"So, how's our Leah doing?" asked Audrey with raised
brows as she rinsed a mixing bowl in the sink.
"Just fine, thank you very much!" retorted Maggie. Then
she turned to her mother. "Leah, it seems, has become some
sort of survivalist mountain woman. Believe me, that girl can
take care of herself." Then Maggie pulled out a piece of
paper and started making a list of supplies.
"What's that for?" asked Audrey, looking curiously over
Maggie's shoulder as she furiously wrote down things like
batteries, candles, kerosene lamps...
"Leah's not the only one who can be a mountain woman."
Audrey laughed. "Better put a manual can opener on that
list too, just in case you should ever lose your electricity. I
haven't seen one around anywhere."
The next morning, Maggie received a surprise visit from
Kate and Buckie at work. "What brings you two in here?"
she asked cheerfully after getting them both a cup of coffee
and settling them into her office.
Looking for YouAllMy Life241
"Actually, we've come to represent some of the businesses
in town that are a little concerned over all the controversy
surrounding the Pine Mountain Estates development," said
Buckie, suddenly sounding very businesslike.
Maggie sighed with dismay. "I see. What exactly do you
want?"
"We want you to lighten up, Maggie," said Kate. "I
mean, we all know how you and Greg have never really seen
eye to eye on-"
"Wait a minute, until recently none of the business people
saw eye to eye with Greg Snider. I mean, only last summer
he was Mr. Antidevelopment-"
"Oh, you know that was only a cover-up until he could
get this whole thing off the ground," said Buckie quickly.
"It's a tactic lots of businessmen use to hide their intentions
until the timing's right to let the news out."
"Pretty extreme tactics, if you ask me," muttered Maggie.
"Anyway," continued Kate with a pretty smile. "We
believe you want to see our town grow just as much as we
do. All we're asking is that you simply back down a little on
this attack-"
"Attack? All I'm doing is reporting the facts-"
"The facts as you perceive them," said Buckie, then he
pulled out a sheet of paper and laid it on her desk. "This is
a petition, Maggie. It's signed by a number of local busi-
nesspeople-people who regularly purchase ad space in the
Pine Cone, if you get my drift. Everyone on this list is ready
to boycott your paper if you continue this negative, anti-
development press coverage. Can't you see that you 're
hurting the whole town with all this one-sided pessimism?"
Maggie pressed her lips together and closed her eyes for
a moment, mentally counting to ten before she responded