25. Ansley Order
ansley: order
I FELT INVIGORATED, VINDICATED, PREPARED, as I walked with purpose to Peachtree Perk, the town’s de facto meeting spot, with Jack by my side.
But, also, “This is unsettling,” I said to Jack.
I expected him to ask what was unsettling or why I was unsettled.
Instead, he said, “Being on the same side as Mrs. McClasky.”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at him in amazement.
“Oh my gosh! Yes! That’s exactly what’s unsettling.
” I wrapped my arm through his and snuggled into his shoulder.
I knew I had been a bad wife lately. I knew I wasn’t giving him my best self.
The adult thing to do would be to talk to him, tell him how upset I was about potentially moving.
But if he knew me well enough to know what I was upset about with Mrs. McClasky, he knew me well enough to know I didn’t want to leave Peachtree Bluff.
And I think, deep down, I was hoping that John would screw it up before we actually had to make a decision.
Although, if Jack really was buying that gorgeous house…
Nope. I needed to focus on the task at hand.
We all had our marching orders. We had a plan.
We began walking again, leaves crunching underfoot, and I took a deep breath. “There is absolutely nothing like fall air,” I said.
“I totally agree,” Jack said. “Fall air that isn’t tainted with Jet Ski fumes.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Mrs. McClasky and Mayor Purcell were already sitting in Peachtree Perk when Jack and I arrived—five minutes early.
My mind began to race with the possibility that maybe we weren’t on the same team here, that perhaps Mrs. McClasky had something else up her sleeve, and Jack and I were pawns.
But when she looked up at me, sharing the determined look we had become so good at putting on, I knew I was wrong.
“Well, well, well,” the mayor said. “If McClasky and Murphy are on the same team, something really important must be going on.”
Jack set his folder down on the table with a thunk, and the mayor’s eyes went to it. It was a plain manila folder with no label, but something about it felt oh so very official.
“Let’s cut right to the chase,” McClasky said, as we had agreed.
She was the most forthright. She would be the bad cop, Jack would be the facts, I would be the emotional resonance that brought it all home.
I was proud of our alliance, of how we had come together for something greater than ourselves.
What was next? Duke and Carolina forming one basketball team?
“We know about your closed-door decision to sell our docks to Port-of-Call Properties, and not only do we think it is highly unprofessional that you would have gone about it that way, we also think it will be devastating for the town.”
The mayor looked at Jack and me, but when we said nothing, he said, “Well, I can’t say much about that.
What I can say is that while I know the three of you are riding on your high horse, you have no idea what the council and I have been fighting the past few years.
The town docks need millions in repairs and, as I’m sure you can imagine, no one wants to see taxes raised.
We have applied for state and federal assistance for several years, and, unfortunately, the situation has become dire enough that we felt we had no choice but to take this step. ”
Jack cocked his head to the side. “Mayor Purcell, with all due respect, I know Port-of-Call Properties. I know they came in and gave you a big, joyous song and dance—and promised you a big, big kickback.” He raised his eyebrow.
To the mayor’s credit, his face stayed serene, but he did put his finger in the collar of his button-down shirt like he was loosening it.
“I have been in business with these guys. You have not. So believe me when I tell you that whatever tale they have spun will not end up being nearly as good as it sounds. Those profits will somehow never materialize, you will never see a dime, and you will have sold out our town in the process.”
“Jack, I assure you—”
But Jack kept talking like he hadn’t been interrupted.
“And I know you probably don’t think that the little town of Peachtree Bluff can hurt you in your forthcoming bid for the statehouse, but I assure you, if word about this gets out, it will ruin your chances there.
Don’t forget that half our residents have homes elsewhere in the state.
Word travels fast in the South. It’s not worth hurting your political future. ”
The mayor peered at Jack. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I am very happy right here as mayor.” He was clearly lying. “But, regardless, we have to have the money, and we feel like we’ve exhausted all our options.”
“You didn’t even ask the town,” Mrs. McClasky said. “Sure, no one is thrilled about more taxes, but I can assure you we would all rather pay more taxes than sacrifice our docks.”
I nodded, resisting the urge to chime in. It wasn’t my time yet.
That was when Jack pushed the folder across the table.
“That’s where we come in,” he said. “We’ve done some preliminary asks around town, and many of our town’s most generous donors are more than willing to help fund the project, assuming it can be a write-off, which, as you’ll see, I’ve taken the liberty of figuring out how it can be through historic tax credits.
” He cleared his throat as the mayor opened the folder.
“As you’ll see, it isn’t all the money, but it’s at least half.
