Sky's the Limit
Copyright© 2026 by aroslav
Chapter 18: The People Speak
NO MATTER HOW our personal relationship advanced, October was filled with distractions. Our petition to return the districts to pre-2020 boundaries was on the November ballot when it was received as City Proposition 2. To our surprise City Proposition 1 was the proposal to rezone Coast Road as a pedestrian zone, routing traffic to Pacific Highway three blocks east.
I penned a rebuttal to the proposition on behalf of the Waterfront Business Association and it was placed next to the support document. I also had to write a support document for the boundary proposition and to no one’s surprise, David wrote the rebuttal. New suggestions that recent events had revealed shady and possibly fraudulent activity among the businesses on the Waterfront including, among other things, rigged contests. That was obviously a veiled allusion to TBR Books. But it was worded in such a way that we couldn’t defend ourselves because he “didn’t mention TBR Books.”
Typical tactics.
It seemed they were doomed, though.
Two weeks before election day, news broke that the mayor, chief of police, chairman of the planning commission, and two city police officers were charged in a state investigation of fraud claims. The officers and police chief had further been charged with false arrest and unlawful detainment, supporting my civil suit for the same. The mayor and chief of police were charged with public endangerment for having directed the police to avoid the ‘dangerous’ area of the Waterfront after sundown, essentially making an invitation for gangs to move in undeterred.
Of course, none of them were in jail. The police had all been suspended with pay pending further investigation. The mayor and planning commission chairman were immediately removed from their offices and it didn’t look likely that the mayor would be re-elected.
We went to work at once, tying the chairman and the mayor to the attempt to rezone the Waterfront, even though that would kill over three dozen businesses in the eight-block district. We were able to tie the orders to stop policing the Waterfront as a deliberate attempt to create problems that the re-zoning would supposedly remedy.
Somehow, David Drake had avoided being tied to either the mayor or the gang that had been arrested for assaulting Matthew.
We held a five-day celebration of the boardwalk that went Friday through Tuesday, election day. We brought in a beach carnival with games, rides, and food stalls. We showed people that even though temps had dropped in November, average highs were still above seventy and the sun shone most days.
The bookstore and most of the restaurants and bars on Coast Road stayed open late with televisions broadcasting election returns as they came in. It looked like a victory for the Waterfront.
“You did it!” Ruby said with a familiar punch on my shoulder. She followed that up with a kiss on my cheek, so I didn’t really feel abused.
“You saved the Waterfront!” Pearl said. She bypassed the shoulder punch and just kissed my cheek.
Several of our friends from the area joined us at the bookstore tables, including Grandma, Pat, and Marge. They looked a little curiously at the three of us and then turned to each other with a shrug.
I stood at the table and addressed the volunteers who were in the store.
“Congratulations!” I said. “This is a great victory for the Waterfront.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Sky,” Bruce said immediately.
“Thanks for your acknowledgement, Bruce,” I said, “but let me be clear about this. There would have been no Waterfront victory without the concerted effort of our entire community. We showed that both businesses and residents of the community were equally concerned and working together to make the district a better place and to resist outside influences. I had a front-facing role, so a lot of undeserved credit has come my way. That credit belongs to everyone in our community.”
There was a lot of applause and people yelling. I let them go for a minute before I got them to quiet down a little. I saw a couple people recording everything on their cell phones. I wanted them to show how happy people were.
“There’s still work to be done,” I said when I could be heard again. “Incredible damage was done to the reputation of the Waterfront this year. We need to make sure the boardwalk is maintained and kept crime-free. We all need to scrub our businesses, inside and out. We should look at putting a fresh coat of paint on the street side. Make sure our doors swing freely and that the few boarded up businesses have new owners and are part of the pride of the Waterfront. The Waterfront Business Association found grant money a few months ago for small businesses on the Waterfront to hire help. The association is now working to locate a grant to help businesses and residents make deferred maintenance repairs, fresh paint, and even some remodeling loans. The coming year is going to be important to us individually and as a community. We need to make the best of it.”
More cheers and at about ten-thirty, people finally left the shop and I started cleaning up. The girls and their parents had gone home when I insisted that I would take care of the last bits of cleanup. I found pushing a broom around the shop to be a kind of relaxing meditation. I even did several martial arts exercises with the broom, practicing exact placement and just enough force to move the dust where I wanted it to go.
I was picking up the last bit to put in a bin when there was a knock at the door of the store. I’d hung the closed sign and brought in the outside displays, but I hadn’t actually locked the door yet. I went to it, intending to just tell whoever was there that I was just locking up.
I was surprised to find Debbie there.
It could really be exhausting to deal with Debbie. I’m not sure what attracted me to her back in college. I suppose it was that the twins had each gotten a boyfriend, and I was feeling a little left out and especially alone. And Debbie was willing. At the time, that was probably the most significant thing. It’s one thing when a girl just teases a lot and nothing ever happens. But even when Debbie was teasing, there was a definite promise of action to follow.
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