Road to Nowhere (35 page)

July 27, Thursday

“Now look what Luke’s gone and done,” Randy said to Sue Ann, the newspaper spread out on his knee, and Gold River Highway spread out all over the page. “ ‘In an abrupt change of direction,’ ” he read, “ ‘Eliza Gulotsky held out the possibility of voting for the road if certain conditions were met. She would not, however, elaborate on what those conditions might be. That information, she said, would come at the right time. “The answers to these questions will have to wait,” she said in an interview exclusive to the
Wardsville Guardian
.’ Well, now, who else would interview her, anyway? Sue Ann, all our neighbors are counting on her to vote no, and now they’ll be all the more agitated, and we both know full well that she probably didn’t say anything like any of this.”

July 31, Monday

“Joe Esterhouse.”

Woman’s voice on the other end. “Mr. Esterhouse? Good afternoon! How are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Good! Mr. Esterhouse, my name is Sandy Lockwood, and I’m with Regency Atlantic Associates in Atlanta. The nice lady in the office at the county government gave me your number.”

“What can I do for you, Miss Lockwood?”

“Sandy. And can I call you Joe? I’d like to come up to Wardsville next week for your Board of Supervisors meeting and present some exciting new plans to you and your board.”

“What would those be?”

“I can’t say very much yet, Joe. Just that Regency Atlantic is so excited about Jefferson County! And we’re looking forward so much to working with you!”

“Who is Regency Atlantic?”

“We’ll tell you all about us when we come.”

“Why don’t you tell me now.”

“Sure, Joe. Regency Atlantic is the premier developer of new retail centers in underserved and growing small communities in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. We operate more than sixty grocery store–anchored strip shopping centers in seven states. We’ll be working very closely with your board, so that’s why I want all of you to be the first to hear our news!”

August

August 7, Monday

Time to start. Louise just felt nervous, and out of sorts.

Bang! She jumped. Why did Joe have to hit that thing so hard?

“Come to order. Go ahead, Patsy,” Joe said.

“Mrs. Brown?”

“Here.” She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She was just so fidgety! And for once, it should be just a normal meeting, or at least as normal as it could be with the room full of angry people.

“I’ll move that we accept last month’s minutes.” She said it without even thinking! Joe must have asked for a motion.

“I’ll second that,” Randy said.

“Motion and second,” Joe said, “any discussion? Go ahead, Patsy.”

“Mrs. Brown?”

“Yes.” They did all look so angry—and there were still months to go before they finally got this road business done.

“Four in favor, one opposed,” Patsy said.

“Motion carries,” he said. “Minutes are accepted. Next is receiving public comment. Please state your name and address.”

There were just a few empty seats. In the back row were a man and a lady, dressed real nice, that she’d never seen before.

But here came the comments. Of course Everett Colony was first. Louise was not feeling very sympathetic to him these days.

“I have these figures from the North Carolina Department of Transportation,” he was saying, “ showing that intersections of two-lane residential streets with large four-lane roads have the highest accident rates of any type of intersection.” He slapped the podium, whap! Louise jumped again. “What is it going to take to convince this board just how dangerous this road will be? Here it is, in black and white!”

“I’m Annette van Marten,” the next person said. “That’s M-A-R-T-E-N. Van Marten. I live at 2970 Lofty Ridge Road in Gold Valley.” She looked like it, too. She had a nice purple polo shirt with the name of a golf course up in the corner, and bright silver hair. “I’ve lived in Gold Valley two years, and I’d like to say I’m in favor of the new road. When I bought my house over there, I did some research. I looked at the county planning maps. Now, you all might not realize it, but Gold River Highway is actually on those maps. They show it going straight into Wardsville. From what I could tell, it was added in 1967. Now, I don’t expect anyone here would remember something from that long ago. But you check those maps—it’s right there.”

She smiled and went back to her seat.

Louise had so much else to think about, and everyone was just going on and on and on.

“Humphrey King, 605 Jackson Street in Wardsville. I know that it isn’t popular in Mountain View, but I’m kind of warming to the idea myself. I could maybe use a few extra customers coming in to King Food, and that road would make it a lot easier.”