I feel confident we can raise more, but I feel even more confident that we can use this as a down payment to get a loan for the rest. Sure, paying it off might mean a tiny tax bump, but it would be negligible. ”
Mayor Purcell sighed. “Well, I know you three think you run things around here…”
Mrs. McClasky and I shared a look because, sure, we might not ever be in complete alignment, but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in Peachtree who wouldn’t agree that that was true.
“But you don’t just get to decide town business. That’s what we have a council for.”
I nodded. This felt like my moment. “Sure, we get that. But, Mayor, if we have another option, we really feel like we should at least take this to the town. I mean, what is Peachtree if not a place that comes together during our darkest hours, that solves our biggest problems, together? What we are presenting you with is just one possible idea. But, if we put our entrepreneurial, creative, inventive heads together, we do believe we can work toward a solution that makes sense for everyone, that allows us all to enjoy our town’s greatest asset, free for everyone. ”
He didn’t say anything.
“Wouldn’t you agree that the docks are part of what makes Peachtree Bluff so special?”
“Of course I would agree with that, Ansley. But when they rot into the ocean and become the next coral reef, that isn’t going to help anyone.”
I nodded. “Of course not. No one is suggesting that. No one wants to see that happen. But if we can get on the same page about this one thing, that our docks need to remain public, we can figure out the rest. I know we can.” I smiled at him.
“Are you going to break out into a stirring rendition of ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’now?” he asked.
He tried to be sarcastic, but there was a laugh in his voice.
“Just present this to the council,” Jack said. “Or we can at the next meeting.”
He shook his head and picked up the folder.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, but contrary to the rumors around town, we haven’t signed anything with Port-of-Call Properties yet.
You make some excellent points that I will take into consideration.
I will present your ideas to the council, but I can’t make any promises.
The Port-of-Call Properties plan includes a lot of provisions for town improvement that go far beyond the docks—”
“That they will never follow through on,” Jack said. “Just as a reminder. And, sure, it will be in the contract, but they have all the money in the world, and we don’t even have the ten million dollars to fix our docks. So they know we can’t really enforce any of this.”
The mayor looked at Jack again. “Do you sincerely think they would do that? Promise us all this and not follow through?”
Jack laughed. “Donny, I have lived it. So I don’t think. I know. For sure.”
He nodded. “Alright, well, like I said, I’ll see what I can do.”
“And we will help in any way we can,” Mrs. McClasky said. She was trying to be sweet, but it didn’t quite take.
I nodded in agreement. “Even though we don’t think we run things around here.” We all laughed.
Mayor Purcell slid his chair back to stand, but, before he could, Jack said, “Hey, Mayor. Out of curiosity, how did you get hooked up with Port-of-Call Properties?”
He shrugged. “You know, it was the oddest thing. They came to us, out of the blue. It felt like a sign from heaven, honestly. We were beating our heads against the wall for the fourth year in a row with this, and they just”—he waved his hand—“materialized.”
“Huh,” Jack said. “Interesting.”
I could tell his wheels were spinning, but I couldn’t tell why.
As the mayor left, the three of us smiled at one another. “Well, guys, I think that went about as well as could be expected.”
“Agreed,” Mrs. McClasky said.
Jack nodded.
“Hey,” I said to him. “Just out of curiosity, do you not want him to clear your name?”
Jack just shrugged. “I don’t care about that,” he said. “For one, this isn’t about me; it’s about Peachtree. For two, the truth always comes out eventually.” As he said it, he got a faraway look in his eyes that unsettled me.
“Speaking of the truth,” Mrs. McClasky said, her voice getting higher pitched, “Marion Freirich told me that you were planning on doing a cookie walk instead of a cake walk at the Halloween Hoedown this year. And I told her there couldn’t possibly be any truth to that because Ansley Murphy would never break with such a huge tradition.
Plus, it’s called a cake walk, for heaven’s sake. Not a cookie walk.”
Jack and I shared a look. Here we go…
“Well,” I said, immediately on the defensive, “I just figured that it’s so expensive and labor intensive for our volunteers to make a hundred cakes. We could make twelve hundred cookies for so much less money and so much less time and—”
“No,” Mrs. McClasky said.
I was aghast. “No? I’ll remind you that I am chairing the hoedown this year, so it’s my call.”
“I am running the cake walk—as I have for decades—so I really think this one falls under my jurisdiction.”
Jack leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and sighed. “The universe has been restored to order. All is right with the world.”
I couldn’t help but laugh because, just like he could read my mind, I could read his. Sure, Mrs. McClasky and I had been on the same team for a minute there, but now that we were at odds, Peachtree felt like Peachtree again.