Fifty Years of Peace (Abrupt Dissent Series)

by Andrews, Charlotte

  For all of his strengths, Mayor Trestle was not a strong administrator. In his short year as a clerk, Jacob had seen so many unrealized opportunities to improve the town that he knew New Louisville could double its economy with a little more forethought. Assemblyman Arnold had been receptive to his ideas about central planning and transportation improvements, and that’s why he’d accepted Linden’s offer to work for the New States. A true patriot fought for the people even when it was unpopular, and he simply wanted what was best for the town in spite of the looks the townspeople gave him. For now though, he still thought mostly of Jenny.

  Although he didn’t see Jenny as much as some of the other girls in town, there was always something special about her. She was smart and beautiful, the kind of girl you’d want to spend the rest of your life with, and until recently, she seemed so innocent.

  He’d done the right thing in telling the assemblyman about George, but with her grandpa in jail, he knew Jenny wouldn’t see it that way. He worried that she was hiding somewhere scared and alone. If only he could talk to her, tell her that the Texans were here for their protection, he knew she’d understand. He remembered how she’d blushed and smiled in the tent when they were alone, and he knew they would be a good fit for each other. She wanted the best for people, and that’s what he wanted, which is why it was so hard to understand why she lied about the boy in the first place.

  “Jacob!” a voice hissed from an alley.

  “Who’s there?” he called and took a step back up the street. A strange shape detached itself from the shadows and trundled out into the moonlight. It was the mayor, hunched over his crutch and limping toward him.

  “Mayor Trestle!”

  “You and I need to have a talk. Come with me.”

  “Yes sir,” he said. He’d been dreading this conversation since he’d talked to Linden yesterday.

  The mayor had been a great help and role model, but he simply hadn’t known how to tell Jim that he wanted a different path for the town. The mayor limped alongside him in silence until they reached a blue-painted brick house.

  “This is…” Jacob said.

  Sheriff Dickson opened the door and invited them inside. He led them to his dining table and turned up the lamp.

  “Need to do my rounds,” he said as he left the room. “I’ll let you two be.”

  The front door closed, and Jacob sat down across from the mayor. Jacob watched the mayor’s face work in the lamplight. The man seemed older than just a few days ago, the shadows deepening across his forehead.

  “Jacob, I need to ask a favor from you,” the mayor said. Jacob was nervous, surprised. He hadn’t had a conversation like this with adults before.

  “Of…of course.”

  “I know you’re working for Linden now, and while I wish you would have told me face to face, I understand. We’re all eager to get to the bottom of this bombing and we’re doing what we think is right.”

  “Thank you,” Jacob said.

  “You don’t need to worry son. I always knew you were a sharp one.”

  “What did you want to ask?”

  “I’d like to speak with Richard alone.”

  “Mayor, that is the one thing that Linden asked I avoid. He’s worried about sympathizers and such.”

  “And what do you think of Assemblyman Arnold?”

  “I think he’s got a lot of ideas. Certainly a vision for where he wants to take the New States.”

  “A vision, huh? Do you think everyone fits into that vision?”

  “I’m…I’m not sure what you’re getting at Mayor.”

  “As you get older Jacob, you realize that you won’t see eye to eye with most people. And in spite of whatever faults or mistakes we might lay on others, it’s still possible to recognize a good heart. I’ve known Richard Williams my entire life. He was one of the pre-wars that helped build this town. He’s a good man who’s got a scared daughter, and one of the things I have to do as mayor is to help my people. I don’t want to see that girl hurt. Just give me ten minutes with him is all I ask. I think I can get to the bottom of things.”

  As Jacob studied the mayor, he realized that the town’s changes weren’t all external. People were being affected too, and suddenly his job as Linden’s aide and the decisions he would make seemed much heavier than he’d ever thought.

  “I’ve known you all my life too Mayor. I’ll give you ten minutes. Just please get him to cooperate. I’m…I’m worried for Jenny.”

  The mayor gave him a sad smile that stayed with Jacob for a long time after they’d left the sheriff’s house.

  “I am too son,” he said. “I’m worried for all of us.”

  ***

  “The harvest left this morning,” Assemblyman Arnold said. “Its arrival in New Orleans will occur within the hour.”

  Linden had left the bus curtains open, as all his aides except for Josey were either standing watch or coordinating accommodations for the Alamo Division as the brigade settled into town. This conversation was going to be one of the most important of his career, and he didn’t want to feel boxed in.

  “That’s excellent news,” President Hickock said. “Our buyers will be quite pleased.”

  “How do the markets look?”

  A frown crossed the president’s face.

