At the first day of spring, three strangers wandered up the mountain from the dust filled plains of the east and came down into the valley. They Valley people welcomed them with open arms, gave them food and a place to stay; this is what they have always done. The Dust people are a shy breed and they hide their faces behind masks and cloaks and only dark slits for their eyes could be seen. Many of the Valley people wondered what they looked like but they were too polite to ask. Some speculated that the Dust people didn’t even have eyes but that was too disturbing to talk about.

The dust people usually stayed for a couple of days before moving on deeper into the valley and over to the neighbouring town at the river. The people there welcomed them as well because having the dust people around made life easier, somehow, things didn’t seem as hard and life became a little silly and people laughed and were merry.

The Dust people wandered from village to village until everybody had had a taste, then the dust people headed back after sampling the Valley Peoples hospitality at the end of spring. Nobody knew why they did this. The Valley People were famed for their good food and suppose the Dust People didn’t have very good food where they came from. But it was strange that they came in spring, everybody knows the best food was in autumn during the harvest, it was so much richer and tastier then. They argued that the Dust People didn’t know about farming or the seasons, but still, it was strange.

None of the Valley People had gone over the mountain to look what’s on the other side, not since Geremy and his brother never came back. I always thought it was unfair that we remember the name of the one brother but not the other. Once in a while, dust storms carried sand across the mountain and rained down on the valley, turning the landscape pale until it was washed away by the rains. This was a happy occasion because the next harvest would be great, the greens grew larger and tasted sweeter, even the milk the cows produced was sweet. Everything that came from the desert was good as far as the valley people were concerned.

But still, people wondered, how could such a dead place bring life and how could such shady characters as the Dust People bring joy? They were questions the people were afraid to get answers to for they feared it must be sinister and would rather not know. As such, they kept wondering, never straying far from their valley, never learning about the world around them as everything was good in their little paradise and they were happy to share it with the strangers as long as they weren’t too many and as long as they left at the end of spring.

© Christopher Stamfors