any children?” He had to know, she was after all married.

She looked away from A.J. and turned towards the horizon. A figure was approaching quickly. “See you.” She tossed her good-bye out and then ran off towards her house.

“There you are.” The girl who was sitting with A.J. at dinner beamed. “I was hoping we could dance.”

A.J. nodded silently and looked in the direction that Allison ran off in.

“Don’t worry about her, I won’t tell John she was talking to you. I don’t fear her as competition.”