Against the crowd there I wasn’t sure that would be enough, but when I saw my reserves a few people to his left, I knew with the added support, I’d be okay. I just hoped none of the added support brought weapons. Lately, they’d had a tendency to do just that.
My reserves were four older Bramblett County residents, and people I loved like family. Bonnie Bass, Henrietta Harvey, Old Man Goodson and Billy Ray Brownlee were not the oldest residents in town, but darn close to it. Their hearts were as big as the moon, and I trusted my life with them over anyone else, if Dylan, Belle and Matthew weren’t available, of course.
Bonnie raised her hand and waved above the crowd. Somewhere near eighty-years-old—I assumed, because Southern women wouldn’t dare speak their age out loud—she wasn’t much taller than a barstool in a roadside joint that sold moonshine under the table. The only reason I’d caught a glimpse of her at all was because she’d planted her squatty self on top of a library chair. Thankfully both Billy Ray and Old Man Goodson held her calves to keep her steady. God bless her, if she didn’t fall flat on her face it would be a miracle. I waved back and prayed she kept upright.
“Keep Bramblett small, y’all,” Magnolia Cleveland chanted. “Come on now, say it with me, people. “Keep Bramblett small, y’all.”
The crowd chanted along with Magnolia, and my stomach churned a bowl full of acid. “Heaven help me.”
“We don’t want our small community becoming another anchor for the city now, do we?” Magnolia shouted.
“No, ma’am.”
“We sure don’t.”
“No way, no we don’t.”
“Then we must stop the travesty happening in the development that has all but destroyed our community, a community the late Myrtle Redbecker loved. Do you think she would want her property used in such a way?”
“No, ma’am.”
My mouth hung open. Everyone in town knew that was exactly what Myrtle Redbecker wanted do with her property, and I knew that for a fact. It was the first big mess I’d gotten myself into as a realtor, and it spread through town like wildfire.
“And who’s responsible for this? Tell me. Who started such angst in our sweet little Bramblett County?”
The entire room chanted, “Lily Sprayberry.”
I caught myself chanting my own name along with them.
“Yes, Lily Sprayberry, that’s who. Now we need to take control of this situation before it’s too late. Don’t we?” Magnolia asked.
The crowd hooted and hollered yes and other damaging to my career remarks I hoped to soon forget.
“Our master plan has been altered. The county is being destroyed by this cheap attempt to bring wealth to Bramblett. We don’t need that mess. We have our own wealth, we don’t need strangers coming to town.”
I wanted to laugh because Magnolia married a wealthy man and brought that wealth straight to Bramblett when they built their big house maybe ten years ago. Could she have been a bigger hypocrite?
“If we’re going to progress appropriately, there’s a way, but this isn’t it. Just tossing up a development and then letting the last unit sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t right.”
“How isn’t it right?” A crowd member asked. “It’s money for the county. It can’t hurt us, that’s for sure.”
“Oh yes, it can. It will drive other developers to town and before you know it, our small town will be another Alpharetta, and many of us can’t afford that lifestyle. Everything will go up in price, and we’ll be pushed out. Look at history, that’s what’s happened all around Bramblett. We can’t let that happen here. And I won’t even mention the fact that our infrastructure can’t handle the additional traffic, let alone what it could do to our school system.” Magnolia was definitely on a roll, and she hit every hot spot to light a fire under the backsides of everyone there.
Belle snarled. “I’ve just about had me enough of this.” She straightened her sweater and flung her hair back behind her shoulders, then said, “Heaven help me. I’m goin’ in.”
I grabbed her arm. “Belle, wait. You don’t have to do—”
“Darn straight I do.” She marched up to the front of that crowd and owned it like Miss America taking her crown. “Now let me tell you something, Magnolia Cleveland.” She pointed at the crowd. “And all of you, too.”
“You tell ‘em, Belle,” Henrietta hollered.