“Roland Coates. 801 Henry Drive, Wardsville. So this is what these meetings are like? Bunch of foolishness. Listen, all of you, especially you, Randy McCoy. This county needs jobs and it’s high time some improvements got made around here. And some bunch of boneheads who don’t like anything to change are going to wreck the whole thing.”

“Richard Colony, 713 Hemlock in Wardsville. I just have to say that’s the first time I’ve ever heard Roland Coates say he wanted something to change. Why, if his grandfather walked into that factory of his right now, he’d recognize every stain on the carpet. That’s pretty fine to say you want changes when it’s not in your front yard. We could ask Jeremy Coates whether Roland likes changes or not.”

Roland exploded like a tube of toothpaste being stepped on by an elephant. “Leave that boy out of this!”

“Thank you, everyone,” Joe said. “I think we’ll go on now.”

“You’re cutting us off again, Esterhouse,” Richard Colony said.

“You all have a copy of the agenda,” Joe said, just ignoring him. And he deserved it. “First item is subdividing a parcel on Crooked Hollow Road past Marker.”

And on they went, just like always, everything passing. She was feeling better now because they were doing good things and helping people, like they usually did. Everyone had common sense and they were getting along. If only it weren’t for this road.

“That completes the main agenda,” Joe said. “We have one new item that’s been added.”

“I wish to make a motion.”

Louise couldn’t believe her ears, or hardly her eyes.

It was Eliza!

Joe turned in his chair to look.

“You?” he said.

Eliza looked right back at him. “Yes.”

“Of all the . . . Then go ahead.”

“I wish to move that the obstruction be removed from the ceiling.”

“The . . . what?” Joe said. Every head in the room was looking up, and then they were all zeroing in on the plywood up in the corner over Luke.

“Does anyone know what it’s for?” Randy said. “It’s been there forever, that I can remember.”

“Why do you want to take it down?” Louise asked.

“It should not be there,” Eliza said.

Then there was one of those long silences that happened when anyone was talking to Eliza.

“Is there a second?” Joe said.

“Well, I’ll second it,” Louise said. “If it doesn’t have to be there, I think it would be fine to take it down.

“Can it come down?” Randy said. “It might be there for a reason.”

“It doesn’t look structural.” Steve had stood up and was staring at it. “It’s been there a long time but it doesn’t have any discoloration. So it must not be because the roof was leaking.”

“I’d worry about taking it down if we don’t know why it’s up,” Randy said.

“I could check,” Steve said. “I’d have to look at it close.”

“Any other discussion?” Joe said. “It sounds like we’re voting on having Steve and Eliza look into removing the plywood on the corner of the ceiling here in the council room. Go ahead, Patsy.”

“Mrs. Brown?”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Carter?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Mr. Esterhouse?”

“No.”

Louise could only shake her head. What was getting into the man? It must be just spitefulness, to vote against Eliza.

“Eliza?”

“I vote yes.”

“Mr. McCoy?”

Randy was looking back and forth between Joe and Eliza.

“Well, it’s already passed. Yes. Might as well.”

“Four in favor, one opposed,” Patsy said.

“Motion carries,” Joe said, but he didn’t seem too bothered. “I’ll leave it to the two of you to work that out.” He even seemed—amused a little? But with Joe, who could ever tell. “We are now going to receive a presentation by Sandy Lockwood of Regency Atlantic Associates.”

It was the nicely dressed man and lady. The lady was smiling and Louise just suddenly liked her so much! She seemed so friendly.

“Thank you, Joe,” she said, and turned around part way toward the audience. “I’m Sandy Lockwood of Regency Atlantic, and this is Roy Donaldson.

“And good evening to all of you! My, what a crowd tonight! And I’m so glad you’re all here, because we have some very exciting news!”

The man, Mr. Donaldson, was setting up a stand and unrolling a poster to clip onto it.

“Regency Atlantic Associates is the premier developer of new retail centers in underserved and growing small communities in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. We operate more than sixty grocery store–anchored strip shopping centers . . .”

Louise lost track for a moment. It was like the lady was talking in a foreign language.

