The town in which I live was full of sunlight and food vendors. The tall grass in the abandoned lots was full of chiggers and the gravel under the soles of my shoes was dry, grumbling, and there was not a breeze to be felt by my skin, nor the skin of the food vendors. I heard their catcalls as I passed and their aromas wound tightly together but I was not deterred from my task and I kept my eyes trained on the footprints on the ground which glittered like sugar.
My knees were stiff and ached so when I came to a cool spot under an awning I stood up and put my hand to my brow and looked out upon the street and the picturesque courthouse square with its cardinals and finches scattered like fallen Christmas ornaments on the lawn. I heard the clock tower chime eleven times and that was when the mayor and his entourage of drowsy braggarts approached me with the musk of nicotine hanging around them and the mayor's top man clutched my arm in his hairy hand.
"Never hurt the mayor," he said, with sincerity in his eyes.
"I never will," I said.
"Nor will I," he said. The rest of his party continued shuffling on until they reached the hamburger restaurant. But he held my arm, and squeezed it. "I never have and I never will."
"I believe you."
"You should."
"I agree."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"You agree that you should believe that I have never hurt the mayor and never will. Why?"
"I can see in your eyes that you are a trustworthy ally of the mayor who deeply believes that his policies are correct for our town and that he has the resolve to make the decisions that need to be made, and the strength of will to resist the temptations of power."
His eyes welled up with tears, and his death grip on my arm released, and he embraced me like a father, and let me go like a healed thing.
"Thank you, boy," he said.
"You're welcome. You go on to the hamburger restaurant and I'll continue following these glittering footprints to where they lead."
He winked and gave me the approval finger and we parted with lighter souls.