Chapter Two - Part One

THE FIRST PARAGRAPH:

The man with the dark coat had calmed down by the time he entered the north end. Walking to and from work was an enjoyment that had been passed down to him by his father. He especially enjoyed feeling of the salty air pass by his face during the morning commute and the sense of warmth the inland buildings provided at the end of the day. For him it gave a feeling of solidarity with nature and his desire to be amongst others who felt the same the way. Marnie, on the other hand, was a great disturbance to this feeling. If I could only eliminate it then my life could be complete, he thought to himself nearly everyday. Walking through Marnie provided him with the sheer determination to finish his father’s job and make right all the wrongs that had taken place the past twenty years.

He stopped at a florists to gaze at a set of fresh roses in a delicate shade of pink. He was intrigued by their particular shade as it reminded him of the dress his wife had worn the day before. Other flowers also caressed his eyes as he thought of her. Their sweet smells and vibrant colors danced together like she, and everyone else did, on their wedding night six months ago. While the sounds of the bees buzzing around the flowers captured her liveliness and youthful power. The energy of all the flowers peaked his mind in a positive manner. It did not take long for him to decide to buy the roses for her, but when he reached out to grab them he paused at the sound of a familiar voice.

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“Coleman my boy!” it called to him.

Coleman turned around and saw his father-in-law, Richard Smith, sitting atop a brand new single-horse carriage and waving obnoxiously at him. Richard sat there with the same fat and innocent grin that only a secure mayor could own, and it annoyed Coleman immensely. Coleman pointed in acknowledgement and motioned that he was on his way into the florist at that moment. But the old man refused to wait and swung his carriage across traffic to Coleman.

“Hop on boy! I’d be honored to take my daughter’s husband home with me in my brand new toy. But hurry-up…I don’t want to be the one criticized for blocking traffic,” he laughed loudly.

Several walkers chuckled with him and gazed at the embarrassed son-in-law. Dejected, Coleman walked over to the carriage and climbed on.

“How are you today Coleman?” the mayor asked and started up his horse.

“It’s a bit warm today, but I am fine. The rain has also been a bit irritating. But other than that I am fine,” he said looking away from Richard.

Richard looked at Coleman and asked after a brief pause, “Are you sure? What is troubling you today? You seemed distressed.”

Coleman muttered a few inaudible words to himself about the flowers, and then stared at the Mayor with determination. “Something must be done about Marnie,” he said sharply. “It is full of wicked people with no sense of civility. I loath having to walk through there every day, with a police presence or not, it should be a fine walk and it isn’t.”

“Is that so?” Richard responded. “You think they are not civilized then?”

“Not even close. Today I saw a woman screaming for her son at the top of her lungs. Half of her body was hanging out of the window and the boy was right below her the entire time. The child was purposefully blocking the flow of traffic on the sidewalk and enjoying himself rather well at that. A scoundrel he will likely turn out to be. They are all hopeless there. Something really needs to be done.”

“He was right below her was he? And she didn’t see him?”

“Who knows what that woman was seeing. It appeared she was looking off into the distance. When I have a child…” Coleman stopped for a second and collected himself, “My apologies…when Emily and I have a child he will not run about without any supervision. I certainly would not want him to accidentally end up in that pit.”

“Ah, without fun. The boy…or girl…my child was a girl… shall grow up in a closed room, without windows or doors. He-he.You are not a parent yet, Coleman. Don’t pass judgment without experience.”

“You are right, I should not be discriminate. You certainly had plenty of experience raising Emily alone.”

“Yes…but back to the point,” Richard chuckled.

“Are you aware of the recent rash of burglaries in town? Tell me that you believe the thieves are from the north end,” Coleman asked.

“I do not,” Richard started carefully, “disagree with your analysis…on the greater whole…but I beg to question what you think the answer should be. I know what your response will be ahead of time but I will ask again anyway. What is your solution?”

“HELLO Mr. Mayor!” a voice rang out from the crowd.

Richard glanced to the sidewalk and waved to a young man who had helped in the elections from previous years. “A good man he has been to me,” he smiled and scratched his mustache at the same time. “Worth a lot of votes. He controls this neighborhood over here. A very well respected young man. He is a journalist you know. The owner of his own paper. But I am sure from your approaches to my politics that you know him and despise him?” Richard let out a slight chuckle and glanced at Coleman.

The two rarely saw eye to eye on political matters. It was not like Richard’s and Edward’s relationship, where any harsh feelings were understood and forgiven. Coleman never worked on the plan with Richard, or anyone else for that matter, and grew up hearing his father’s complaints of how the project was rotting at the foundation, things Edward never would have said in front of Richard. This singular perspective disallowed Coleman to forgive Richard in ways that Edward could. And now that Coleman had taken over his father’s interests in Charlton, he challenged Richard on nearly everything, sometimes for sake of doing so.

“What would you do?” Richard asked again a bit more seriously.

“I would raze the damned place.”

“Oh you would? And rebuild it with your own fortune? That is something I would like to see. Not really of course, but it would be interesting to see how you would get along.” Richard was rather amused by this extreme solution and his patronizing chuckled seemed to egg Coleman on.

