db vast hell

Well, Mayberry RFD it is not.

 

No Floyd the Barber here.  No Barbara Eden as the manicurist in the NC male bastion.

But the town does boast two barber shops which seems to be one too many.  They vie against each other to attract customers.  One has the French Woman who entices and then mocks. The young man is smitten and comes every day to the shop. He is the only one who is not deterred, and then he goes missing

Remember the woman in When Black Men’s Teeth Speak Out?   It is almost as if her sister lives in this town. This woman’s expertise is gossip. Small towns have an association of everyone knowing everyone’s’ business. The curiosity is that there is an unknown mass grave until this woman seeks the body of the French Woman

When there is nothing to do, head noise happens.  The widow makes it happen.  The French Woman by being a challenge to the other women in the town is the widow’s attachment – living or dead. It matters not.

The backdrop is the Dirty Wars where people are disappeared. Irrevocably. If they ever reappear, it is large groups of bones and mutilated flesh. The French Woman disappeared only to reappear. No harm to her.  Her husband is exonerated. The young man disappeared, leaving behind his housing.  That’s final.

So, the gossip damages.  It is like the media (of any kind) story that is not complete or errs.  The first chance at truth taking root is offset. The concept of There is only one chance to make a first impression can apply here.  Then when error is drilled in further by small nails and then larger ones, truth may never be heard unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Parallel this to why the actual deaths do not receive attention beyond their discovery.  These are missing persons. These are family members and friends of whom?  From where?  Who are they?  Why the brutality? Surely, they are missed. 

And then the forced “no discussion” or the would-be gossips shall meet the same fate.

So, gossiping would seem to be controllable after all.