Page 88 of Call it Reckless

“Cities across the world are doing it. Vandals are much less likely to ruin artwork like that than they are a blank canvas. It would add a beautiful art gallery for visitors as they drive past or into the downtown area. You could even have something that welcomed people.”

Rich shook his head and started to speak again, but another woman in the audience stood and spoke from her seat before he could. “I’ve heard of that before. It’s a form of street art. I could even turn it into a project for my high school art students. They’d love it. We could make it into a show of pride.”

Bristol nodded. “Exactly. Why not open it up to local artists to paint? We have a lot of them here. It would even be like an advertisement for them. You could turn it into postcards. Have contests. Sell some of the sections. There are lots of ideas you could do.”

Beverly Seymour spoke from the council seats. “Ms. Allen, while this is an interesting idea, it sounds very urban to me.”

“It doesn’t have to be. Local artists, including our talented students at the high school,” she nodded to the teacher who’d spoken earlier, “could be asked to create projects that represent our mountain and our heritage.” Bristol grinned. “We could even have a picture of our mayor. Sterling, that is. He’s kind of an icon. It would be a draw. I think visitors would love it.”

Squawk!“Vote for Mayor Sterling. Someone has to run this town.”

Rich glared at the bird.

I decided to speak up. “I think it’s a fantastic idea. It solves all the problems. The fence is covered in something more appropriate. We showcase our town artists. What’s the worst that could happen, Mayor? We have to paint over it anyway?”

Bristol beamed at me amongst more cheers.

“The little lady has a great idea,” Hans Zimmerman shouted. “Put it to a vote. All in favor?”

Almost every hand went up.

“That’s my line,” Rich Bowen protested.

“All in favor,” Sterling spoke up before his counterpart could, and Rich tossed his hands up.

“Does that mean you’re voting twice, Mayor?” someone hollered, causing more people to laugh.

Rich sighed. “All opposed?”

Only a couple of hands went up, including Crazy Tillie’s, but I suspected it was more because Hans had voted yes.

“Fine. We’ll give it a try.” Rich pointed to Bristol. “You can have a seat now, Ms. Allen. We appreciate your creative solution.”

“Oh, I’m not done. I have something else I’d like to suggest.”

“What now, Ms. Allen?” It was impossible to miss the aggravation in his tone.

“Well, Mayor, it’s come to my attention that there are several young people in our town that would like to create a soapbox car to race, but they have nowhere to practice, much less race. I propose we create an opportunity for them here, a track of some kind.”

I heard the murmuring behind me.

Mayor Bowen cleared his throat. “Ms. Allen, we all know you have a love of racing. But we just established the town doesn’t have money to paint fences. How do you propose we pay to build a track? Or where?”

“Not to mention how dangerous racing is,” Mrs. Seymour added. She added a shudder as if she’d be the one at risk.

“Soapbox racing isn’t dangerous, at least if done right. It doesn’t have an engine. The speed is all based on kinetic energy. It’s a great family activity. As for the cost, it wouldn’t be much. Maybe I could find a sponsor.”

“That doesn’t solve the where.”

“Well, that’s what this meeting is for, right? To at least discuss it?”

“I like the idea,” an older gentleman called out. “We used to do that when I was a kid. My grandpa helped me build one. A bunch of us would go up to one of those old roads hardly anyone uses. We’d block it off and have fun for a couple of hours a few times a year. If someone happened to drive up, we’d clear the way, let them pass, and keep going. Good, clean fun, it was. Kids these days, all they want is to sit around, playing those games on TV. We used to play outside until our mamas threatened to whoop us if we didn’t get our tails inside. Those were the days, I’m telling you.”

Several people nodded their heads.

“I think we agree that playing outside is beneficial. But things have changed. We can’t just close off a road, right, Sheriff?”

Matt Kirchner stood. “Unfortunately, a permit is now required. But it can be applied for, such as what we do for our other festivals.”

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