Page 67 of The Woodcarver's Model
“What’s wrong, faggot? That’s it, isn’t it? You’re a faggot. Stop looking at me, faggot.”
At that moment, a voice came from behind.
“Watch that mouth of yours, you little asshole!”
Maggie Tupman came into view.
“Hey, faggot, you need your granny to come to your rescue?”
“Granny? Why, you little shit.” Maggie was angry and Ricky was in trouble, even though he didn’t know it.
“Ricky! Shut that goddammed mouth of yours and get back to the truck,” Frank yelled.
“No! I am so sick and tired of everyone telling me what to do. My dad owns this company. He owns all of you. That makes me your boss. I’ll do the talking from now on.”
The kid has lost it,Rob thought.
“And that goes for you, too, grandma.”
“I’d watch what you say, little man. That’s the mayor you’re talking to,” another voice added.
Rob turned around to see Eric rounding the corner, followed by Sheila…and a few dozen islanders.
“You call someone a faggot, I take it personal.” Eric approached Ricky. He stood a head taller than the boy and outweighed him by a good sixty pounds. A look of terror filled Ricky’s eyes.
“Something you want to say, you little pussy?”
By this point, there was almost thirty people filling the road.
“All right. Everybody, just take a deep breath.” Frank tried to take control of the situation. “Ricky, get back to the truck. Now, while you still have your balls.”
Ricky slid between Eric and the mayor and ran back to the safety of the truck.
“Now, let’s just…”
“You seem to be planning to do some drilling here,” Maggie said.
“That’s pretty much what we do.”
Ricky stood by the front of the truck with Marco and Philippe.
“This doesn’t look good,” Philippe said.
“I coulda finished this off before it started.” Ricky moved away to the back of the truck and crawled in.
“You know, you need a permit to be drilling on the mountain road.”
“We’ve got better than that. We’ve got government approval.”
“Not from this level of government,” Maggie said, stepping forward. “And I don’t see that lily-livered Hugh McCutcheon anywhere around here, do you?”
All throughout her speech the islanders moved forward, slowly surrounding the survey crew.
“On the island here, we have a history of living by our own rules. And one of those is the protection of the mountain as a sacred site. I don’t think McCutcheon would fare well in the next election if he was caught supporting Peak Capital Developments’ destruction of a sacred site, do you?”
“All right, that’s it!” Ricky yelled. Rob had been so mesmerised by the confrontation he had not noticed that to his right Ricky had climbed up on the drill rig with a rifle which he was now pointing at the crowd.
“All of you, get back. Now!”
