Page 33 of The Christmas Eve Delivery

“People, please,” Dan pleaded.

Evie shook her head at his poorly made attempts at settling everyone down. It was clear he had already lost control. She stood up and clapped her hands in a rhythmic pattern.

Everyone in the room responded with the same clapping pattern. It was a trick the teachers always did that I remembered from grade school. It was the same routine Evie did when storytime got a little rowdy.

“One, two, three…” She paused. “Eyes on me.”

She only had to wait a few more seconds before everyone quieted and were watching her.

Better her than me, at least.

Evie cleared her throat. “Friends, we are here to learn what Mayor Dan has to share. He can’t do that while everyone is talking. You will have your turn. While Mayor Dan is making his presentation, Lydia and I will be setting up two marked places you can come ask your questions from.”

Someone in the audience started to speak.

“No, no, it’s my turn to speak right now. We will have some note cards for you to write your questions on if you are too shy to talk in front of everyone, or if you can’t get up and stand in line. We will take care of you, and your concerns will be heard. Now if you have a question, please raise your hand.”

Only a few hands went up.

Evie pointed to a person about in the middle. “How are we going to make sure what our property is worth?”

Evie shook her head. “Sorry, I mean, are there any questions about what I just said? Anything regarding property values and the developer’s plans, you need to save until later.”

The crowd was quiet and looked at each other, and then turned their attention back to the front and looked at Dan.

“Thank you, Evie,” Dan started. “As I was saying, I received a rather extensive communication from the JM Carlisle Group. We’ve had a couple of meetings with their representatives a few times, and several of you have spoken with them. They are the reason Brookdale has formed this Historical Society. We all want to preserve the clear identity of our town. We finally have a detailed prospectus regarding the impacted area and properties.” As he spoke, he stood and picked up a large poster board with a map of Brookdale. The area in question was outlined in red.

“They want to level these buildings to put up a fancy resort…”

As Dan continued to talk, Evie leaned in and whispered, “Come on.”

Quietly, I got out of my chair and followed her. We snuck out of the community room and into the library offices. Evie started going through drawers and pulling out supplies.

“Will you grab some pencils over there?” She pointed to another drawer.

By the time we were finished collecting everything, I had an armful of index cards and pencils, and Evie had two signs that had giant question marks drawn on them.

“You set up on one side of the tables, and I’ll be on the other. We can alternate side to side for taking questions. We need to get a runner, you know, someone who can go get the questions from the folks who can’t get into the line,” she said.

“Didn’t I see the Coleson kid with his grandfather in there?”

Evie’s eyes went bright. “He’s perfect, a good kid.”

By the time we returned, it sounded like Dan was getting close to the end of his presentation.

“This time, the developer generously offered to rebuild a new post office with new state of the art equipment. He even mentioned the possibility of some additional fleet vehicles.”

The developer sounded pretty eager. I was surprised I hadn’t heard directly from him since that day the Sweet Mountain Inn officially became mine. My inn was located on the leading edge of the desired property. I would have thought they would be eager to secure my property. I could totally see them using the inn as a leverage to get the other properties to sell.

I took my red sign with its giant question mark and taped it on the floor. I snuck into the crowd and whispered to Ricky Coleson’s grandfather. “Can I borrow Ricky for the rest of the meeting? We could use his help.”

Ricky’s grandfather turned to the teen. “Go, be helpful,” he said as he nudged the kid.

I excused myself out of the row, and Ricky followed me out. We met Evie at the back of the room, where in whispered words, she told him what she needed him to do.

“If you see anyone who cannot get up, either they look trapped, or they can’t move easily, you get them a pencil and a note card. Tell them to put their question on it. Make sure you can read their writing because if you can’t, I’m not going to be able to.”

As Evie gave Ricky directions, he nodded in understanding.

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