“. . . completed eight new centers in just the last two years. Five of those are already ninety percent occupied . . .”

It was so hard to concentrate, to understand what she was saying.

“. . . full cycle development with design, construction, marketing, and operation of the center . . .”

Mr. Donaldson had his poster up. It had drawings of parking lots and trees and long lines of big stores all glassy and shiny. Louise was feeling glassy.

It was all true! The furniture factory would be torn down and there would be big stores instead, and Mr. Coates had been deceiving them!

“. . . and so, Regency Atlantic is now pleased to announce our latest development.”

Oh my. Oh, my, goodness. What would Byron do?

Sandy Lockwood smiled and held her hand up to the poster just like they did on game shows when they were pointing at the big prize.

“Regency Center at Trinkle Farm.”

Why would they call it that? The Trinkle farm was way over in Gold Valley. It wasn’t even going to have a Wardsville name!

“Wait a minute!” Luke Goddard was practically jumping up and down, and now he came running over to the poster. Sandy turned to see who he was.

“I’m Luke Goddard,” he said, “with the
Wardsville Guardian
newspaper. How did you get ahold of Trinkle farm?”

Randy answered. “Did you know, they did actually pay their taxes? I only noticed it recently. I should have known something was happening.” And Joe just stared.

Sandy’s smile had stayed just as bright. “I don’t know those details, but I believe the property owners approached us first.”

“Where are you building this?” Louise said. She was starting to figure it all out.

“At the Gold River Highway Exit off the interstate, in Gold Valley! I was up there this afternoon, and it is beautiful!” She turned back to Luke.

“Mr. Goddard? I’m so glad to meet you, too. We’ll want your newspaper to know all about our new Regency Center at Trinkle Farm.”

“But why are you building it up there?” Randy asked. “How is anyone going to get to it?”

“Once the new Gold River Highway extension is completed into Wardsville, we feel we’ll have just the right population and growth potential to make this a very successful center.”

“That’s what it’s all been about!” Everett Colony shouted.

That finally got Joe to move. He slapped his hammer on the table. “Let’s get back to order, please. Sit down.” He waited until everyone had. Sandy just kept smiling.

“What if we don’t build the road?” Randy said.

“Oh, I hope you do!” Her smile had cracked just a little.

“But what if we don’t?”

“I’m just sure you’ll have that road open before we even know it! It’s such a wonderful opportunity. And Regency Center at Trinkle Farm is going to be such a beautiful shopping center.”

“What will you have in it?” Louise was still reeling, but she was starting to get back upright.

“We are already in talks with several regional food store chains, and the other spaces will fill right in once we start construction.”

And then, Louise had the worst thought she’d ever had in her life.

“Would there be a beauty salon in there?”

The biggest smile yet. “It’s Mrs. Brown, isn’t it? Louise? Louise, more than half of our centers have a national chain hairdresser in them. Just think—in just a couple years, or less, you can get pampered and taken care of and your hair done at a bright new modern salon just a couple miles from Wardsville. And all your friends, too! Won’t that be wonderful?”

“I should have known,” Randy said to Sue Ann. “When those Trinkles paid their taxes, I should have known something was happening.”

“And right when they decided to build Gold River Highway,” Sue Ann said. “There are all kinds of things happening.”

“Now that you mention it, Sue Ann, it’s kind of interesting that they’re happening at the same time. And what would you think of a new shopping center just over the mountain, and a big road right to it?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to think, either,” Randy said. “But Everett and the rest will be sure to tell me.”

“It’s terrible. I still can’t believe it!”

“Calm down, Louise.” Byron actually had the television off to listen to her. “Not the end of the world.”

“It might as well be,” she said. She was sitting in her chair, but she could hardly feel it. “I never dreamed anyone would ever want to go and build some big, huge shopping center right in Jefferson County.”

“High time, I’d say,” Byron said.

“No! It’s terrible!” The man must be blind. “What is that going to do to us? What will happen to Wardsville?”

“It’ll still be there.”

“It won’t! Don’t you see, Byron? All those big fancy stores will open up out there in Gold Valley, and Wardsville will just dry up like a . . . a—” she couldn’t think of what—“like an old loaf of bread.”