The town of Milliner’s Ferry had neither a hat shop, nor a ferry. In fact, the closest river was sixteen miles south, down a winding highway, in the valley that carved its way between Milliner’s and the next closest city. There was decent grazing land in the valley and some small farms and a tiny gas station with a single pump run by an old man who claimed to have know the mysterious Hat maker that was the town’s namesake; but since the town had been founded prior to the advent of the telegram, Kitty had always doubted that very much.
The town itself wasn’t large. Neither was it a postage stamp. She had once visited her aunt in colorado; she lived in a small town. The Main Street was bisected by only three others; First, second and third, and the resident population was lucky to have broken through into the triple digits only after the birth of the triplets belonging to Mr and Mrs Marcus over two years earlier. That was a small town.
Mill, as the locals usually called it, boasted numbered and lettered streets as well as several states, presidents, a neighborhood of trees, and a few others that witty city planners had crammed in around the outskirts over the years. It was situated in the mountains, for better lack of description, so it couldn’t grow too large without crawling up the sides of several foothills, something the residents consistently voted against every time a hungry developer came through with a “low impact” plan to add more housing to the lay back little town.
Despite having lettered and numbered streets, Mill was still a “small town”. Neighbors knew each other. You couldn’t go to the store without running into someone you knew, and despite the doubling in the population every ski season, and then again during the annual spring art festival, Mill was nothing if not quaint.
So it should have come as no surprise to Kitty when she woke up on the floor of the bookshelf with two very concerned looking Milliner’s Ferry police officers and Mrs. Taylor-Mckenzie hovering over her looking Very Concerned and exclaiming in relief when she opened her eyes.
Bountiful Words, Beautiful World 