It was tough for him. In this little mountain town everyone knew Dave. It's tough for anyone to get over EVERY one knowing you, but in this particular town of Sunset Falls, by virtue of the gossips tenacity for Dave, it might have driven someone else insane. Well, looking back maybe. it was impossible for someone like Dave too. You see, Dave had been in the town's eye for the whole of his duration on this earth and until he moved on (his ultimate intention) it looked like everything, from his slightly droopy jowls to his always covered legs, would be under constant assessment.
It wasn't like he did anything wrong. In fact Dave was the type of guy who was proud to be constantly on the straight and narrow. Didn't understand how people got in fistfights and spoke in a manner that reflected that ethos. Once, when he was downtown to to get some candles, ol' Mike McConnell and Jimmy Refets got in a brawl over some damned thing and the first thing out of Dave's mouth was "What could possibly be worth fighting about?" Now this disposition wasn't exactly why Dave is the focus of this story but it sure doesn't detract from the picture at all, but I don't know exactly why I mention it save as to get a better picture of the man.
To that point though, often while walking down streets, knowing that everyone was looking at him out of the corner of their eye, getting permission for complete stairs from his back, he wondered how he had gotten into this town. He wasn't much to look at. A skinny man, with a fresh mop of blond hair with enough brown in it as to leave no doubt he was a mix of every descent this great country had to offer. No, he wasn't much to look at but he wasn't that ugly either. Dave had always been acutely aware of the premium on beauty. Had been aware of it every since that haircut in the sixth grade when he read that People magazine article that said plainly that 90 percent of CEO's were rated as good looking or very good looking. So, in Dave's mind, that's just how it was. Good looking people got ahead and he didn't have very much going for himself. Dave just knew himself as a farm hand, but then Dave didn't quite it or himself.
Well, get it in regards to being a CEO, but that wasn't quite what he wanted to do. No, to Dave a CEO was someone who had lost himself. A CEO was someone who hadn't quite figured out what they wanted to do but had instead gotten mixed up in the constant caterwaul of what he assumed (being as he had never put on a tie in his life) was the cacophony of business life. Demanding blue teeth and trophy wives, this never appealed to Dave in the slightest. He was a rare bird. The kind that immediately once spotted, you knew it was to be noticed. A friend once told Dave, "Dave, every damn time I see you it's like I just a snake for the first time, and it's like no one had ever told me that there were snakes on this planet." And that description suited Dave just fine.
I guess in the end, that is what made people look at Dave and that did make him uncomfortable. It follows suit then that Dave did what he did, looking back I suppose there was really no way around it. It just seemed like, well back then, that because everyone was always talking about him, that he would always be there. I mean, you don't expect the weather to go anywhere do you? However, that wasn't the case and I'll never forget that week. He did more leaving than he ever did while he was here. People spoke of him like it was going to put out a fire at an orphanage. Half of it true, and half of it not. I s'pose that wouldn't have mattered to Dave either.
Guess you can accomplish a lot when your not someplace. Trouble is, most times, you have to be there first, and most times your not Dave.
