Chapter 13

A blast of morning sunlight danced through the window onto Roxie’s eyelids. Although she didn’t open her eyes, she was awake. It was the day after the Fourth, she remembered. She was at the Dew Drop the night before. She reached over to find Junior, but found an empty half of the bed.

It was time for that nagging morning headache to start reminding her of that extra drink and cigarette that she hadn’t really wanted. She reasoned that Junior must have stolen out of the bed at five to do the milking and let her lay sleeping. She’d have to force herself out of bed soon and get home before Aunt Flora woke up. Otherwise, she would have to make up another story about Jennifer’s wallpaper.

Something didn’t feel like it should have.

No Junior, no hangover or smell of stale cigarettes hanging like a pall over the room; there was no shift at the diner to scramble to get to on time, because Bonnie agreed to work the whole day in exchange for having the Fourth off. Roxie thought harder. She realized she wasn’t all-the-way-awake. She forced her eyes open.

It came back to her at once as soon as she saw that she was by herself in her own room. Thoughts of Junior and Cal came to her at the same moment. Of the former, she knew he’d be angry at her bugging out of the Dew Drop long before last-call. She didn’t even get Junior a refill before she left.

Well, what of it? He’d get over it soon enough. Maybe he’d take her less-for-granted for a little while. There’d be a spat, of course, and then a make-up scene at the end. The story would go on as though it had never been interrupted by an ill-fitting chapter.

That left the memory of Cal, which was more difficult. She swung her legs so her bare feet hit the floor and set out for the bathroom to get cleaned up and start the day. She harrumphed when she remembered Cal turning down her very obvious and generous offer but her angry huff should have been packed with venom.

She couldn’t get mad, or even hurt. Only a man like Cal Tucker would have been so naïve to turn down an invitation like she had presented to him. In turn, he’d given her a measure of respect—she knew she didn’t deserve it—but, what the heck...

It didn’t take long for her warm feeling to turn to skepticism as she looked at her face in the mirror.

“Maybe I’m losin’ my looks!”

She looked closer into the mirror.

“What looks? Besides it was dark out there last night and I had makeup on.”

She knew that she wasn’t twenty—or even twenty-five anymore. Her advantage was that most of the women her age in Appleton were taken, so the field was narrowing more all the time. If Cal was after what she was offering (and what men weren’t) he didn’t have anywhere to look for something better.

“That just proves how naïve Cal really is.”

She looked at the clock—it was six-thirty. She decided to put off her shower until later. On such a unique kind of day, she decided to turn the tables and fix breakfast for her and Aunt Flora. She crept past the doorway to the bedroom where her aunt was still sleeping. In another few seconds she was in the kitchen.

She took a look in the cupboard and saw the boxes of cereal. She shook her head. On such a day cereal from a box wouldn’t suffice. She was a professional, after all. She pulled two potatoes from the bin in the pantry and began to dice them.

She was actually enjoying the work. She had a pot of coffee brewing and oil heating in the skillet. She got eggs from the refrigerator and started to scramble them with just a little bit of onion. The toast was in the toaster-oven. She heard her aunt’s footsteps on the creaky floor upstairs, travelling from bedroom to bathroom. She would be just in time. She’d call her just as the home fries were finishing and she put the eggs on to cook.

She thought of the fireworks display they watched together not too many hours earlier. It had been a long time since she’d gotten on so well with her aging aunt. This little breakfast would put the icing on the cake.

The potatoes were crisping up just as nice as Stan would have them at the Diner. It was time to move them aside and pour the eggs into the skillet. Roxie was about to step to the landing of the stairs to make the call when her aunt appeared in the kitchen.

“What’s all this?” Flora asked. “Did you get up early and do this for me?”

“Yes—for both of us,” Roxie answered. “We’ll have to do without bacon. I looked for some in the refrigerator, but I couldn’t find any.”

“I didn’t buy any,” Flora answered. “We don’t eat breakfast together that often, so we don’t really need it.”

“That’s alright. We don’t need bacon. We’ll have plenty, just the same.”

Flora smiled.

