InterviewS WITH duck falls residents
Resident, male adult: I seen colored lights in the sky above that place a couple days after what happened. I didn't report it or nothin 'cause I didn't want folks thinkin' I was talkin' about aliens. Burt Bucklebee used to say he seen aliens hoverin' over his field at night but I can't say I ever seen nothin' like that before what happened, an' I been livin' here since I was yay-high. But like I says, I seen 'em. I dunno what they was but they was there plain as day even though it was night like I said.
Resident, female adult: I was outside the day it happened. I remember you actually, you were there with a Hispanic-looking woman I think, isn't that right? … Well, I stayed there the whole time. I was supposed to meet my husband in there during lunch. But I was there when it all started, way at the back of the line so I could see over the top of the wall. It's the strangest thing, but I'd swear on a stack of bibles I half a dozen people shooting straight up into the air like something was lifting them up and then they just dropped out of sight—zip, zip, zip, one after another. My husband was one of the survivors, thank God. He won't talk about it though. He didn't talk much to begin with so nothing's changed there.
Resident, female teen: All my friends went. I was supposed to go too but I got called in for a shift at the bulk food store and couldn't get out of it. I'm eighteen years old and most of my friends are dead. The ones that didn't go that day, they never talk about it. It's not something we try to dwell on but it's hard not to. Some kids got involved with those activists after it happened but it's not something I ever thought about doing. It's just not on my radar.
Resident, female adult: You never think tragedies like this will happen to you. It's always something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. I've lived here for almost twenty years. It's a nice town. Peaceful. Quaint. But it's tainted now. We're thinking about moving somewhere else, but who would buy our house? It'd be like moving next door to Chernobyl. And now our wiring's on the fritz—we just upgraded from knob and tube two years back.
Resident, male teen: I mean it's a tragedy and all but I really wish I coulda had a chance to go there, it sounded like it would've been really cool—aside from all the death and stuff.
Resident, male adult: That plot of land was cursed long before they put that park there. Burt Bucklebee knew it. You think it's a coincidence he had a heart attack the same exact day he was packing up to move out to Florida? Then there was that kid, too, and the old lady at the Cripple Castle [note: this is apparently what some residents call the seniors home]. Heart attack, same day. Splat. So you can argue all you want about that park and who's to blame but that land was cursed from the start. The Native Americans knew it. Burt knew it. What they should do is demolish the whole damn place and salt the earth where it stood.
Resident, female adult: Don't believe anything you hear about Ghostland. These people just want to spread lies about that place. Fake news. They've been against it ever since town council passed the zoning change for that land. I worked there, during construction. I didn't see any kind of weird stuff like some other people have been saying. I've cleared asbestos from old buildings before, wasn't much different than that. It was just a routine job. Clock in clock out. Okay, so maybe the exhibits were a little strange and there were stories, but you hear all kinds of that stuff on just about any job.
Resident, female adult: There were memorials and funerals and candlelight vigils for a month after it happened. It was physically exhausting. Mentally draining. I think it's time for us as a community to try to move on, move forward, you know?