“I would raze it all, send the scum packing to the country and make them work in agriculture. The infrastructure is there to make Charlton a great town and Marnie is holding it back. It always has. It will do no good to its reputation if we can’t even stop a thief. I would improve the infrastructure. A university would look nice at the Crossing. I am sure that you would like to see business booming there. Think of the taxes you could raise. Think of the happy people that would occupy that land. Merchants, bankers, farmers, shipping men, ship builders and clothe houses. I would raze it and start all over again!” Coleman shouted with great excitement. But he then turned sour and subdued himself, “They will never turn it around themselves. They need jobs and we need a cheap source of food. I say send them all out to the pastures to work for once. I am tired of having my pocket picked.”

“Hi Mr. Mayor!”

Richard waved again as he turned the corner to head toward his daughter’s house. “I knew you would say that. You wrote that in the journal recently didn’t you? The town journal, the one the town runs for suggestions. That was you wasn’t it?”

“No.”

“But you know who wrote it don’t you? They’re your words.”

“Yes, I know who logged them into the journal, but what does that matter? The words are all the same and you know that I am right!”

Richard reared his head back and shook in disagreement. He scoffed for a moment and pulled his horse’s reins to stop. A carriage in front of them had pulled off to the side of the road but not far enough to let other pass by. Richard and Coleman could see that traffic was backed up for blocks because of this.

“People must learn to drive better around here. I must put a stop to that kind of driving…I thought I had. Apparently stupidity cannot be curbed through regulations alone,” he said and motioned to the man in an improper manner as they made their way past.

Coleman recognized the political speak that was always difficult to defend yet so easy to cast in a convincing manner if used properly. It takes an incredible amount of skill to pull this off for twenty years or so, Coleman thought to himself. Twenty years of campaigning and before that a career built on lies. He convinced my father to invest in projects with the promise of reinvesting in the community. I remember my father used to tell me that Charlton was an up-and-coming place where money was to be made. He was going to buy local businesses, get involved in agriculture…anything to compliment his shipping dreams. And now look at it. Nothing has changed and my father has had to send his money elsewhere just to make back his initial investment. The whole deal was deplorable from the beginning.

“So that is it,” Coleman exclaimed. “For you, it is making a declaration and hoping it works. And if it does not you blame the convicts and not yourself. If you put more policemen out here then you would have better drivers. If you had more policemen there then you would have fewer robberies. And if you would protect us from Marnie you would be a much better man for it. I, and a larger part of this community as you noticed from your election returns, are sick and tired of the shenanigans. They aren’t even shenanigans. You sympathize with a crude people, not worthy of respect and are easily the most crooked people alive. But instead of doing something about it you make declarations…proclamations. That’s how politicians do it. You made a promise to my father many years ago and you have not delivered. You stole his money, never reinvested it and all you can do is complain about the traffic? You have just convinced me that you are no different from the thieves.”

At once Coleman felt he had crossed the line and he regretted it instantly. The wrath of a powerful mayor is one thing, and can easily be defended in certain social circles, but if he is your father-in-law it can feel like the shame you feel when you have just been caught cheating.

“What is your insistence? That I am a failure of a mayor Mr. Montague?” the mayor reacted sharply, finally losing his temper. “I have been mayor for twenty years and not a moment have I ever been considered incompetent! I do my best to serve these people and I have delivered to the best of my ability. New lamps on the streets, better looking shop fronts, more honest judges with independent minds and freer social climates. You benefit from those circles yourself young man, so don’t be too harsh! It’s not easy not being as rich as you are! I must manage people and people must trust me and my decisions. To date I think that they have or else I would not still be the mayor. Do you understand me sir?”

Coleman looked back at Richard and sighed with disgust at himself for going as far as did. It was a mistake he knew he should not have made. “I do sir and sincerely apologize. I only meant to converse with you on the subject of Marnie…”

“And that you did for a while! But I am not, nor will I ever find it acceptable to be called, a thief. Not by anyone, especially my son-in-law. Right or wrong, I deserve respect as a man and I believe I would do the same for you. And with regards to your contract…hmph…you make it sound like I never fulfilled my end of the bargain. Well you got your piers and warehouses down there. You got your labor at a cheap price and nearly have exclusive shipping rights in and out of this city. What was it that I didn’t do? Your are the one not paying your employees. It doesn’t take an idiot to understand that without wages people can’t spend their money. Do you understand where I am coming from?”

“Yes sir.” Coleman felt the burden of being a young man with influence, talent and potential but without the years that can weather a soul into behaving properly. There is a right way and wrong way to do things, and far too often it seemed that Coleman was on the wrong side.

I’m still making mistakes, he thought to himself. At that moment every person walking on the side of the road seemed superior to him. He saw a man in a suit with a fitting hat and matching umbrella and thought he must be successful. I should have those things. Another man was less spectacularly dressed but walked in such a way that exudes confidence. He must have a great life. Look at his mannerisms and how people stare in wonder at him. I wonder what it takes to feel like that. It must be the magic of success. All the way home he wondered about these points and tried to find ways to improve himself. It is not enough to have money, he would assume, one needs to have success to become prominent.At last, they reached Coleman’s residence and debarked from their seats. A servant came to lead the carriage from the front courtyard and Richard pulled Coleman aside. He held Coleman with one arm and the other mysteriously behind his own back.