Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
The next morning Lizzie is up bright and early ready to get a start on her first day at the Gazette. She’s up before both her parents or Daisy, and has coffee made, oatmeal warming, and sliced fruit ready for everyone when they finally pad downstairs.
“Well, if I knew this is what having a new business partner would be like I would have twisted your arm years ago to come back, thank you honey,” Peter says, giving her a peck on the cheek. Lizzie is at the table, drinking coffee, going over notes and creating a budget for this weeks’ paper. A budget in journalism-speak is figuring out all the content.
“So Dad,” she says as Peter sits down with his coffee and oatmeal. “I had an idea to add some new contributors, would you be open to that?”
“Yes! Of course! That’s a great idea!”
She hands him her notes that she printed out in his home office earlier. “My idea is to add some younger and forward thinking voices. To get people thinking about the future of the town, and how we can grow and evolve, work on climate change, housing, jobs, retaining young people...”
He’s reading, “What are you going to do in your second week?” he jokes. “Wow, this is ambitious, for sure.”
She’s nervous that maybe he doesn’t like it. “Too ambitious?”
“Not at all. I think this is the kick in the pants this place has needed for a long time. We need young, fresh voices and ideas. I love it. I truly love these ideas. And hopefully all you’re planning will bring more money in and we can pay them. In the meantime, I can at least give Sea Coast and Tall Tales free ads. ”
“I thought the same thing. Yeah, Alexis would be great. She’s almost done with her Master’s in community development and planning, and she has the passion, but also the knowledge and nuts and bolts tools on how we can bring about change. And the Patels, with their shared knowledge and experience, I think they would be a fresh voice about diversity, books, the environment, even law.”
“Those are both great ideas,” he pauses. “I don’t want to bring up a sensitive subject, but what about Jack? I’ve been hearing rumblings about him having some ideas he wants to bring to the area that sound really exciting. Possibly some big projects?”
Lizzie is quiet for a minute. She knows if he brings in the money and people he’s talking about it will be big news. Really big news. She can’t avoid him. “Of course, this is about more than personal feelings for sure. If he gets to create the projects he’s talking about, like creating the eco-friendly housing on that unused land, wastewater reduction, or down the road, the carbon capture facility at the old base, of course we want to cover those. And maybe he’d even want to write some pieces, though he says he’s not a writer.” She thinks back to their talking about her helping him and feels a little sad.
“Those are incredible ideas that we’d definitely cover, and I think it would be great to get him involved with the paper, maybe even give him a tech column once a month to educate people.”
Lizzie panics, “Please don’t say anything to anyone in town, about his idea for this project, it’s not my idea to tell. Where did you hear that?”
“His dad told me a bit about it when we were each recycling last week. He’s going to have his work cut out for him though. This place moves forward at a glacial pace. There’s always the contingent that already made their money, retired here and can’t understand why anything has to change.”
“Maybe when they realize that no one under 65 lives here anymore because they can’t afford to, it will sink in,” Gabby says, joining them at the table.
“Exactly,” Lizzie says, getting up and pouring another cup of coffee. “If I didn’t have you here I wouldn't be able to afford to come back, not right now. It’s crazy that the rents on year-round rentals are comparable to what they are in Boston, but there aren’t jobs that pay Boston-level salaries.”
“I feel very frivolous bringing this up, but today is the Main Street Cookie Stroll,” says Gabby.
“Is this a new event? I don’t remember that one,” Lizzies asks.
“Yeah,” Peter says, “The Cranberry Harbor Merchants Co-Op started it two years ago to try to counter how much shopping people were doing online. It’s a way to entice people into the local shops, which hopefully they’ve been supporting all season, and get them to shop local.”
“I love this, if I go early and get some shots I can get it up on the paper’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, bring more people in,” Lizzie says, quickly getting up and taking her dishes to the sink, rinsing them and putting them in the dishwasher.
“We don’t have an Instagram account, or Twitter,” Peter says, a little chagrined.
Lizzie takes her phone out of her pocket, “Yeah, you do now, I set it all up last night and we already have close to 1000 people following us,” she smiles at her dad. “I tagged a few folks with big followings who love Cranberry Harbor that I’ve interviewed in the past. Super easy,” she smiles.
“Wow, now if this was me, I’d be thinking how we could never get any news out at the last minute because the paper comes out today and it’s too late.”
“It’s a melding of the two worlds, Dad, embracing and respecting the importance of a newspaper you can hold in your hands, but also being able to be immediate in your response to what’s happening in town, and in the world. My goal is to make our social media and website the landing spot for people to check on to see what’s happening here and off-Cape as well. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a lot more people out to the Cookie Stroll because maybe they didn’t know about it, or maybe they just forgot, but we’re going to be the place that reminds them.”
“God, love you, Lizzie, you are just what this antique of a publication needed.”
“Dad, it still needs you, and it still needs Stan. You two are the backbone, the ones who know everyone and how everything works. What I hope to do is to shine a brighter light on what was already there, what was already special about the paper and Cranberry Harbor,” Lizzie says. “Okay, so I’m going to take a quick shower, and then get myself to my very first Main Street Cookie Stroll, if that works for you, boss?” she teases.
“Sounds good to me,” he stops for a second. “Thank you honey, I haven’t felt this hopeful about the Gazette or the future of this town in a really long time.”
“My pleasure,” she says as she dashes up the stairs.