The Fight for Kidsboro (49 page)

Maybe people must have thought that this vote was going to be close, because everyone showed up at the ballot box the next day. The meeting hall was packed. I looked around at all the people and tried to figure it out. Valerie's group, plus the Clean Up Kidsboro group, plus the farmers, plus the slingshotters, plus the animal rights guys … It appeared that there were about 16 or so people in the hall who were in at least one of these groups. If I had all of their votes, I would need only a few more people to agree to the budget for it to pass.

There was a big box on the front table with a hole in the top. Everyone waited for the polls to open. We'd agreed that there would be a brief discussion time before we started.

Jill was the moderator. She stood up and called for attention. “Does anyone have anything they want to say before we start the voting?”

Nelson popped up immediately. “This budget plan would send taxes soaring. The economy wouldn't be able to handle it.”

A boy stood up in the back. “He's right. And what are we spending our money on? We don't need slingshots and bathrooms. We especially don't need vegetables.”

Nelson raised his hand. “I have a suggestion. Can we at least vote on all these items separately? One vote for the slingshots, another for the farmers …”

Mark stood up and addressed Nelson directly. “No! Then everybody would just vote for their own cause, and nothing would get passed. It's all or nothing.”

“This budget could bankrupt us,” Nelson stated.

“The only reason you care so much is that you're rich. You'll have to pay the most in taxes,” Mark said.

Everybody started speaking at once, and none of it was audible. Mark was right. Nelson was the richest person in town, and if we took a percentage of income from each person in Kidsboro, the rich would have to pay a lot more than anyone else.

Jill yelled at the top of her lungs, but couldn't restore order. After a few moments of utter mayhem, she stood up on the table. “Quiet!!!”

The noise subsided. She cleared her throat. “Does anyone have anything constructive to say?” I raised my hand. “Yes, Ryan?” She nodded at me.

I stood up and turned to face as many people as I could. “I understand how Nelson feels. But I think we should always be looking for ways to make this city better. The only way we can do that is through the sacrifices of our people. It will be a sacrifice for us, yes. No doubt about it, taxes will increase, but the rewards could be great.” This was followed by the applause of about half of those present.

“Why do we need more girls in this town?” an unidentified boy shouted from the back. “We've got too many as it is!”

If this kid had set off a bomb, it would've caused less of a stir. There wasn't a closed mouth in the whole place. Girls were yelling at boys, boys were yelling at girls, farmers were yelling at meat-eaters, environmentalists were yelling at big-business polluters. It took Jill a full five minutes to calm everyone down.

“Okay, no more discussion! We're just gonna vote on this thing! Form a single-file line at the box. Alice will give you a piece of paper. Write down your vote and put it into the box.”

The process was remarkably civilized, considering that everyone had been at each other's throats just moments before. Everybody cast his or her vote, and then the polls closed. Jill and Alice voted last, and then they took the box to be counted. It didn't take long to count 36 votes, so I knew we would get the results almost immediately.

Alice and Jill came back with a piece of paper. Alice held it in her hand as she stood at the table. The crowd was motionless as she unfolded the paper. Not one for dramatics, Alice came right out with it. “The budget passes, 20 to 16.”

The place erupted with simultaneous joy and pain. Nelson buried his head in his hands. Valerie's feminists jumped up and down and hugged. The farmers pulled metal trowels out of their pockets and started waving them back and forth. The animal rights group barked like dogs.

Nelson looked up long enough to make eye contact with me. He shook his head and left.

The new laws went into effect immediately. My first order of business was to deal with Valerie and the feminists, because I knew they would make a big fuss over getting what they wanted before anybody else did. I thought about government jobs, and the one that came to mind as I stared out at my big list of things to do was to get myself a secretary. Of course, I would have to call her an “administrative assistant” to please the feminists. An assistant would take a lot of the burden off of me.

I looked over my list of citizens, and one name stood out: Lauren Luzinski. She had never held a steady job, so She was definitely available to work. She had never done anything to catch my attention in either a good way or a bad way, so perhaps this would be a chance for her to stand out for once. She could sit in on city council meetings and take notes.

I informed Valerie that I was going to hire Lauren, and She was pleased. Lauren had not been a member of Valerie's feminist group, but she was a girl and that was enough.

