Chapter 7: Madison's Meteor, Part 7

"No, no. You're younger and have a different background than me. I wanted to hear your thoughts."

"Really?"

"Really."

She wandered through the shop pouring coffee and Frank sipped at his. It was still coffee, but it was nothing like what Alice usually served. He liked it.

"I think," Alixxa said when she came back to refill his cup, "that they're bored." She put a new pot of coffee on to perk. "Punks like that have too much time on their hands and not enough to do that matters. We had them at home too. Kids who just didn't seem to know how to give a sh... I mean they didn't care about anything. I don't think they knew how to care. Mom was afraid I was turning into one. So, she shipped me off to Aunt Alice to get straightened out."

"You don't think you need straightening."

"Nah, I'm just trying things on. Today, this is who I am. Tomorrow?" She shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Thanks Alixxa," Frank said.

She nodded and went back to wiping counters.

Frank finished his coffee and walked over to the bank. Jenkins was talking to a man in a suit who was looking annoyed. They finished their conversation when the man waved his hands in the air and walked out of the bank.

"How can I help you Frank?"

"You know about the proposal?"

"You want to stay away from that Frank." Jenkins said. "You can lose your shirt real easy with that."

"How much could I safely put in?"

"Let me think." Jenkins stared up at the ceiling for a long moment, "You aren't carrying a lot of mortgage, so probably two-fifty, even three hundred. Like I said it's risky. You could lose the farm if it goes wrong." He leaned against the desk. "You might be better selling some land to the right people. There are developers who are desperate for places to build."

"Like the man you were talking to?"

Jenkins shook his head. "He wanted me to point him toward someone who was close to losing everything. I told him it wasn't ethical. He told me ethics has no place in business."

"Remind me never to do business with him."

"He'd buy one of your acreages in a minute."

"My dad would spin in his grave if I sold good farm land to build houses for rich people."

"Sell the bad stuff then. They don't care. They'll bulldoze everything anyway."

"Thanks for the help, Jenkins."

"I don't know if I was a help or not," he said. "Time will tell."

Frank walked toward the post office and saw Alice on the street.

"Hey Alice," he called, "how'd your meeting go?"

"Good and bad," she said. "We're putting a local business association together. Everyone likes the idea, but no one knows what to do with it."

"It will come."

"I hope so, and soon. There are a lot of us that are just scraping by. We can't compete with the big malls down the road."

"Don't try. What I was reading at the library said that service and uniqueness are what sell."

"I heard you been spending considerable time at the library."

Frank felt his face turning red.

"She's a real nice woman, Frank." She poked him in the chest. "And you're a nice man. You'd be good for each other."

"That's sort of why I wanted to talk to you," Frank told her about the incident the day before. She nodded. "I was thinking if we had more people in the library, they wouldn't think they could get away with that kind of behaviour."

"So you want me to get more people going to the library?"

"Partly, but people need a reason. Maybe your business association will have some ideas."

"More problems. As if I didn't have enough already. You met my sister's kid?"

"Alixxa?" Frank said, "She seems nice enough. She makes good coffee."

"And I don't?"

"Alice, you make great coffee, but it's small town coffee. Alixxa does something different and it is good too."

"So what am I supposed to do with her. The shop is barely covering cost with just me at the counter."

"Maybe she will have some ideas."

"She certainly has lots of opinions."

"Does it hurt to ask?"

"Frank, whatever that librarian is doing to you, I approve. Bring her by for lunch some day." Alice went off toward her shop and Frank walked on down to the library to spend another day reading and soaking in Jennita's presence.

***

The weather continued to warm through the next weeks. Jim was frantically trying to put his offer on the table. He and John finally submitted a preliminary proposal. According to Jim, Jenkins had sighed and shook his head, but promised to pass it along to his superiors.

Frank alternated between sitting at Alice's shop and drinking her coffee and sitting at the library and drinking tea. Jennita didn't have as much time as she once had for drinking tea. Suddenly groups appeared and wanted to meet in the library. Jennita was delighted even as it made her busier.

It started with a Story Time group organized by one of Alice's young friends. The first day there were only three mothers and four children, but a woman from the new development noticed the group while she was checking out some books and brought her child. Soon the children's section was filled each Tuesday and Thursday morning. The mothers and the occasional father found that the stories were universal. For the first time old times and newcomers were talking about more than the weather.

A woman from the development started the knitting circle, but soon, every Wednesday the reading room filled with woman clicking away on knitting needles. Conversation began with discussion around patterns, but soon meandered into broad and fruitful paths. More connections were built between old and new.

Friday was the book club. Jennita would pull out the newest books and they would read and discuss them.