It’s finally that time of year again. The fog has returned and is beginning to hide the narrow stone pathway. Every year, same day, same time, same thing happens. This has happened ever since I could remember. July 18, 11:07am, the fog begins to appear around the pathways in town.

Most people who visit or pass through find it weird, not normal. But it is. It happens every year, since anyone can remember. There are even books in our library about how scientists get so confused about it. No one knows why this happens every year, especially in the middle of summer.

Even so, you can get some really cool experiences here, when it’s foggy like this. That’s the only thing that changes every year. When I was 7, there were a whole bunch of blue, pink, and gold butterflies. They were super pretty. When I was 12, Christmas presents appeared in front of everyone’s house. One per house, but they were some pretty cool toys. One year, about 70-80 years ago, there were actually flying pigs. That’s probably how that one saying came up, no one believed it.

I moved away a couple years ago for college, but I come back every single year just for this. I never bring any of my friends, they would just think I got a whole town in on this really big prank. They wouldn’t believe it was real. Unfortunately, this year is different. My friend Cece invited herself to come along. She wanted to see where I grew up and my hometown. She loves small towns so I’m not surprised she came. I couldn’t tell her no, so I told her about everything on the plane.

When we got there, July 17th, she was so excited to see everything. We walked around the whole town, the entire day. Everyone was talking about the possibilities for tomorrow. As I thought, she was having a hard time believing it.

We decided to go to the hotel and eat then go to bed early.

I woke her up at 10:30am so we can get ready. She was cranky, but got up and dressed. We got food to eat while walking to the front of the town. By the time we got there, it was 10:58am. Everyone was there already. She seemed shocked and looked like she was thinking. She was starting to believe me.

When it turned 11:07am, nothing happened. There was no fog. No fog? Cece was not impressed. The entire town was shocked. Everyone froze. It was quiet.

After 10 or so minutes of everyone just standing at the front of the town, no one speaking a word, Cece spoke. She was upset that I got her hopes up about something as crazy as presents appearing out of nowhere and pigs flying. As soon as she took a step towards the town, that’s when something happened.

The fog appears quickly. There was a lot more fog than usual. We couldn’t even see our feet. After 45 seconds, it calmed down, there was the normal amount of fog, we could see clearly again. The entire town was covered in Bright colors. There was carnival games, a Ferris wheel appeared in the back.

Cece was scared for her life. She stood in that same spot for 18 minutes before I dragged her to go play some games. She ended up having a lot of fun.

No one knows why it was late this year. That has never happened before. Very weird indeed.