  “I don’t want you asking questions outside of your need to know Linden.”

  “My apologies sir; I’m just excited about...well about everything.”

  “You’re excited about the profits aren’t you? You haven’t forgotten that I handle the distribution, have you?”

  “Of course not. Again, my apologies if I implied…”

  “Accepted. Let’s move on to the security situation.”

  “We’ve taken a pre-war into custody. We didn’t find anything when we searched his home, but he and his granddaughter aided the bomber. I haven’t had a chance to question the man yet, but I think in a way the bombing has actually helped our plan’s execution. The story will be much more…believable now.”

  “And the people?”

  Linden sat back in his chair, thinking.

  “These people are scared Mr. President. They don’t want war. The mayor here should be no problem, and the rest of the governmental structure was quite loose. We’ll have a good base of support here by the time we begin our march.”

  “Good. What of the bomber?”

  “He can’t have gone far. I don’t think the girl will be much help to him.”

  “And if he gets a message out?”

  “Satellite intelligence shows at least eight days before the closest U.S. units could reach the border crossing. We’ll be moving in two, as soon as the next train arrives.”

  “It’s tight Linden,” the president said. “But you’ve always been a good tactician. Keep your head about you, and you’ll go far in this government. Many eyes overseas are watching you right now, and they want to end the U.S.’s grip on the coasts even more than we do. I hope you are ready Linden, because I want my war.”

  ***

  Jenny squatted behind a cluster of rain barrels next to the barbershop. Doc Stinson lived across the street but she hadn’t seen him come home yet and it was well past sundown. Her legs were close to giving out after a long night and day of forced hiking, and she’d had to dodge dozens of Texan military patrols on her way through town. The few townspeople she’d seen had been hurrying to get home or drawing their curtains. New Louisville felt like it was holding its breath, and she worried that Doc Stinson was occupied elsewhere, or wouldn’t come home.

  But then she heard a familiar tuneless whistle, and before long she saw the doctor walking up the street swinging his bag. He looked tired, nodding to a pair of Texan soldiers that passed him and shaking his head after they turned a corner. As he unlocked his front door, Jenny glanced up and down the street. Her heart was pounding, and she hoped no one would see her. Then she sprinted across the road and slapped her hand against the doctor’s door just before he swung it
closed. He spun, and she could just make out his startled face.

  “Who’s there?” the doctor called. “Is that…”

  “Please Doctor Stinson, I need help,” she whispered.

  “Jenny, Jenny my God come in,” he said and ushered her inside. He checked the street before closing the door, and then latched it behind her.

  “No, please,” she said when he reached for his lamp, “they can’t see me.”

  He stayed his hand.

  “The Texans arrested your grandfather for treason Jenny,” he whispered. “They’ve been asking everyone if we know where you went. What are you doing here?”

  “He’s in prison?”

  The news hit her hard, and she felt faint in the dark house, but she had a job to do. Grandpa always said that if people focused on the doing and not the worrying, the worries would clean themselves up.

  “Doc, I need to ask you something.”

  “Of course,” he said, “anything.”

  “Do you believe in the New States? Do you believe in Assemblyman Arnold and what he’s been doing?”

  The doctor gave her a long look. He ran his hand through his hair, sighing.

  “I don’t know what to believe Jenny. If you’d asked me two days ago I might have said something different, but now you’re here, Richard’s in jail…will you tell me what happened to you?”

  She knew she should be cautious because she might not be able to trust him, but the force of everything that she’d been holding back let loose in her and she burst into tears at the thought of her grandfather behind bars. She told the doctor of the technology her grandfather had kept, of his suspicions about the New States’ government, and finally of George and his family in the mountains.

  “That’s why I’m here,” she said, “because they’re good people, and they need my help even if the assemblyman says otherwise.”

  The doctor reached into his bag and handed her a cotton cloth. She wiped her eyes, smiling in gratitude.

  “Good people don’t kill people with bombs Jenny,” he said.

  “Will you come? You have to come.”

  “Let me ask you something. Why do you believe this boy?”

  She swallowed. How did you describe what you knew in your heart?

  “Because he wants people to know the truth, just like I did.”

  “And you think that justifies killing? That’s not how Richard raised you.”

  “No…I…I don’t know. But you have to see that what’s happening isn’t right!”

  “Oh Jenny, you’re so young.” He took back the cloth and packed up his bag. Then he turned for his back room.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “To get supplies,” he said, “in spite of my doubts, I swore an oath, and if I’m going to do surgery in the mountains, I need to be prepared.”

  ***

  “Ten minutes,” Jacob said to the mayor as the jail cell’s door squealed shut.

