Page 4 of July Skies
“Fascinating,” Dahlia said. “I saw the copy online, of course, but seeing it right before you is quite the different experience. I didn’t realize it was so… big.”
Karen grinned. “While the list was written at a communal meeting, the actual manifesto you see before you was designed and created by Esther Gladstone. Yes, ofthoseGladstones.”
“I don’t follow.”
Right. This woman wasn’t from around there. “It’s a town outside of Portland. Named after the Gladstone family.”
The look Dahlia levied upon Karen was not… welcoming. “I believe Gladstone, Oregon, was named after a British statesman who did not actually live there.”
Bristling, Karen explained, “They were Gladstones who lived in Gladstone, but it’s neither here nor there.”Don’t tell me Esther lied about that…She was also supposedly part Clackamas Indian. Did she lie about that, too?
Dahlia had returned her focus to the wall-hanging. So did Karen.
“When Paradise Valley was chartered as a city, the first council was comprised entirely of women who had been members of the commune. Esther was one of them, of course, but the first mayor was Leslie Ambrose, and she was the one who introduced these rules into the Paradise Valley’s core being. You’ll see them referenced quite a bit over Fourth of July.”
She introduced Dahlia to the head librarian, a tiny woman named Yi who had a much bigger personality than most people anticipated. Even Dahlia was not prepared for Yi’s frank way of asking for donations“If you’re going to hang around and not do much else.”While Karen attempted to explain that Yi was part of Paradise Valley’s charms, Dahlia was writing something down in the little notebook she carried in her front chest pocket.
This certainly wasn’t going as Karen expected. Dahlia had always been pleasant, even excited, over the phone and emails. It was like taking a tour with her doppelganger instead of the original woman who called Mayor Karen Rath and sweet-talked her into permitting a film crew take over Paradise Valley and “get to the meat of the people who live here.” The city council agreed this could be a grand boon to tourism, the one thing that kept the town afloat for most of the year. Dahlia had assured them that the documentary would be shown at LGBT events up to two years after its release. Not only in North America, either. There were plans to take it to “Prides all over the world.” Nothing had sold the town council quicker than that. Right now, Paradise Valley sustained itself with the right amount of rentals and houses for sale, but if there was enough interest in their little mountain town, Karen might get to build that neighborhood extension and introduce the brand-new Illinois and Indiana Streets she had been hankering to attach to her mayoral legacy. It also meant more taxpayers. More kids for the school district. More money flowing into local businesses.
Like the ones Karen introduced Dahlia to on the remainder of their tour.
They hit all the places of unique cultural importance. Heaven’s Café was one of the biggest hangout spots for lesbian dating, and Heaven herself had recently come out with a girlfriend for the first time in her life. Dahlia showed little interest in this until she realized that Heaven’s girlfriend was the young woman typing away on a laptop in the corner. Oh, and she wore a headscarf. Karen didn’t understand what that had to do with anything, though.
Frankie’s Delicatessen across the street was the next stop. Dahlia was much more involved with Francis Nicolauer, a very no-nonsense woman who ran this whole deli by herself with the occasional help of her little brother. He was often seen about town with his community college study materials.He and Xander used to be friends in high school.Dominic was a little older than Xander, though. Dahlia was more than happy to purchase a coffee from Frankie when she was not as impressed with the fare at Heaven’s.
Hayley Gordon’s food truck drove up and parallel parked outside the elementary school playground, where she was more than likely preparing for her usual lunch rush. She shouted a hello to Karen, who briefly introduced Dahlia. The filmmaker also had little interest in Hayley.
So it went as they stood before the elementary school, which Karen described as a place where, “Over half of the parents are lesbian couples, and many of the teachers are members of the LGBT community as well.” Dahlia mulled over that information while Karen directed her to the nearby firehouse and then the craft store.
“Hello, Mayor.” Joan Sheffield sat on a stool behind the register. She was not in a hurry to get up and shake anyone’s hands. “Who’s that with you?”
After the brief introductions, Dahlia asked for a sneak peek into the quilts that would be on display during Fourth of July weekend. Joan told her they were still very hush-hush since evenshewasn’t finished yet. All she and Karen could tell the documentarian was that the theme was “What Makes This Paradise.” Dahlia said she looked forward to it.
“Things will be much more exciting in the coming days,” Karen assured her as they exited the craft shop. “People are gearing up for the festivities right now. You saw those firefighters. Getting in their rest while they can, because it will be nothing but fireworks and dehydrations starting tomorrow.”Thanks, guys.Karen had not anticipated a whole firehouse sleeping on couches and cots. A stove burner had been left on, and the TV played at excruciating decibels. When she asked the nearest person – Krys Madison, of all people – what was going on, she got a sleepy shrug.
“I prefer to film and interview when things are a bit down, anyway.” Dahlia shielded her eyes from the sun and looked up and down the street. “It’s a cozy, quiet town. That’s exactly what I want to depict.”
Karen couldn’t help but grin. “We really are looking forward to your work. We’ve kept most of the townspeople in the dark about it, but don’t be surprised if some word gets out.”
“I’m sure we can handle it. For my last effort, we asked the tribal leaders to tell everyone so we could get a decent turnout for our meetings and interviews, but this is a different approach. I want to represent the town as itreallyis.”
There was something lurking beneath Dahlia’s words, but Karen was too distracted by the gleam in Dahlia’s eyes and the way her hair blew on the wind. The cursory look into her profile depicted a woman who had freshly turned forty and had lived an exciting life of various jobs before falling into filmmaking. No marriage. No kids. Not like Karen, who had two grown children tearing up her house at this very moment… and an ex-husband currently making merry with whatever new squeeze he discovered in Austin, Texas.
No, Karen hadn’t been in a long-term lesbian relationship since and moving to this part of the world, but she told herself it was better to be single and busy than coupled and bored. She saw plenty of both around town.
Yet she would be remiss to discount her immediate attraction to this cool woman cruising up and down the town, looking for stories to film. Karen knew nothing of Dahlia’s sexuality, but wouldn’t it be pertinent to havesomeconnection to the LGBT community to want to do this?We’re about the same age. I’m only a couple years older than her… I’m a mayor, for God’s sake. Yet she seems so much cooler than me!
Was this what her children felt like at school?
By the time they returned to city hall, Tom had firmly sequestered himself in his office, and Wanda had regaled the male members of the crew with every sordid story she remembered from her tenure on the city council. Hence, Karen’s real work of maintaining the narrative of Paradise Valley began.
And Dahlia was always one step behind her. Or beside her. She was good at keeping Karen on her toes like that.
Chapter 4
DAHLIA
“Make sure you keep that tree in the shot.” Dahlia pointed Wayne down the street. The camera turned. Aaron, another guy on the crew, walked ahead to see how far they could test the shot. “We’re in a mountain town. We need toalwaysmake it look like we’re in the mountains. This isn’t the desert. We also don’t have an ocean to work with. So make sure viewersalwaysget the feeling they’re strolling through an idyllic little forest town.”
