i just remembered this thing that happened.
in fourth grade.

there used to be a water tower up the hill by my elementary school playground. it had never been vandalized before (it's wyoming, no one cares enough/everyone is too strung out to bother), but one night, someone decided to put graffiti "PLP" in giant, red and yellow letters. and so the mystery began. some sixth graders spread a rumor that it stood for "People Losing Pencils." a huge conspiracy surrounding why we start off the school year with a pack of dozens of pencils, and a month in we need to go buy more.

(it's wyoming. it's boring there.)

so one day after school i was wandering the playground, alone, searching for evidence. and a sixth grade kid came up to me and started talking about PLP. then he mentioned he was trying to break into the school, because he'd left a bomb in there. and it was connected to PLP, but i couldn't tell anyone.

so i went home. i took a bath. i read a book. i went to school the next morning and waited for it to blow up.

(it never did)

later that year, someone wrote a threat in the bathroom that they were going to shoot up the high school. not a high school kid. someone in my grade.

(they never did)

another rumor floating through that school was that they kept mutants and monsters in janitor closet. the wall of the closet that separated it from the playground was a grid, with just enough room for a monster to reach out and grab and kill and eat an unsuspecting child.



i like to imagine the real meaning of PLP is Progressive Labor Party. just because it would mean not everyone in wyoming is a burnout. some people actually think there.
maybe.