The Fight for Kidsboro (19 page)

“You mean, is he a
criminal
?” Did Alice have a sense about these things, or was this just a standard question? I didn't answer.

“Do you mind if I do a check on him?”

“Um … no, go ahead.”

Alice wrote something down in the notebook she kept in her shirt pocket.

“You say,” Nelson said, “we could benefit from him being a citizen. How?”

“How? Well … like I said, he's smart. I could see him starting a new business.”

“We have tons of new businesses.”

“True. You're right, we do. But … his business could really …” I looked around at the confused faces around me. They weren't buying it. I didn't want to resort to this, but I had run out of options.

“Listen,” I began, swallowing a lump in my throat, “do you think you could maybe just … trust me on this one?” Jill and Nelson exchanged looks while Alice and Scott stared at me through squinted eyes. “I can't explain right now. I just … need for you to vote for this guy. Okay?”

There was silence as I scanned the faces of my friends. Jill looked down, fiddled with her ear, and finally said, “Okay. I trust you. I'll vote for him.”

“Me too,” Scott said. Nelson and Alice followed.

“All right then,” I said sheepishly. “Jake's a citizen.” I let out an unintentional sigh of relief and Jill glanced at me. “Thanks. Meeting adjourned.”

“Do we get to meet Jake at some point?” Jill asked.

“Sure. Um … he'll be around. I'll introduce him.” We all filed out.

As I headed back to my office, I noticed that Jill and Scott had remained in the meeting hall. When I looked back, they saw me, and their conversation came to an abrupt halt. They both gave me an awkward smile and pretended, badly, that nothing was going on. I turned back around and tried to act like I wasn't affected by this scene, but I had a feeling that their level of trust in me had taken a hit.

I hadn't attended the Kidsboro Community Church for several weeks, but I decided to go, hoping that Reverend Joey might say something to inspire me. When I arrived, he and Mr. Whittaker were the only ones there. Joey preached, banged his fist on the music stand a couple of times, and led us in a couple of songs. With the Fourth of July coming up, I think he preached on appreciating America. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention. It was when he asked if anyone wanted to come to the altar to pray that I woke up.

I walked up to where Joey had laid out a couple of milk crates for an altar. I knelt down and almost started to cry. I felt terrible for deceiving people that I really cared about.

“Lord, please forgive me for lying. But I don't know what to do. I don't want to keep lying, but I can't tell them the truth, either,” I whispered.

Mr. Whittaker startled me with a tap on the shoulder. “Are you okay, Ryan?” I wanted to tell him everything, but I couldn't.

“I'm okay.”

“Would you like me to pray with you?”

“No. I'd just like to pray alone for now.”

“Okay, Ryan. But let me know if you need to talk.” He hesitated, waiting for me to take him up on his offer. Seeing that I wasn't going to at this point, he slowly backed away.

I finished my prayer with one more sentence, “Please, God, show me what I can do.”

I didn't get an answer immediately, but I figured one was coming. God had never let me down before.

Jake was all smiles when the city council greeted him as the newest citizen of Kidsboro. He was building his house very close to my office, and the sight of it gave me an instant headache. I stood at a distance while Jill, Scott, Nelson, and Alice shook his hand, one by one.

The only good thing about this scene was the fact that Jake's house would be the second to use tarp, thus continuing the demise of Max's chokehold on the city.

Even though Jake was now a citizen of Kidsboro, I couldn't help but smile when I saw how far the town had come in such a short time. Everywhere I looked, people were involved in businesses of various kinds. Pete had no problem finding investors for his movie. Just as with Nelson's cars, we all knew the movie would make a lot of money. Everyone figured that people would pay to see it simply to watch themselves on-screen. Pete raised 40 starbills almost immediately. That would be plenty to pay all the actors and crew members.

But I also noticed that something disturbing was going on. People who couldn't get investors for their businesses were borrowing money from each other. I didn't like this going on between friends, because if someone couldn't pay a friend back, it might hurt the friendship.

So I discussed an idea with the city council: We needed to start a bank. “People will put their extra money in the bank, so they can earn interest. Interest is money the bank pays you because it gets to use your money for a while. It's a form of investing. I figure people will go for it because they will be making money for doing nothing,” I explained.

“On the flip side, people can also
borrow
money from the bank if they want to start new businesses. On a loan, they'll have to
pay
interest. The longer they take to pay back their loans, the more money they'll have to pay back. Hopefully, once the borrowers get their businesses going, they'll be making enough money to pay back their loans pretty easily.” Everyone on the city council agreed it was time for Kidsboro to open a bank.

As soon as we announced the opening of the Kidsboro Savings and Loan, people began to gather up their extra cash and deposit it in the bank. I appointed Marcy to be the bank teller. She had always had trouble finding a job, plus she had a laptop computer, so she was a natural choice. Nelson brought his newfound wealth and deposited all of it. Before lunch, a total of 182 starbills had been deposited into the bank. Once there were funds in the bank, people were able to take out loans to start their own businesses. And from the crowd of people outside the bank that first day, it looked like the bank was turning out to be a good idea.

5

THE GOLDEN ERA

I
TOOK A LOOK AT
Pete's movie script before the filming started. Not that I could've stopped him from making the film, but I told him I wanted to see the script so that I could decide whether or not I could support it as mayor. I didn't want the citizens of Kidsboro imitating Hollywood morals in one of its own productions.

I was pleased to discover that everything in it seemed harmless. The plot was fun and exciting. It might not be a classic, but I wouldn't withhold my support just because I thought it wasn't going to win any awards.

Pete held auditions for all the roles in his film. He told everyone that it was an action/adventure movie and that there were plenty of parts to audition for. Anyone who did not get an acting role could be hired as a crew person—cameraman, assistant director, sound technician (microphone holder, as it turned out), and so on. Practically everyone in Kidsboro showed up to audition. I sat and watched part of it, though I didn't audition myself. Pete sat in a director's chair. He had on sunglasses and held a megaphone, though it was an overcast day and he was only 15 feet away from the actors.

“Next,” Pete said through his megaphone. Scott stepped to the front. “Name?” Pete asked.

“You know my name,” Scott said.

“Name?” Pete insisted.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Scott Sanchez.”

Pete wrote something down in his notebook. “Is that with an
S
?”

“Yes, two of them.”

“And what part will you be reading for?”

“I'll be reading for the part of Rock Bockner.”

“Oh …” Pete said, shaking his head. “I'm sorry, I've already cast that part.”

Scott instantly objected, “Well, excuse me for using up oxygen, but am I not the first guy to audition? How could you have cast the part already?”

“It was a pre-production decision. Why don't you try out for Dead Guy number two?”

“Who got the part of Rock?” Scott demanded. At this point, other guys who were waiting their turn moved in to see what was going on.

Pete noticed the sudden invasion. “Would all other auditioners wait behind the curtain, please?”

“We want to know who got the part of Rock!” one boy demanded.

“Rock Bockner is …” Pete began quietly, then with all the confidence he could muster, he looked him straight in the eyes. “Me.”

The boys immediately burst into hysterical laughter. Pete looked offended. “What's wrong with that?”

“Rock Bockner is not a four foot nine, 87-pound ostrich. He's a big, tough guy. With muscles and … a cool haircut,” somebody responded.

“I can pull it off,” Pete said.

“My sister could play Rock Bockner better than you.”

This went on for another few minutes until Pete put his director's hat back on and insisted that they move on.