I kind of dug it. It looks very much like my small town. You wouldn't see people outside during the week, either. Most people work out of town and don'tget home until early evening. Thanks to urban sprawl, our downtown area is mostly empty buildings; the few stores that are there close around 5. People keep to themselves. One of the reasons I enjoy our annual Mushroom Festival is because it's two days out of the year that our town actually comes alive.
This way of life may not be for everyone, but many of us love it. I have lived in several large cities and all over the world, but I prefer the quiet isolation of my small town-even with its dead downtown and empty streets. We have seen no indication that Mollie was unhappy there. Indeed, the fact that she returned home for the summer when college students generally have other options available says something, as does the fact that she chose a university close to home in Iowa (when she probably could have looked at places nearer her father).
And without being morbid, having grown up around cornfields and tobacco farms, if she were deceased in one of them right now, it wouldn't be hard to find her. A deer died in the cornfield across the road from us last week. Within 24 hours, it was obvious from a 5-mile radius. Critters come and you can't miss them.