Lauren was surprised when I asked her. “You want me to be your administrative assistant?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Because … I think you'd do a good job.”

“Really?” she said, her eyes sparkling.

“Sure. You interested?”

“Well … yeah. I'd love to.”

“Then you're hired.”

“Wow.” I felt like I had just told her she'd won the lottery.

“Come on, then. I'll show you everything.”

“I believe a new day has dawned in Kidsboro. We are now not just—”

“Too fast.”

“Oh. Sorry.” I was dictating a press release to Lauren. She was writing down everything that came out of my mouth and would deliver it to Jill later.

“That's really good,” she said, writing down the first sentence.

“What's good?”

“That first sentence: ‘Anew day has dawned.' That's nice.”

We smiled at each other. “Thanks,” I said.

I waited for her to give me a signal that she was done. She nodded.

“We are now not just a government by the people—”

“This pen's out of ink.”

“Oh. Here. Try mine.”

As I bent down to give her the pen, I noticed that she smelled really good. When I backed away, we looked at each other, and I noticed something I'd never noticed before. She had freckles on her nose. Possibly the most perfectly circular freckles I'd ever seen.

“Okay, we are now a government of people …” she started.

“No, no. We are now not just a government by the people.”

“Oh, I see. That's different. And a lot better.”

“Thanks. But your way was good too.”

No one was wasting any time using the money they'd received from the government. I strolled around town just to see if anything had changed, and there was more activity than there had been in months. The farmers were busy in their garden.

“What are you planting?” I asked them.

“Oh, just the standards. Cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, carrots, turnips.”

The government was buying turnips from them?

They continued to hoe, looking very much like they knew what they were doing.

The Clean Up Kidsboro group was making a trash run. They had been at it for a couple of hours by the time I walked by, so they had pretty much cleared the entire town of any trash. But still they searched.

“The place looks really good,” I said to Mark.

“I know,” he replied. His eyes darted wildly as he continued to scan the ground.

“So, why are you still looking?”

He stopped suddenly and looked at me as if I had just told him I thought the capital of Florida was France. “Ryan, litter is thrown on the ground every two seconds in this country. This is not a one-time clean-up project. It is an ongoing quest. It is a lifestyle. Our land is too important to ignore for even one minute.”

I felt like standing at attention and covering my heart. “Then by all means, get back to it,” I said. I wanted to tell him that 27 people had littered while we were having that conversation, but I felt that would put too much pressure on him.

“Would you get that dog out of my house!” I heard someone yell from across town. It sounded like Valerie. I rushed over to her clubhouse. She was trying to drag a big German shepherd out of her house by the collar. “Get over here and get your dog!” she shouted. The dog's owner, Melissa, the leader of the animal rights group, came over slowly, as if to torture Valerie for as long as possible.

“Why do we have all these mangy animals here?” Valerie pointed to several dogs and cats being held by their owners. “They should be chained up.”

“What?” Melissa said.

“They're a nuisance. We should have a law saying that if they're going to be here, they have to be chained up.”

“No way!”

Valerie turned to me. “Ryan, I think you should bring this up at the next city council meeting.”

“I guess I could.”

“No!” Melissa shouted. “You gave animals equal rights. People aren't chained up. Why should animals have to be?”

“Um …”

“Oh, perfect. Nice decisive answer there, Ryan,” Valerie said. “Meanwhile, this place has turned into a pound.”

“Don't say ‘pound' in front of them,” Melissa said in a harsh whisper.

“If this dog gets into my house again, I'm grabbing one of those slingshots,” she said, pointing away from us.

I looked in the direction she was pointing, and saw that the slingshot boys were meeting in a group not too far from the dogs and cats. They were comparing their equipment, and every now and then, they would fling a nut away from town. I could tell the animal owners were getting nervous with these flying nuts, even though it looked like the slingshotters were being careful. Scott was with them, looking anxious to learn some slingshot skills.

A squirrel ran by, and I saw one boy aim at it but stop as soon as he saw me looking at him. Or maybe It was just my imagination. The animal rights group was keeping a close eye on the slingshotters.

The groups may not have been getting along with each other, but they were all happy about getting the chance to do something they believed in. I was proud I'd given them the opportunity, but now came the hard part: collecting taxes.

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