The crisp morning air stirred everything awake for a new day, and the sun peeked over the horizon, casting light across the land. It didn’t skip over the small town of N, tucked away somewhere among the roads of western Ukraine. Quiet, peaceful, almost invisible—it was like a sleepy kid dozing off during the first class at school.
Everything here looked the same as everywhere else, even if it was painted a different color or made of different materials. That’s just how it was. A handful of five-story apartment buildings, a hospital, a town hall, some kind of administrative office, a school, a church (or two), a few big stores, and a scattering of smaller ones. That’s all you needed to know about this place. Nothing special.
A long time ago, this town had working factories. People had jobs. The town was growing fast. There were plans drawn up for expansion. Young families were given plots of land to build homes. Everything was moving forward. There was even talk of opening a small airport and rebuilding a railway line that had been destroyed during the world war. Though, honestly, the practicality of those ideas was questionable at best. But whatever.
Times changed. And instead of all that progress, something else took its place. Or, more accurately, absolutely nothing. The two operating factories shut down. There were massive layoffs across the board. So, little by little, people started disappearing. Some left the country looking for work. Others moved to bigger cities with better prospects. Some passed away (that’s just life, after all). And some stayed behind, trying to figure out how to keep going.
Years rolled by. Some things changed. Some stayed the same. And some faded into the past. But the one thing that always mattered was living. You had to keep living. Especially if you had kids. Or elderly relatives to take care of. So, somehow, people managed to get by.