The usual bi-monthly diatribe about vigilantes and people living in fantasy worlds ran in the Fendersburg Trumpet a week after the Ghost's resignation letter. Instead of the usual demand for intensive psychiatric evaluation for the Ghost, the letter writer, Marijane Hunter, congratulated the Ghost on finally gaining some perspective and a grasp on reality.
Three days later, her
house was burglarized. She wrote a scathing letter to the editor, blaming the
entire town for the Ghost's retirement.
Other than Marijane
being robbed, Jane didn't notice any change in the crime rate in Fendersburg.
She suspected someone had struck Marijane because of her letters to the editor.
For all she knew, people blamed her vitriolic letters for the Ghost leaving.
The accident rate went down, now that people no longer took their safety for granted. Jane would have laughed, except she felt an odd little twinge of guilt. Had she encouraged people to be careless about their own welfare? Maybe her leaving was good for Fendersburg. Maybe it was good for the world that there really weren’t any comic book style superheroes.
It didn't matter. She reminded herself of that firmly every time she heard someone discussing the Ghost’s reasons for quitting. She reminded herself of that every time she crossed a day off her hidden countdown calendar.
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