I never did think I would end up here, in a small town in Washington. I always pictured myself living in the big city being some big time journalist. I guess things don’t always work out the way you think or even want them to, but I cannot bring myself to regret any of the decisions I have made that brought me to where I am now, here in Genji.
It all started when I first got out of college. I had finally got to be a journalist, and for an amazing magazine called ‘Being that Girl’. It was the greatest female magazine since Cosmo. But when our magazine started running out of things to write about we started to have problems so Sherry, my boss told me I needed to start looking for a story something interesting that we could keep writing about. It took me a while to think about it, but I finally got it. My idea was to find out what is so interesting and great about living in a small town. Since most of the women reading ‘Being that Girl’ were city girls, much like myself I thought this would be a great view on living in a small town. Sherry loved the idea too, and a few days later I was off to the small town Genji. I decided the best way to get the real view on this was to not tell anybody in the town about my little story about it and just see what I could find out, that way I could get the best of this small little town on its real side. When I got to the town I saw the typical little town, it was kind of sweet, and I decided to stay in a little hotel, which was the only hotel in the town. The odd thing about the town was that while driving down the one road that was in the town, or even while walking down the street, everybody was smiling, and everyone was happy.
The first day I was in Genji I decided I would take a little walk around the town and see what was there, get to met some of the people here. The first little place I went in was a little shop that sold, well anything. The next little place I went was the little shop at the end of the town, it was a small grocery store, and the fruit that was outside of it was amazing. The best I think I have ever seen, it was beautiful. The apples were so vibrant, the oranges looked so big, the strawberries looked so delicious that it seemed if you were to have one you could never stop eating them, and they even had mangos that looked so fresh it was like they were just picked out of the tree. I had to buy some, I just couldn’t help it, and it was like the fruit was calling you telling you to buy them. When I got up to the cash register, nobody was there, while I waited to pay for all the fruit that I had collected, I pulled out a strawberry, they just looked so good I couldn’t help it; and I was right, when you had one you couldn’t stop eating them, I didn’t think I would ever stop. Until a man walked up to the cash register. He was a good looking man, and looked about my age, I was a bit embarrassed since I had been caught stuffing my mouth with strawberries.
“You’re new around Genji, aren’t you?” the man said in a claim kind of laugh voice. As I finished off the last strawberry in my mouth,
“Yes, just got in today, how could you tell?”
“Only newbies go after the fruit like that around here, don’t worry it happens to everybody.” Unfortunately, that didn’t make me feel about being embarrassed in front of this amazingly good looking man.
“Well I just couldn’t help it the fruit here is so delicious, it even looks delicious and there’s so much of it; where do you get it all?”
“All the fruit is grown here in Genji, that’s why it’s so fresh, so what’s your name? I can’t just call you newbie the next time I see you.”
“Oh, it’s Eliza, and yours?”
“Will.” There was a small silence, but it wasn’t long enough to make it weird.
“Well how about this Eliza, I’ll give you that fruit as a welcoming gift, no charge.”
“Oh no I couldn’t, that wouldn’t be right.”
“No, no please take it; believe me you’ll be coming back for more.” I couldn’t argue with that.

After I left the little store I walked back to the hotel to get some shut eye, it had been a long day with the drive and everything. I didn’t even make it back to the hotel before all the fruit that I had gotten was all gone. I got back and feel right to sleep; not knowing what would be in store for me the next day. When I woke up the next morning and looked out the window I saw something I’m not quite sure how to describe. There was fruit everywhere. Every type of fruit that you could imagine was outside on the street. This had to be a mistake, the only reasonably explanation that I had was that an aircraft or some must have flow by and dropped all of the fruit down, that could explain all the fruit that Will was selling. I got dressed and ran outside; this was the weirdest thing I think I had ever seen. When I ran outside I saw an old lady who was picking up the fruit and putting it in a basket, along with everyone else that was in the street. When I asked the lady where all this fruit came from she looked at me like I was the crazy one. She point up and said “The sky, it’s Tuesday don’t you know that.” ‘Fruit just falling out of the sky…because it’s Tuesday?’ I said back to the old woman in a confused voice. “Hm…you’re new around here aren’t you?” The woman said back, like she knew something even weirder would be happening. “Yes, how did you know?” but before answering my question the woman walked away.
Before it got to lunch time all the fruit was gone from the streets, and in Wills store. I couldn’t stop thinking about what that woman said about the fruit falling because it was Tuesday. What did it being Tuesday have anything to do with fruit falling from the skies? This was becoming ridiculous. Nobody would tell me why this happened, they just said it’s was Tuesday. After running around the town trying to get information from people about this weird event that went on today, that nobody but me seem to think was weird, I went back to the hotel to get some sleep. The next morning I woke up to singing in the streets. I looked out the window again to see what was going on and it was like a musical was going on in the streets. I again put on all my clothes and ran downstairs to see what was going on, but anytime I asked somebody something they would just sing to me. Nobody would tell me anything and again there was another weird event going on in this small town. I felt like I was in a dream, but then I realized that this wasn’t some crazy dream, this was life in Genji.
I woke up to again crazy laughter and screams; I looked out the window to see the town flooded! But nobody was worried and nobody was freaking out, instead they were making this into a water park. There own town into some water park. This was insane this time, I was not going out to ask what was going on and getting no answers. The next day, everything seemed to be okay, nothing to weird was going on, so I went downstairs and to see why everything was so quite. This seemed a little odd that this town was so silent; there was nobody in the streets, nobody in the buildings. Where had everyone gone? In that moment I was grabbed by somebody and taken to the side of the building, the man was wearing a black mask. I screamed in fear of my life, but he put he’s hand over my mouth. When he let me go and took off his mask I saw that it was Will.
“What the heck was that all about, why did you just gr-“
“Shhhh…I’m sorry I had to we’re under attack!”
“What!?”
“Quiet, please they will hear you.” I then heard a weird sound coming behind me.
“Get down Eliza!”
I dropped to the ground and saw some more people dressed in black with masks, with guns. But they were paint ball guns. There was no attack this was just some game the boys were playing.
I later finally started to talk to Will about all the weird things that were going on in this town. Will told me how there are always weird things going on in Genji that’s the great part about Genji and that’s why everyone in the town is so happy. Nothing is normal so everyone always has fun. It rains fruit every Tuesday and every Thursday there is a battle between the two sides of the town. Of course this battle was just a paintball battle, but still a battle. He also explained how we everyone knew that I was new in town, since I didn’t understand what was going on, I still believed this kind of things couldn’t happen, and that life still had to be normal. It was kind of nice, I started to really like Genji that day, and they were right I was really happy and I did just enjoy life there.
Sherry had to find out about this. I ran back to the hotel and called Sherry. I told her about how the fruit was so delicious and how this guy Will, a very good looking guy, who worked at this grocery store and sold it and told me I could have it for free cause I was new in town and how I didn’t need to worried he could get more tomorrow. I didn’t get what he meant at the time but then the next day it rained fruit, form the sky, it just came out of nowhere. I went on about my week in Genji. By the end when I thought I had sold my great idea of a small town to Sherry, I got the comment “I don’t believe you.”
I guess I ended up in Genji by accident, but I don’t ever regret it. I quit my job in the big city and that fancy magazine and stayed in Genji where I could always be happy and always have fun. I write books about this Genji. They’re put with the fiction books because nobody will believe me about this place, and that’s okay.