Mayor Early, with his belt encircling his rounded belly like an equator line and his pink cheeks brightened by a cheerful smile, didn’t mention Morrison at all. He simply talked about the beautiful day, the fine music —“Thank you to the Green Horn Boys” — and mentioned the concerning weather. “Folks, just so you’re aware, we’re cutting things short here today. I’m sure it won't be a hardship that the speeches were cut in half. But we wanted to give you all plenty of time to grab a plate—have you all tried a fried pickle?”
The crowd cheered.
“You can expect that when you line up for your box. Let’s all be good citizens and make sure all the trash is disposed of properly. I believe we have some scouts here today who will be roving around with trash bags. Let’s give our young folks a round of applause, as they learn how to be helpful citizens of our fair county.”
He waited for that cheer to die down.
“As I was saying, we want you to enjoy your food and the music, have some fellowship, and let the kids run off some energy, but know that we’re keeping an eye on the weather. My understanding is that we have a second system that has popped up, and we don’t want any injuries as we head home. Better early and safe than later with problems.” Mayor Early leaned to the side, “How’s that?” he cupped his hand to his ear. He nodded. Then faced the crowd again. “Yes, too much good food to waste, and that storm coming on up. I’m sure you folks can feel the wind shifting. So here’s what we’re going to do. I want everyone to sit tight. The scouts have been gathered. We’ve borrowed some wagons from the moms and dads, and they’ve been loaded up with meal boxes. Let’s talk to our neighbors and listen to the music from your picnic spot. The young’uns are gonna come round with your food and a choice of soda.” He lifted a piece of paper. “You’ve got bottles of water and sweet tea, then we’ve got cans of cola and diet cola. It’ll speed things up if you know what you want before they come around.”
“I want a Mountain Smokey Pig fried pickle.” Doli grumped.
“Oh, hush now, ethics are ethics, please enjoy your sad sandwich.” Auralia turned to pull her lunch bag from her day pack. “What did you bring?”
“Peanut butter and chocolate chip.”
“That sounds good,” she emptied her paper bag of food items and spread them out to serve as a plate. “I didn’t have a kitchen, so I just have a tuna kit and a can of Mandarin oranges.” Auralia pulled out her water bottle, then a plastic box. “Oh, hey, I have pickle-flavored potato chips if you’d like.” She set them down by Doli.
“Thanks, but that goes with your food, and the fried pickle goes with BBQ, a glass of milk goes with mine.”
“We’ll go out for BBQ tonight.” Auralia popped the lid off her fruit cup.
“Yup, sounds like a plan,” Doli’s words were sticky with peanut butter. “I don’t love that a new front has shown up, and the organizers are figuring out how to boot everyone quickly.” She reached for her napkin. “I bet Kamar and Mohammed are off somewhere, wondering if we were pulling a gag.”
“Free will.” Auralia tore open the mayonnaise packet to mix with the tuna fish. “We did our part. The consequences of their decisions belong to them.”
“Wow, that didn’t sound like you.”
Auralia paused with a cracker in one hand and a plastic spoon in the other. “I’ve got an itchy feeling, Doli. I don’t know what it’s about, but it started when I got the ballistic vests from Gator.”
Doli held up a hand to speak past the bite she’d just taken. “It’s fair to say that bullet-resistant vests are the kind of gift that might make any normal human a bit anxious.”
“True.” Auralia popped the cracker into her mouth and reached for the potato chip box. Once she’d swallowed, she added, “Not necessarily true in this case. Last night, though, I was dreaming about smoke and clatter and something about that got my adrenaline flowing.”
“Smoke and clatter, like me trying to cook?” Doli asked before biting into her sandwich.
“The clatter? Yeah. Metal on metal, I guess it could sound like pots and pans. But I’m remembering a dream.”
“Gunfire smoke?”
“More like a bonfire.” Auralia grabbed a handful of chips, feeling the acidic saltiness on her fingertips.
Auralia had meant to talk all this over with Creed and Gator, but this morning in the bed and breakfast was a special cocoon of time. She and Creed had driven here separately. Thenwas the big reveal that was more sputter than sparklers, so she’d forgotten, and now the men were at work.
Everything was flowing.
For the next half-hour, people did as they were told.
They waited patiently, gave their drink orders efficiently, and spoke kindly.
The scouts were coming around with the black leaf bags to collect trash.
And there were Mayor Early and Representative Braxton back on the stage.
Auralia and Doli gathered their things, cleaned their area, and went over toward the others who had chosen to stand. The team didn’t want their taping to block people’s view. Doli had her camera up and ready to roll. Auralia clenched a mic in her hand to do intros and outros.
Mayor Early threw a hand overhead and called out, “Round of applause, everyone, for Mountain Smokey Pig and our efficient volunteers.”
That was met with whistles and cheers. But when Early signaled Morrison up, things fell silent.
