Ham lived with his mother, Hannah, and his father, Horace. Their home was a typical Huddler home, with packed dirt floors, cast iron sinks, off-white walls, thatched roof, and an oh-my-goodness-that’s-chilly toilet. Along with Hannah, Horace, and Ham, there was Ham’s sister Helen and their dog – a mutt of unknown origin – Hank.
Ham’s family was like most of the other Huddler families in Dusk. When not splitting wood, Horace gathered food, did repairs and maintenance around their small home, and occasionally shared his woes with some of the other husbands and fathers in the village. Hannah washed their clothes (although they were so overall drab and dingy that you might never know), cooked their meals (which all seemed to look and taste very much alike), and cared for their occasional ills.
Helen, a youngster of 15, went to the one-room schoolhouse with the other children of Dusk, dragging her feet and her books all the way there and back. There wasn’t a lot to learn, but they all went to school because… well, because. She never could figure it out.
Ham was different. No one could account for it, since there hadn’t been anyone or anything different in Dusk in the long memories of the denizens of Dusk. And yet, at 21, Ham was different.
Ham was one of the few imaginative Huddlers, occasionally having a vision of something more. When the sun made one of its rare appearances, Ham would tell his friends and neighbors the tale of his vision.