“Yeah, tell ‘em,” Bonnie said. She leaned forward and screamed, “Oh crap, I’m going down,” and both Billy Ray and Old Man Goodson tumbled backwards trying to keep her steady and hit the ground themselves. Dylan and Matthew rushed to help.
The crowd stayed silent until Bonnie popped up and waved. “I’m all right. Nothing’s broken.” She hopped right back up onto that chair, and got a scolding from Dylan for it. “Aw Sheriff, I can’t see nothing from down there.”
The crowd laughed.
Belle brought them back to her by waving her hands and saying, “Come on people, this is ridiculous. We all know Myrtle Redbecker, and we know she wanted her land sold to a developer. She wanted the county to grow.” She pointed to Bubba Banks who owned the Fix It shop down the way. Everybody went to Bubba Banks ever since Old Man Goodson retired. “Bubba, you know that as sure as the sun’s gonna rise tomorrow, don’t you?”
He nodded ever so slightly.
She claimed her next victim, Silo Barnes. “And what about you Silo? I seem to recall Myrtle Redbecker got her milk delivered from you back in the day, didn’t she?”
Silo used to have a dairy farm on the outskirts of the county, only his cows got sick or something and died, so he rented his property out to a chicken farmer instead. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I bet Myrtle tried to get you to sell your land to a developer too, didn’t she? I know she hit up practically everyone in town because she told us she wanted a cut of the commission if they sold. Don’t know why you didn’t sell, Silo. Heaven knows a developer would be a heck of a lot better than that stink you’ve got renting from you now. Am I right?”
Silo shuffled his feet and stared at the ground as he mumbled his answer. “She might have, yeah.”
Belle cupped her hand to her ear. “I’m sorry, Silo. What’d you say? You’ve got to speak up so the rest of the room can hear you.”
“I said yeah, she did.”
Belle clapped her hands. “Well then, what’s the fuss all about? This isn’t Lily’s fault, and progress is coming no matter how we feel about it. But hey, if you want to blame anyone, you might could start with Myrtle, God rest her soul. I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but let’s face the facts, Myrtle Redbecker wanted the county to grow, and we, not Lily, we did what she wanted done with her land. That’s progress, and you’re not going to stop it by hanging my business and my partner out to dry.”
“Maybe we don’t want progress,” someone said. “Maybe we should fight it?”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because change is inevitable,” Belle said.
Magnolia Cleveland stomped her foot. “Well, we don’t want that kind of change, Belle Pyott, and we want your friend here to cancel that open house and stop that bidding war, you hear?”
“That won’t make a difference, and you know that, Magnolia.”
Magnolia’s face contorted from a confident, snide smirk with snooty eyes to narrowed eyes and pursed lips. It wasn’t pretty. “It’s the least she could do.”
I stepped up and spoke, because it was time I stood up for myself. “Everyone, Carter Trammell wasn’t part of this community for very long, and I know many of you weren’t happy with some of the things he did in his short time here.”
A few people made some crass remarks, and I held my hand up to stop them. “But, let’s be honest, many of you didn’t actually give him a fighting chance now, did you?”
The crowd hemmed and hawed because they knew I was right. Most people in town treated Coach Trammell like, as Magnolia Cleveland had recently said, someth
ing the cat drug in. He’d called for change in Bramblett, change actually, to the right way of doing things, and that didn’t end well for him.
“Even though Carter wasn’t well received, his estate has decided to create a local only scholarship in his name for a deserving lacrosse student. Originally, the scholarship was meant to be a one-time deal, but with the bidding war on the deceased’s home now, that scholarship can be extended to three, maybe four or five years and for more than one student.” I stepped toward the crowd, my head held high. “This is a good thing for the town, and it’s a good thing to do to honor the memory of someone that wanted to do something good for the kids here in Bramblett, don’t you think?”
End with a yes or no question, that’s the first thing I learned about sales, and it usually worked. I watched as several crowd members nodded.
“Belle is right. Progress is inevitable. Change is coming whether we like it or not, and we either can let it take control and overwhelm us, or we can manage it to the best of our abilities. Which would you prefer?”
