Page 15 of July Skies
“They do have the proper permits for it, yes.” That was athat daydevelopment.
Neither Frankie nor Yi hung around much longer, but lest Karen believe she had been let off some metaphorical hook, the complaints kept coming all day.
Cindy Smith was aghast that the film crew showed up at her church to ask the minister what it was like preaching to a town full of lesbians. (Although the minister never said a thing to Karen. In fact, that man was so under the radar as far as preachers went, that Karen couldn’t remember his name!) Lorri Abrams from the biggest hardware store in town dropped by onherlunch break to say what her partner, Joan, wouldn’t – that Dahlia had dropped by the craft shop to talk about the pressure to emulate “heterosexual relationships” and greatly upset the hormonal woman. Abby Marcott phoned in a complaint that Dahlia had caught wind of her history, particularly with her deceased son, and wouldn’t shut the hell up about leaving husbands and dragging kids around by the cuff.
Karen took that one a little personally, and it wasn’t about her!
“We seem to have a problem with Hibiscus Films,” Karen said to Tom later that afternoon. “Their crew is running around upsetting the locals with insensitive questions.”
“So I’ve picked up from the bits I’ve overheard from your office.” They were in Tom’s office now, where the man kept a clean and clutter-free abode. He rubbed his chin hairs as Karen went over the list of complaints she received that day. When she got to Abby Marcott, Tom lowered his hand, suddenly alert, and said, “She’s harassing the stroke victim?”
Karen couldn’t help but chuckle. She could always count on Tom to inadvertently make her feel better.“The” stroke victim?A woman knew she was in a small town when it only took having two strokes in one year to become “the” stroke person about Paradise Valley. Granted, Abby had a wallop of one a under a year ago and had done an amazing job of recovering, but what a nickname to earn.
“I guess so. You know, when she said she would be conducting some interviews around here, I thought they would be over the table, so to speak. Previously arranged. The interviewees would be on board. However you want to put it.” Karen sighed. “I seriouslycannotbelieve she gathered every woman of color she could find in this town and threw them into an interview! Without telling them what it was about! According to Frankie, she was led to believe she was selected for diversity’s sake, but only to keep the shot from looking like snow falling on Norway.”
It was Tom’s turn to laugh. For all Karen could remember, the man had recent ancestors from Norway.Usually it’s Sweden or Denmark around here.The Scandinavian influence in Oregon could not be denied. Granted, the origins of the state shined in less than stellar lights, but it was a hilarious jaunt through the land. The number of Danish flags that unironically flew next to Confederate signatures never failed to make Karen shake her head.Good Lord. Is that what the documentary is angling toward?What did that have anything to do with Paradise Valley being founded as a lesbian commune? Two of the five founding women were black!
Was Dahlia really that clueless? Or was she driven by some other ulterior motive?
She had forgotten about her kids’ plans for boredom salvation by the time she arrived home and smelled cooking sherry in the air. Karen also discovered the old Jeep in her garage had been dismantled from the inside. Everything, from the cooking sherry to the mess in her garage, smelled of Xander. The boy desperately needed a summer job, but they weren’t easy to come by in Paradise Valley. Not even for the mayor’s kid.I can get him a million volunteer positions that look great on a cover letter, but those last only a few hours a week.Honestly, she half-expected Yi’s visit to be about Xander’s inability to properly shelve the non-fiction books. Again.
“Soooooo there ended up being no bourbon.” That’s what he said as he leaned in the doorway between the kitchen and the garage. Karen was too tired to scold him for the mess. She was more likely to collapse on the couch while her daughter played a cutesy video game on their new Switch system.After the third “pee-KAH-CHOOO” in a row, though, I have to grab my migraine medicine.“Thanks for that, Mom. Could’ve hooked me up, but you didn’t.”
Karen knitted her brows into a fine scowl. “You’re not twenty-one, and I’m the damned mayor. I would like to not resign because I was caught facilitating the sale of alcohol to minors.”
“I wasn’tthatserious…”
She sniffed the air. “What are you cooking, exactly? I’m starving.”
“I picked up this crazy Swedish cookbook last time I volunteered at the library. You’re gonna go nuts for it. Soooo much herring.”
“Donottell me you cooked herring.”
“Ew, no.”
Christina’s voice rose from the living room. “He cooked tenderloin steaks he picked up from the market! He put it onyourcard!”
Karen massaged her forehead with the back of her hand. “Just put it on a plate and let’s be done with it. I’m so hungry I could eat a whole cow.”
“Rough day at city hall?” Xander spoke as he pulled plates out of the cabinets and his mother sat down at the dining table on the far end of the kitchen. “You know how those constituents are. If they’re not complaining about the color of the fire hydrants, they’re picking their noses and wiping it on their pants.”
“Thank you so much for that colorful imagery right before I eat.” Karen accepted a plate of whatever the hell her son spent all afternoon cooking. “No, I’ve been dealing with complaints about that film crew. You know the ones.”
Christina made her way to the table. Xander sat down across from his mother. Neither were prime to eat as much as she did. Not when she was the source of all their entertainment in those few precious minutes. “The ones making a documentary?” Christina asked. “Yeah, I heard about what they were asking Leigh Ann Hardy from school.” When Xander looked askance at her, she explained, “She’s in my class. I hear about everything that happens to kids in my class.”
“Somebody else was talking about that earlier,” Karen said. “Something about her feeling pressured to be gay at school?”
“It’s so stupid. Everyone knows that you can’t be pressured to be gay or straight. You either are or you aren’t.” Before Karen could feel too proud that her daughter had picked upsomethingfrom living in Paradise Valley, she continued, “Leigh Ann couldn’t be gay if she tried. She’s too up Billy Carver’s butt.”
“Yooo, sis, bisexuality exists! Stop this bi-erasure,” Xander said. “Or our mom will make you watch that video from the ‘90s again.”
Karen shot him a look. Then, to her daughter, “Seems she’s asking a lot of questions about people feelingpressuredor excluded. Only not in the ways you would expect from a movie about being in a gay town.”
“Maybe it’s some crazy reverse homophobia thing,” Xander said. “We had that problem on campus once. Some straight guy got all mad because the GSA wasn’t all about him. He didn’t get the memo that the A stands for ally and, duh, most allies are straight people. It’s like gay rights 101.”
“I really did not get that impression from her from our prior communications,” Karen said.
Xander shrugged. “People are freakin’ weird. They tell you one thing to your face then pull a 360 behind your back. Sounds to me she’s got some agenda she doesn’t want you knowing about. Which isn’t a good sign, of course. Probably means she’s about to ask Deputy Greenhill if she feels pressured to be stone cold butch because she’s always got a gun strapped to her waist.”
