The Day that Everyone Disappeared!

18 May, 2014
Houston

The whole town's sleeping? Things aren't always what they seem.

I had just started a new job. I was once again a travelling salesman, and this job had me visiting every city and town in Louisiana. It was interesting enough, and I loved the travelling at first. Business was not too very good those first few months - the previous salesman in the area had completely saturated every store and distributor with my company's products, so stock was always more than sufficient wherever I went on my first go-around.

Needless to say, my new bosses were not happy with my work thus far. So I did what I always did: I tried harder. I had yet another unproductive morning and headed further north on Highway 71, passing through Grant Parish, LA. I had never been here before, but was always happy to see new places and things.

It was a beautiful, clear afternoon when I saw the signpost up ahead, welcoming me to the town of Montgomery, LA. It was a town of only a few hundred residents, I found out later, but today I was to see the place for the very first time. What a welcome I got!!

I drove over a little bridge and entered the town, proceeding slowly down the main drag. Suddenly it hit me: there was NOBODY. I mean there wasn't a car or a pedestrian to be seen ANYWHERE!!!  I literally stopped my car right in the middle of the street,  in the very heart of town. I got out and looked around, leaving my door wide open. Not even a dog was barking.

It was like something out of the Twilight Zone, or a Ray Bradbury short story. My mind flashed back to this hokey science-fiction movie I saw as a kid, in which a man drives into a small town and everybody is gone. They were all eaten by giant grasshoppers!

It was spooky, I have to admit. I even drove around side streets, and the only living things I saw were plants. Doors were closed - windows were shuttered tight. Something definitely was amiss, and I didn't wish to be included in the missing! I got in my car and floored it, beating a hasty retreat up Hwy. 71 and the perceived safety of the open road.

Once the town had disappeared from my rear view mirror, I breathed easy - shaking my head in disbelief. I have never ever been in a place so completely deserted by man and beast. Giant bugs notwithstanding, there just HAD to be a logical explanation for all this.

There wasn't.

Several months passed by and again my travels took me through this mysterious town, and once again, I was greeted with the eerie stillness that comes in complete desolation. This time I just kept going, and honked my horn merrily just for fun as I cruised the abandoned main street of Montgomery.

About a year later I was at a trade show, and met up with some people who claimed to be from Montgomery, La. I laughed and said that I didn't think there WERE any folks in that town, because the times I had passed through, I could have opened up with a machine gun in all directions and never even hit a stray cat.

"When did you come to Montgomery?" the man asked, and I noticed he had an odd expression on his face.

"The times I've come through have been on Wednesday afternoons, " I explained, "and I just couldn't figure out where all the folks in the town had gone."

The man chuckled and explained: "Wednesday afternoons are usually bad for business, so the businesspeople in our town decided they could close up then, and have a sort of half-day off."

No giant grasshoppers, no mass-murderers loose, no alien abductions here - this was just a southern small town tradition of taking off on wednesday afternoons... at least, that's what the nice man told me was the reason, and I really would like to believe him...