“Manage.”
“Take it down.”
“Run over it with my four-wheeler.”
“Crush it like a beer can.”
“Yeah. Crush it.” That guy, Howie Gentry, who I graduated from high school with, and knew for a fact had already crushed one too many beer cans against his forehead, was one beer can short of a case. He didn’t need to be crushing anymore cans on anything. I discounted his response. I didn’t much care for Howie Gentry.
“Everyone, even if I cancelled the showing, it wouldn’t stop the bidding war like Magnolia here hopes. The townhome is listed on the market. It’s already in the middle of a bidding war, and not showing it won’t change that. That’s not how this works.” I scanned the crowd, watching for signs of more rebellion, but when I realized I’d had their collective ear, I kept talking. “The only reason we’re holding the viewing is to increase the potential price for the estate, and in doing that, increase the scholarship money. If you want to cut or better yet, manage growth in Bramblett County, there are ways to do that, but attacking me isn’t one of them. Now go on and get your day started, and let me get some well deserving kids help with college, okay?”
Magnolia Cleveland glared at me, but I just smiled and said, “Have a nice day, Magnolia.”
Belle hooked her arm in mine and marched me over to our little group. I exhaled the biggest sigh of relief ever when no one was looking. “Thank you for being here. I was afraid I’d run screaming if that crowd came at me.”
Dylan winked at me. “You did good, Lily Bean.”
Henrietta slapped him midway on the back. Likely because she couldn’t reach high enough to hit his shoulder. “Good? What do you mean good? She was plum fantastic, just like our Belle.”
“Better than expected, that’s for sure,” Bonnie said.
“Hey now,” I said.
“Well, you surprised me, but Belle here, she’s sassy, like me. I knew she’d get the crowd going two ways to Sunday.”
Belle and Bonnie fist-bumped. “Why thank you, Bonnie. I appreciate that.”
“Any time, sweetie pie.”
Emma Crimmins sauntered over and raised the right side of her upper lip as she spoke to us. Mostly, she spoke to me, but the uppity expression she flashed at all of us. “Well look at you, Lily Sprayberry.” Which she did, up and down, twice. “All up in everyone’s business again. Don’t you think you ought to start keepin’ your nose where it belongs?”
Belle jumped to my defense before I even had a chance to open my mouth. “Well now, Emma Crimmins, aren’t you just the pot callin’ the kettle black?”
Emma Crimmins lifted the right side of her upper lip so high it nearly touched her bottom eye lid. “Well, whatever do you mean?” Her Southern drawl was deep South, like Savannah, or maybe the Gulf Coast of Alabama, I wasn’t sure, but it definitely wasn’t North Georgia. Her roots weren’t in Bramblett, so why it all mattered to her was lost on me.
“She means that what you got to say don’t amount to a hill a beans, that’s what she means,” Henrietta said.
Belle nodded. “That’s about right.”
Emma Crimmins’ eyes bounced from Belle to me. “Well, I do believe neither of you know what’s best for the great county of Bramblett, and doing what you’re doing is a travesty to our great heritage.”
Belle snorted. “Honey, you’re not even from Bramblett, so I’m not sure we actually give two hoots about your beliefs.”
Bonnie cheered Belle on. “You tell her, Belle.”
I nudged Bonnie’s arm. The situation would get worse before it got better, and we didn’t need our fan club adding to it, whether their intentions were good or not.
Emma Crimmins flicked her head upward, giving us full view of her smooth, bronzed neck. For a thirty-something, her neck showed no signs of aging. She must go to a great plastic surgeon or something. She shook her head and twirled a long blonde hair with her finger. “Now, now Belle. I’m sure your momma taught you better than that.”
I clutched Belle’s arm. Insult her. Insult anything she thinks, feels, says, wears, whatever, but do not insult her momma. Belle had limits, and Emma Crimmins just tripped right over a very important one. “Don’t,” I said louder than I’d expected. “She’s not worth it.”
Henrietta agreed. “Darn straight she isn’t.”