“It’s real nice, Roxie. It’s a nice surprise. The fireworks last night were nice, too.” She looked about the kitchen. “I’ll set the table while you’re finishing up.”

“You could pour us some orange juice,” Roxie said over her shoulder as she worked the eggs in the pan. “There’s some toast ready.”

Roxie did a good job on the eggs. She’d seen Stan do it a hundred times, after all. In her estimation she could do them better than Stan. She joined Flora at the table and they attacked the breakfast food. They were both hungry and breakfast tasted good.

“I didn’t realize I was so hungry,” Flora said as she finished.

“All we had for dinner last night was that hot dog at the fireworks,” Roxie reminded her.

“I heard you come in early. I was glad. I slept better.”

Roxie filled their coffee cups and lit a cigarette.

“I was at the Dew Drop Inn for a while. I planned to stay longer, but it just didn’t work out that way, so I decided to come home.”

“Your mood seems changed lately,” Flora pointed out. “Maybe it’s changed for the better.”

Roxie sighed.

“I used to howl at the moon and that was enough. I’d do it and it felt good. These days I want it to howl back. I keep waitin’ for it and I know it never will. Then I wonder why I wasted all that time and effort.”

“You’re growing up, dear,” Flora said.

“The trouble is, Auntie, is that I don’t know what else to do except try once more, like if I keep doin’ it the old feeling might come back. It never does, not matter how hard I try. I get mad at myself for keepin’ it up, but it’s all I know how to do.”

“You need a young man in your life,” Flora said. “I know you’ve had disappointments, but there are other fish in the sea.”

“I suppose, Auntie; I suppose...” Roxie replied. “We’ll see. Of course, Appleton is more like a pond than a sea.”

“But every pond has fish in it,” her aunt replied, “and sometimes the best fish.”

“Or more like a mud puddle than a pond,” Roxie answered.

Roxie had run out of conversation and her Aunt looked at her with great sympathy, so Roxie thought. Suddenly Flora’s face brightened.

“At least, I would have to say that those were as good as any scrambled eggs I’ve ever had. They’re certainly as good as you serve in the diner.”

Roxie straightened up.

“Thanks, Auntie. You know, sometimes I think I might try to buy the diner from Stan and Millie. I bet I could make a go of it.”

“Now, that would be something to look forward to,” Flora agreed.

“I’d just have to get the money together—and Stan would have to agree, of course.”

“Do you think he would?” Flora asked, with her eyes wide.

“Probably not right now, but soon, I’d bet. He and Millie will want to cash out soon enough.”

Roxie stamped out her cigarette in the ashtray.

“It’s something worth waiting for. It makes me feel better just to think about it.”

The long holiday weekend had given Cal a chance to think over how he would approach getting the Annex project started. He poured over Mr. Tanaka’s four points in his mind until he thought he had a good plan.

After getting dressed he decided to eat cereal at his house instead of at the Bluebird. He was avoiding Roxie after the episode in the parking lot of the Dew Drop Inn. Something happened there—he was at a loss to understand it.

He thought about it a little over the weekend, but with the Annex Project on his mind there was little room for anything else. He was going to see what Edwin had to say about things, but he didn’t show up for his parents’ cookout the day after the Fourth. To Cal, that explained a lot.

At any rate, he figured the best thing was to avoid the Bluebird for a few days. The whole thing would be forgotten then, just like when Roxie came on to him when he gave her a ride to work a few weeks ago. Everything would be back to normal.

It was a nice day, so he decided to save the gas and stretch his legs. He grabbed his briefcase from the corner in his living room and set out on his way. He wasn’t headed straight for his office. He had business at the County Office building.

The City of Appleton was the County Seat of Appleton County, so the County Offices were in the Central Business District, just a block from his office in one direction and another block from the City offices in the other. The Bluebird Diner was just a block over.

His purpose was to requisition a purchase order to hire an appraisal firm which would issue an estimate of the fair market value of the Annex. At first, he sought a meeting of his Committee. As he called each of the five members to arrange it, no one seemed to think that a special meeting was necessary. They encouraged him to go ahead with the appraisal and they would approve it at a regular meeting. That was more or less the way things were done in Appleton.

