When Old Pete died, Jo, who found the body, cracked his skull open to chew on his brain stem. All of Mack Creek were shaken up. They brought the Sheriff in, who got an earful from Jo, then took his own turn chewing on the corpse. He crushed it, bashed it, chewed on the brainstem. He put it on the heap of rotting corpses they kept in the center of town and kept on exploring it with his mouth for days.
Martha, meanwhile, got on the phone to call Stewart's crossing. She spoke for Mack Creek.
“Mack here. Feel like shit. Not coming in today”
Town made another wooden statue. Old Pete. It showed him getting drunk, trying to make a deal with a place called Lisa's Way, which Pete thought was close, but wasn't.
Nobody in Mack Creek really ever got their head around geography, which wasn't their fault, it was a confusing world. Some places got closer, some got further away. Pete was hoping Lisa would get closer, but she laughed at him. Lisa's Way had a town dog, and Lisa wouldn't stop talking about it. Pete asked about it a bit, but Lisa's Way wasn't interested in Pete, so Old Pete got really drunk and asked her bluntly for a fuck, and poured Lisa's drink on her dog when she turned her back on him.
That's what they made the statue of: Old Pete, barely able to stand, the little dog, confused and wet, and Lisa's mouth open in a scream. They might have put it outside the town bar to remind the town of the dangers of drinking. But instead, they put it on the main road out of town, so everyone leaving town would be reminded of Pete's shame.
Eventually the corpse of Old Pete was unrecognisable, so the Sheriff chewed on the statue. He chewed most of the girls face. Her disgusted eyebrows, showing pity for the dog and hatred of Pete, and, by extension, all of Mack Creek.
Statue got repaired a lot. It was very important. Each version a little more grotesque. Eventually, Sheriff passed on and the Engineer took up his duties, which these days seemed to mostly consist of chewing on statues depicting townsfolk doing dumb stuff.
Over years, the town changed and grew. The center of town shifted. New roads out of town were built. Some even lead somewhere important. It wasn't really the same town with the same people. But still, sometimes, at the worst possible moments, whoever was in charge would put down what they were doing and go and chew on the statues, including Old Pete's. You've got to cope somehow.