“You can take that to the bank,” Bonnie said. She pushed back her shoulders and gave Emma Crimmins the evilest eye I’d ever seen. “And as you’re leaving, I’ll stuff my big ol’ foot right up your—”
I quickly threw my hand up and covered her mouth. “And it’s time we get a move on.”
Bonnie mumbled into my palm, but I kept it plastered against her mouth. When she licked it, I pulled away. “Ew, Bonnie. That’s all kinds of unnecessary, don’t you think?”
“I will not be silenced.”
“Looks like you just were,” Henrietta said.
Emma Crimmins huffed. “You and your little posse—” her nostrils flared when she spoke. “Why, y’all don’t have the good manners of a pig now, do you?”
“We got a lot more than your snooty kind,” Bonnie said.
“Well, I don’t deserve this kind treatment. Just goes to show you can’t have a civil conversation with the trash taking over the county.”
In what appeared to be slow motion, Bonnie’s right arm raised up behind her, her big, bright orange, faux leather hand bag whipping backward and heading upward over her head. I stepped in front of her to stop the blow I knew she’d planned to send straight at Emma Crimmins. “Have a nice day, Emma.”
She eyed me up and down, and with barely a nod to everyone else, pranced away. Emma Crimmins was a Women of Society member, just like Magnolia Cleveland. The Women of Society was members only through an application process, and was designed to do volunteer work in the community. Mostly, they were just snobs that told other people what to do.
“Now why’d you go and do that?” Bonnie asked. “I had me a clean shot. I done could of whacked her right in the head.” She raised her bag up for all to see. “And I got me one of those fancy electronic books in here to boot. Could have done some damage.”
“Which is exactly why I jumped in front of you, Bonnie. You can’t go around hitting people because they upset you. It’s not proper behavior, and it feeds right into her act, don’t you see that?”
She swapped out the smile for a frown, dropped the bag to the side where it belong, and then grumbled something I couldn’t understand.
Fannie Noble, another one of the Women of Society members, tapped me on the shoulder. “Heavens, I must apologize for the way Emma behaved just now. Ladies don’t act like that, especially Women of Society members.”
Fannie, born and raised in Bramblett, came from a wealthy family and married into one, too. Rumor was the marriage was one of convenience over love, something that wasn’t all that uncommon back in the day, but Fannie wasn’t much older than me, and I could
n’t imagine marrying someone out of convenience. To each her own, I guess.
I offered her a half-hearted smile, because it was all I had the energy for. “It’s okay. Everyone is emotional at the moment.”
“Well, I appreciate that. I do hope you understand our concern. We just want to tread carefully when it comes to who moves into our little slice of heaven on earth.”
“I don’t think we really have a say in who purchases the property, and besides, the rest of the units are already sold, so what’s one more? How will that make a difference?”
“Well sweetie, that’s the point isn’t it? We didn’t take the time to–what’s the word–vet our new residents, and now we’re dealing with some unpleasantries because of it. Had we taken the time to do so in the beginning, this wouldn’t be a problem. So, we’d like to make sure we’re a part of the decision process, to you know, ensure the proper kind are coming to our little town.”
I couldn’t even. “Okay then, well, I’ll do my best to do that, Fannie.” I crossed my heart. “Promise.”
“That’s all I can ask at the moment.” If the sneer that stretched across her face was supposed to be a smile, she’d failed miserably. “Y’all have a nice day, ‘k?”
Belle flipped around and spit imaginary daggers while she vented. “For the love of God, what is wrong with these people?” She threw her arms up. “It’s like we’ve destroyed the county because of one townhome when the rest of them are already sold. You’d think they would have pitched their fits months ago.”
She was right. It didn’t make sense. “The only thing I can think of is they’re afraid someone is going to come in and change things again like Carter did, and it’ll set the entire town into a tizzy like before.”
Carter’s desire to follow the rules of the Georgia Athletic Association caused a great deal of conflict in town, especially for the parents of high school athletes. Change wasn’t always a good thing to some people.
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