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Fred and May Viljoen met and married as if it were the most natural thing to do, and if you saw them together you would think so too. They had one daughter which they named after May and her mother. For the purposes of distinction they called her Girly. It was a term May had remembered her father using and it filled her with a warmth and sense of security she couldn’t describe, but she wanted her daughter to feel the same. And so Girly May was what she was called, and there are some who to this day are of the idea that May is her surname.

Girly was bright and often at the top of her small mixed age class. Small town teachers would have called her gifted and as such they tried all they could to encourage her. Given to flights of fancy from an early age it was sometime difficult for Girly to focus on the schoolwork at hand. The same ones who called her gifted would shake their heads and chide her for wasting their time, but secretly they hoped that these flights would one day be the door to a larger world for her.

Fred and May had both been born in town and were schooled there, Fred till he was 16 and May to 14. They had met at just such a year end occasion. The same could be said for most of the people in town. Fred had found work at the co-op, helping get the farmers goods distributed and providing them with supplies, he had been at this same job for nearly twenty-five years. As it turns out, May had gotten a job in the co-op office for three days of the week. Her mathematics skills had stood her in good stead, although Mr. Smidt had only consented to hire her once she turned 16. Much as this was how things were, he did feel as if employing May at 14 was in some way depriving her. Besides, it would give her time to mature and to complete a correspondence course or two. This is how Fred and May still lived, they couldn’t see it any different for themselves and May had already started looking for a correspondence course or two for Girly to do once she realized that she would no longer be filling her days with school activities. Neither May nor Girly had given thought to anything beyond the concrete ‘Welcome’ sign at the start of town.

Money was tight and the small town, though not sinking, was clinging to life with all its might.  Fred worried for Girly and what would become of her. There was no money to send her to a college in another town, let alone have her live away from home. He knew she needed more education than she had received and more than he or his wife had gotten. Fred knew that things in town were not ideal, and while he was happy to hold on for the rest of his life it would be more than just a little unfair to expect the same from Girly.

Fred Viljoen began to dream.