As he walked he thought about the elements in his plan. They were the right ones, he was sure, and the feeling that knowledge gave him made him pick up his pace. He waved to Mrs. Johnson, a neighbor he knew, as she took her own morning walk.

He thought some more and was reminded that he knew just the right outfit in Syracuse to do the appraisal. They would do it on the QT and if he pressed them he could have a report back in thirty days. He’d have to figure out a way to get around the bidding process.

In the meantime he would set the groundwork to get approval for the new access road. That would be the hard part because road building meant money. He planned to visit with George Lambe about that if he could steal a few minutes.

George was the County Executive and Cal liked him a lot. George be tough but he knew his stuff and didn’t bother with petty arguments. Cal wished that all is dealings in the political structure of Appleton could be like that He knew that would be asking too much, but it was best to take advantage when he could.

Another tough part of the project would be the waiver from the State. Cal would have to deal with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). He hoped that Norman Shad was up to the task of taking care of that. Shad had the Governor’s ear, after all, and the DEC reported to the Governor. It was his counterpoint to the advice that Fred Sherman had given him.

“Why would the DEC guys care, anyway?” Cal asked himself.

Cal based his supposition on the fact that the offending solvent tank was dug up when the chemicals were found in Miller’s Pond. The soil around it was carted off to a dump somewhere. Chemical analysis of the soil and pond water performed for three years afterward showed that the problem was solved.

“It won’t be a big deal in the end,” Cal reasoned.

Tanaka’s insistence bit at the back of his mind, but he forced himself to dismiss it. Probably a staff lawyer somewhere in the organization spooked him. Then Cal remembered that he was also a lawyer.

“Guilty, as charged,” he said under his breath.

“Has George got a minute to meet with me about something?” Cal asked Lambe’s secretary.

“Get yourself a coffee and come on in,” George roared from his office before his secretary could speak.

There was a coffee pot on a shelf near the filing cabinets. Cal poured himself a black one and went in and sat in one of the chairs in front of Lambe’s desk.

“This really hits the spot,” Cal said after taking his first sip.

“First one today?” Lambe asked.

“Yeah,” Cal admitted and took another sip. “I ate breakfast at home. This is my first stop.”

George was one of those to whom Cal had disclosed the Annex project.

“I need to discuss a few things about getting the Annex Project rolling,” Cal told him. “I think this might have some potential.”

“I’m all ears,” George said. “If we can get someone into that old factory it would be a big plus, economy-wise. It just can’t cost very much money. My budget is strapped right now as it is.”

“Maybe not too much,” Cal said. “There’ll be some expense, of course.”

Cal told George about the meeting with Tanaka. He told him about the utilities requirements and the need to hold Midco harmless from any liability on the solvent leak of years ago.

“I don’t see the utilities issue as a big deal,” Lambe said. “What can they say? Midco pays for the infrastructure and then gives them more business—they have to say ‘yes’. You’ll have to deal with the State on the pollution thing.”

“The other thing is that they want an access road from the Annex to the Interstate,” Cal explained. “It would mean widening the county road that runs by the site and building an extension through Miller’s Marsh. They said they would move in before it’s done, but we have to promise it to them.”

“That’s a bigger problem,” Lambe said. “That’s big money. I haven’t got room in the budget. We’d have to bond it out. This is a bad year to be borrowing. Any mention of that and the voters will have a fit.”

“It’s no-go without the road,” Cal answered. “I’m not willing to give up...”

“Just let me think, Cal. I didn’t say to give up,” George countered.

He sat back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. He intertwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles, like he always did when he was in the midst of math in his head.

“Did you approach the utility companies yet?” he asked Cal.

“Haven’t got that far,” Cal replied.

“Don’t say anything yet,” George said. “We might have to divert part of Midco’s infrastructure money to helping with the road and let the utility companies pick up part. What else do they want?”

“Real estate tax relief, of course,” Cal answered.

“That’s the City of Appleton’s part,” Lambe declared. “It won’t cost them anything because they’re getting zero from it now. Don’t expect Barlow and his crew to accept that without a fight, though. The School District will whine, too, but they can’t do anything but whine.”