“Well, I guess that is true.”
“Nice to be somewhat special,” he said.
“Somewhat,” she said, elbowing him in the side.
“You’re ruthless.”
“Very. But you should take me to get a sweet coffee.”
So then they drove down into town, making Scallywag’s their first stop. It was crowded, but she didn’t mind. They found a table in the corner, and she had a different variety of coffee and a croissant. She took a deep breath. “I hardly ever come here or buy fancy coffee because I still have this really intense scarcity mindset. I have money squirreled away. Enough for a down payment on a house. I could start a business; I could do a lot of different things.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. But I just stay at the Wild West Show because I don’t know what else to do with myself.”
“You’re running for mayor.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s really the first big thing I’ve done. Iwant to make a difference. I want to change things. I want to matter. I don’t want to be the girl everybody laughed at. I want to prove to them that they were stupid to do that. By doing an amazing job as mayor.”
“You already have my vote. But if you didn’t, you’d have it again.”
“Thanks.”
They finished up at the coffee shop and then walked out onto Main Street, committed to going up and down both sides and visiting all the shops. They went to The Pot Rack, where they chatted with the owner of the store about the handmade knives in the display case, and then about the upcoming debate. Then they moved on to The Laughing Bison.
“Jessie is very much keeping in mind all the concerns of the local business owners. So if you can think of any …”
“That damned dining tax,” the owner said. “It’s going to keep people from coming out here. We are already so far off the beaten path, and if it’s more expensive to come out here than it is to eat other places, no one’s going to make the drive. Remember, Jacksonville tried to do something like that, and the ordinance got shot down. Well, now we’ll be next to them, farther up the road, and with higher prices. No one will ever bother to make the rest of the trip.”
Jessie couldn’t deny that.
“Well, don’t worry. What I’m mayor, that proposal is gone. I’m killing it at the outset.”
“Then you definitely have my vote.”
They were met with similar enthusiasm by a lot of different business owners. They were worried about changes that affected them. Changes that could cost them their bottom line. And any policies that weren’t compatible with running a small business were deeply unpopular. But of course, Danielle hadn’t imagined that someone would oppose her, so she hadn’t been paying attention to what was popular.
“It would be different if it was for schools or something like that.”
They were in Perry’s florist shop, watching her make a bouquet. “I could get behind that. Something that really benefited the community. But she’s earmarked some of the money for landscaping? And that still leaves a lot of what we can theoretically assume we would get in revenue from that tax unaccounted for. Particularly since she wants to cut some of our programs and services, what is it even for?”
“Well, it might make sense for another kind of town,” Jessie said. “One that gets heavier traffic. But it’s so much work to drive to ours.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Perry said. “People have to drive an hour out of Medford to get here. And there’s a lot to distract them along the way.”
“Come to the debate. And you can hear me challenge Danielle on all of this.”
“I will. Happily.”
By two thirty, they were at The Watering Hole. It wasn’t as crowded as usual, but some of the regulars were there already.
“I just need to make sure you all know that there’s a debate coming up at town hall between Danielle LeFevre and myself.”
“They don’t want us there,” said Richard, one of the more ragtag regulars.
“I don’t care what they want.Iwant you there. I want you there to raise the issues that you care about. You can force Danielle to engage with them. And ask me nicely to do it. And I promise you I will.”
“That was amazing,” she said, buzzing as they drove out of town.