  Richard lifted himself from his cell’s cot slowly, a hesitant smile spreading over his face. Jenny’s grandfather wore a day’s worth of silver stubble and a white cotton shirt that was roughly sewn at the shoulders and collar, likely made of thread from his own farm’s crop. That was the type of man Richard was; one who’d built himself up by his bootstraps so he could lift the whole town after the war tore it down. He was not the kind of man that you’d find in a jail cell.

  “You don’t look too bad for an old milkmaid,” the mayor said.

  “And you don’t look too bad for a slimy politician,” Richard answered. He thrust his arm through the bars and Mayor Trestle clasped it, then wedged his other arm through and gave his old friend the best embrace he could manage.

  “Jim, it was good of you to come,” Richard said. “I’ve about had a lifetime fill of Texas accents.”

  The mayor laughed, pulling up a stool to the bars and resting his cane against the wall. He massaged his shin just below his knee, trying to dull the throb of his first full day on the leg.

  “Was that from the bombing?” Richard asked.

  “It was. Five dead was bad enough and now…well, you know what’s happening.”

  “I do.” Jenny’s grandfather sat down on his bunk. The mayor could see how tense he was by the way he gripped the thin mattress underneath him.

  “Why did Jenny run Richard? What does she know?”

  The rancher’s eyes narrowed. He sat back and crossed his arms.

  “Is this the mayor who I’ve known since he was a boy that’s asking, or the duly elected representative of New Louisville, Kentucky, reporting to Assemblyman Linden Arnold?”

  “This is one pre-war to another right now.”

  Jenny’s grandfather turned his head, studying the gray cinderblock walls.

  “I’m sorry Jim. I can’t tell you anything that might put that girl in danger.”

  Mayor Trestle smoothed his beard. His leg had died down to a dull ache, letting him think a little more. He needed to try a different tactic. Richard wouldn’t trust anyone right now, and the mayor didn’t blame him.

  “You know when I was clerking for old man Kenilworth in his last term as mayor there were investigations about you; failure to turn over pre-war technology, if I remember correctly.”

  Something unreadable flickered across Richard’s face.

  “I invited Kenilworth out to search my property and he didn’t find anything. Your friends from Texas searched everything, cut open every mattress and seat cushion in my house, and also didn’t find anything. Do you really want to try a third time?”

  “Richard you old galoot, do you know what happened to that investigation? Kenilworth died, and I buried it because I know who you are. You’re the man that organized the National Guard defections, and kept a lot of us fed around here. I’m not here because you pissed off the New States Congress. I’m here because I need to know what’s happening to our town. Why am I up to my eyeballs in an army from Texas? Why is Arnold here in the first place? And why is someone trying to kill him? Now I know you, and I know your granddaughter. The three of us have had occasion to converse many a long night, and I know she’s a smart girl. She was raised by a smart man, and I think you know more than you’re letting on. But I can’t help my citizens if they don’t let me.”

  The rancher studied him, keeping his face expressionless. The mayor knew he was being reevaluated, all those years of stopping over at the farm now called into question. Had he simply been keeping tabs on a known enemy of the state?

  “Richard, they’ve got armed search parties combing the hills looking for Jenny. They’ve got some kind of sniper with pre-war tech out after her. If she tries to run again, they’ll shoot her Richard, and I can’t stop them. These men are dangerous. I’m not asking you to give me anything incriminating. I just need a little help from you to get ahead of them.”

  Richard glanced toward the door that led to the police station.

  “Jenny told me that Assemblyman Arnold drives an RV,” he said. “Got a lot of antennas up there, probably had a radio once.”

  “Of course it did. What does that have to do with…”

  The jail door banged open behind him.

  “They’re coming,” Jacob hissed. “You have to go.”

  The mayor nodded and stood.

  “I’ll get to the bottom of this Richard.”

  “I don’t want the bottom Jim. I want my girl back safe!”

  ***

  Mayor Trestle stood, grabbing his crutch for balance, and limped out past Jacob into the police station. It was quiet at night, just a small lamp lit at the desk Jacob had made his own.

  “Mayor Trestle?” the boy said.

  The mayor turned. He knew the look on his face wasn’t pleasant and the boy shied from him.

  “I wanted to…” Jacob started, “I mean what I’d like to ask is…”

  “Well Mr. Mayor,” a voice boomed from the station’s doorway.

  He turned and saw Linden squeezing himself inside the sher
iff’s office, followed by two more of his Texans. One wore a khaki jacket with the New State’s seal on each shoulder and a captain’s insignia on his collar.