Page 29 of Sunset Tides
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Lucy said, walking back toward the car.
Rob had to force himself to play it cool. He got to the car and opened the driver’s door. “That’s okay. It’s getting dark. Maybe we can try again tomorrow?”
Chapter Fifteen
The trip was entirely worthless to Rob, just as Lucy had intended. She wasn’t going to lead him to some struggling business so he could take it over or run it into bankruptcy. Why would she allow another islander to suffer the fate of Grindstone Farm?
There was an unintended consequence of their drive, however. Lucy had an idea. Agoodone.
The dilapidated farm and run-down honey shop had gotten her thinking. Grindstone wasn’t the first business in history to come under attack. Owners fell on hard times, got sick, or simply couldn’t keep up with the modern world. People – real people, not people like Rob – could share in that story. They sympathized. They empathized.
There had been enough sympathy to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Grindstone, and yet she hadn’t thought to appeal to the farm’s likely sympathetic neighbors about the auction.
Did they know how dire things were? Did they understand what the auction could do to the farm? Of course not, but only because it hadn’t been explained to them.
Lucy could do that. She could explain. She was a fantastic communicator – that was one of the things on her resume that wasn’t an exaggeration.
Rob wasn’t terribly chatty as they drove back to her car. That was fine, because Lucy wasn’t in the mood to make conversation. She assumed he was brooding, or envisioning his career imploding.
She almost felt bad for him, but there was no time to waste. They parted ways and she went straight home to find Lillian watching TV on the couch. Lucy descended upon her in a manically raving fashion, telling her about her idea.
“Slow down,” Lillian said, ten minutes into the rant. “I think I’m missing some key information.”
Lucy realized she’d been clutching her purse in her hand the entire time she was talking at Lillian. She released her grip and took a seat. “It’s simple. Have you ever heard of penny auctions?”
“I don’t think so,” Lillian said with a shrug.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, back during the Great Depression, bankers were foreclosing on all of these farms and holding auctions.”
“Sounds familiar.”
Lucy nodded. “Right! It’s not thatdifferent than what’s happening to us. What was interesting, though, was that they’d try to hold auctions and all of the neighboring farmers would show up with pitchforks and rifles and things to scare the bankers off. They weren’t violent, of course, but they’d sabotage the auctions. They’d start the bidding at a penny, and then bid two pennies, and then three, and on and on. At the end, they’d give everything back to the farmer who had lost everything.”
“Ah,” Lillian nodded slowly. “You’re going to build a time machine and get some of those farmers’ pennies.”
“What?” Lucy stared at her. It took a moment to realize her sister was joking. “No, stop, listen. We need the islanders to do the same thing.”
Lillian let out a laugh. “I know, I got what you were saying. You were just being so intense that I felt like I needed to break the – ”
Lucy cut her off. “I’m intense because we’re running out of time!”
“Do you and I count as islanders?” asked Lillian. “I guess I don’t, because I just got here, but you – ”
Lucy waved a hand. “We don’t matter. We’re just two people. We need a hundred people. Two hundred. I don’t know.”
“It’s not the worst idea,” Lillian said slowly. “How will you get that many people, though?”
Lucy paused. “I don’t know. I think I should talk to the local papers, and maybe go to the county council meeting. We can hand out flyers explaining what’s going on and about the penny auctions? Get an old-timey picture on top, make it a thing, you know?”
“I can help with that!” Lillian said brightly.
“Good. I was hoping you would.”
Lucy couldn’t stop smiling. Despite the teasing, it would be wonderful to get help from Lillian. She was trustworthy, and though she didn’t agree with Lucy’s worries about Claire’s health, Lillian would be helpful there, too.
It seemed like Claire had been doing okay, but Lucy couldn’t let herself get caught up in farm excitement again and miss something important. Claire wasn’t forthcoming about her health – Lucy had to ask specific questions to get information.
It was almost as though Claire thought it was best to deal with all health scares on her own and only update them later. It was a strange system, and Lucy dreaded hearing something like, “Oh, I was in the hospital for four days, but I didn’t want to worry you.”
