The Bog Days Festival cancelled

The Bog Days Festival was officially cancelled this year due to weather concerns. As far as I know, the festival has never been cancelled in the town's history. Not even the year after 9 children were struck by lightning and killed while on a roller coaster at the festival in 1989. I actually reported on that incident. I was there when it happened. It was a tragedy and a traumatic experience that shook the town. And yet... the show must go on. Bastards.

The torrential rain and flooding has continued, so it makes sense that Mayor Hale would want to reschedule the festival, which was his original plan. The mayor deciding to cancel the festival altogether, however, is puzzling. Townsfolk appear disappointed and some have publicly dissented, but Mayor Hale has not backed down on his decision.

Greetings

I noticed my audience has grown immensely -- literally overnight! I can only hope none of you are townsfolk, as many of them would not take kindly to my nosing around.

Through a couple emails I was alerted that there is a group of young people in town also investigating the disappearances. I will be contacting them shortly to see if we can help each other out. Honestly, however, I don't want anyone else looking into this. But I can't stop them. I was the same as a young person... But that's why I had to get the hell out of dodge 20 years ago.

If anyone has never heard of or visited Nettlebrook, I don't encourage you to do so. While it has it's small town charm, it certainly has secrets. I suppose any place does, but this town's secrets seem to be especially sinister. However, that is only speculation. I haven't been able to get my hands on any hard evidence yet.

Nettlebrook is a strange place. If you didn't grow up here or somehow end up here for college, you would never know it existed. It doesn't exist on any maps, physical or GPS. There is almost no trace of it on the internet. Many folks here distrust strangers, so it makes sense they would distrust the internet, a network of strangers.

Anyway, thank you for visiting my blog, strangers. Stay safe.

H

The Hale legacy and weird observations

The current mayor of Nettlebrook, Dick Hale, is the son of the former mayor Richard Hale. And Richard Hale's father was the mayor before that, and so on and so on. Nepotism is not only a common practice in this town, but a hallowed tradition. Positions of power tend to stay in the family. This is also true of the newspaper I used to work for as a reporter. The Babbling Brook's editor has been a Chamberlin for decades and same goes for the headmaster of Bogwick Academy always being a Wick.

Some weird observations: The weather here of late has been godawful. There have been torrential rains for nearly a month. The town is worried that the bog may flood...

Flora Gonzalez and Zoey update

I will be making a few posts based on my recent findings.

Through word of mouth, I have gathered that the last disappearence (besides Zoey Bent) occurred in June of 2009. Like Miss Bent, this missing person was also a young woman, also a student at Bogwick Academy (a private Catholic school in Nettlebrook), and also there on scholarship. Her name was Flora Gonzalez, daughter of Maria Gonzalez who still lives in town with her husband, her sister and her niece. I don't know much about Flora, since people in town don't seem to be keen on speaking on the subject of missing persons. I have not contacted the Gonzalezes directly as of yet, but I plan to. I will document whatever information I learn about her and other missing persons here.

I will also include here an update on Zoey Bent:

I was able to contact her mother, Mazie Bent who lives on the outskirts of town. She declined to answer my questions and appeared aggravated. Much of the townsfolk unanimously agree that Mazie Bent is an unfit mother who did not watch her daughter properly. Rumor has it she is addicted to narcotics and that the Bent home was not a pleasant space for Zoey. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm if this is true.

Zoey Bent

Unsurprisingly, Nettlebrook hasn't changed much since I left. In a lot of ways. I will be making a seperate post about all those ways soon, but first I want to talk about the one that most disturbs me.

Here it is: Disappearances. All of them technically unsolved, and yet all of them closed cases. It's suspicious too that the police chief has been a Hawthorne since long before I arrived here 20 years ago (Nettlebrook tends to keep things in the family--more on that in my next post).

18-year-old Zoey Bent went missing at the tail end of her senior year at Bogwick Academy. I have not been able to look at her case file despite the fact that it is a closed case, not an ongoing investigation, and therefore is a part of public record. Rumors state she was ruled a runaway, despite the fact there is no apparent evidence that could lead to such a conclusion (however, I don't have all the facts on hand, so I can't say for sure whether the police department is really justified or not).

If I could somehow get a list of all the missing persons in Nettlebrook... It must exist somewhere. Likely not on the Internet (Most people over 30 here have an issue with using the Internet--in fact, the only public places that have computers here are Brooks College and Nettlebrook University, the two colleges here). I know they wouldn't allow me access, especially with my record here. Maybe if I got in contact with the Native reservation not far from here, they could share with me their record, since, from what I can remember, many missing persons were actually from their reservation, not just Nettlebrook.

I will certainly investigate more into this. Updates shall abound.

Worried about Scout

The reason I've returned to Nettlebrook is my brother. He's gotten more and more erratic over the years and I worry about him. He's a completely different man from the one I knew when we parted ways all those years ago. He's driven himself mad isolating himself from human contact and concocting elaborate conspiracy theories.

Though I don't think he's completely mad. In fact, I think he's right about some things. And that could put him in danger here. I know I have to look after him. It's my brotherly duty, I suppose.

Introduction

I created this blog as a means to archive my previous writings, however, things are not going according to plan...

I have copies saved from my articles written while I was on the beat in New York City, but I didn't save a shred of my articles from the small town of Nettlebrook, where I got my start. The reasons for this are numerous. I didn't feel safe there. I didn't want to carry with me any part of that town. But here I am again, back in its throes, its clutches. And it doesn't seem like much has changed since I left two decades or so ago.

Anyway, I asked the town library and newspaper if I could check their archives for my articles and they told me I don't have access to them. I, the writer of the articles, does not have access to them, despite them being public record? The legality of it is tenuous and I would argue it if I didn't know any better. But I do know better. I know that there is no place for justice or truth in a town like Nettlebrook. History is written by the rich and the rich alone here.

Now that I'm here again... I wonder what I should do. I'm retired, I'm no longer a reporter or a law man. I'm just a tired batchelor. That said, I know I can't just sit back and do nothing. Even shouting into the void that is the internet is better than that, at this point.

Hunter Holloway, signing off. For now.