Why did you leave? 

I left to go to a University. I thought I wanted to become a physicist. It didn't end well. I never finished my first year, but I met an irreplaceable group of people. They understood why I couldn't finish and supported me even though my family didn't. 

Why did you return?

My oldest friend is getting married. We don't speak much anymore but they still wanted me there. We simply drifted apart as sometimes that happens. I have never met their fiance before. This place feels like home again and I think I may want to return and stay here. 

I miss my family and all the familiar locations. I know I would have to completely uproot everything to move back but there's something that feels so welcoming here. 

Who first brought you to the well?

My partner at the time brought me there, hoping we would stay together forever. It didn't last long, we were split in less than a week. They still cried when I left.  I see posts from them on social media, but other than occasionally liking a post, we don't talk. 

What is your best memory of them? 

I was so elated when they asked me on our first date. I had been so lonely, the only one of the group who never had a partner. I had thought I was undesirable. 

What is your worst memory of them?

I found out the only reason I was asked out in the first place was because they thought I was low-maintenance and desperate. I was told this by a friend of a friend. Someone I didn't really know, but after speaking with everyone else they confirmed it was true. Worse, they thought that I had known all along. 

I saw their name on a sign when driving into town. They are a real-estate agent now, and somewhat successful I suppose. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I had stayed with them. Would I be living in a big house now instead of a small dingy apartment? 

Where did you spend a lot of late nights, and what was the longest night you spent there? 

We were underaged, but that didn't matter. We weren't supposed to drink, but that didn't matter. We were supposed to be home by 10 but that didn't matter. We whiled away the time at a friend of a friend of a friend's band's first gig. 

They were terrible. The worst songs I had and have ever heard in my life. We tried so hard not to laugh and ended up excusing ourselves into the bathroom so we could giggle and snort without offending anyone. They of course found out and we were confronted. But by that time I had so many drinks that I couldn't remember what was happening, only that someone twice my size was screaming at me and the next thing I knew I was in the alleyway with everyone else. 

The band broke up shortly afterwards no thanks to us. I never went drinking with any of those people again. I learned later that the members all went on to form different bands, only one of which ever had a song on the local radio. I wonder sometimes if they still remember that night. 

Where would you go when a late night became an early morning?

Big Sally's Breakfast Nook had the worst food. But it was also the cheapest, and a bunch of broke highschool kids could get as many fries as they wanted in the morning. It was a 24hr diner and if we managed to get there at 5 in the morning when they were throwing away all the fries they didn't sell the night before we could get them for pennies. They were more grease than potato but we loved them.  

I went there once after my breakup and I remember crying and crying at the counter. The staff didn't say anything to me, but they didn't charge me either. 

Big Sally's has been closed for about 5 years now. 

There was a place you had to go, what was it like when you left? 

H. Smith Memorial Highschool was… a place. I can't say that I enjoyed it. I can't say that I hated it any more than any other aspect of my life. It was an obligation and a chore and miserable. I wouldn't go back for a second. Thinking about how early I had to wake up to go to classes. Unending misery. There's no reason we need to be awake at that hour. We have electric lights. Let us sleep in!

Where did you get in real trouble?

When I was ten I pushed my brother off the pier. He almost drowned that day and we spent the entire rest of the day in the ambulance and then the hospital trying to make sure he didn't die from hypothermia. My parents never took us out again and I wasn't allowed to be alone with my brother anymore. 

I didn't mean any harm at the time, I just thought it would be funny for him to be wet. I learned that day that it doesn't matter what your intentions were, adults don't particularly care, they only care about the results of an action. I stopped trying to justify myself to them and stopped telling them things. 

A place of Happy Memories turned bad

My parents stopped taking me here after I pushed my brother in. They kept saying that I couldn't be trusted. No matter how I begged and pleaded they said it was my fault and I should learn to deal with the consequences of my actions. It felt like they thought I wanted to kill him. 

I've never been back since. 

A place you tried to make a new Start

Green Tree Middle School. I thought I was so grown up when I was in 6th grade. I wasn't a little baby anymore. I was an "adult". I wanted to be called by my full name. Which no one did. I wanted to be taken seriously.  Which no one did. I felt myself become bitter and angry. I try not to take it personally. I don't take 6th graders seriously now, but at the time, it was so belittling and condescending. 

The Last Week in Town

I remember wanting to leave so bad. I felt like this place was too small, too unimportant, and there was nothing here for me. I remember going to Big Sally's one last time in the morning and eating so many fries I nearly threw up in the bathroom. Sally was the last one I saw before leaving that day. I had said my goodbyes the night before. 

Returning to the Well

They are here now with me. The Real-Estate Agent. They seem nonchalant about it but they've asked me to come back. We were never really that close so this feels like it comes from nowhere. This place is my home. But this place has nothing for me. I shake my head, I'm leaving tomorrow.