Chapter 6: "The City"

The almost two hour drive to Columbus gave Becky time to cool off and it occurred to her, as she passed an especially pretty grove of Magnolia trees, that she was going to miss living in the small rural town. No, she wouldn't miss the people. With her mother dead and gone, she didn't care if she ever saw anyone from the town of Magnolia again. What Becky was going to miss was the landscape.

She decided to enjoy the drive to Columbus, realizing that it would probably be the last time she would get to see in one place so much of the beauty that nature had to offer. Becky allowed her mind to think back of the pleasanter things she had seen, like how old man Nelson's peach trees looked when they were in full bloom.

Becky remembered fondly how much the old man and his wife must have love those trees to get up at five o'clock on mornings when there was frost on the grounds just to make sure that heaters in their front yard were lit so the trees stayed warm. The old couple only had hand-full of them; and, the trees certainly did not produce enough to make a profit. Nonetheless, every day for six months, the couple would tend them as if they were children in need of care. Becky believed they loved the trees very much. Perhaps the trees even returned their love by giving their caretakers the largest, sweetest, most beautiful peaches she had ever seen.

Despite herself, it occurred to her that she would even miss crying sound of those awful little birds that would wake her from their tree branch perches in the woods outside her bedroom window every morning. For months she had tried running the little buggers off without success until finally one day, she realized that she gotten used to them.

Why is it when you are enjoying something it seems to go by fast, Becky wondered? Have I driven that far? She had just started enjoying the drive and was already passing a sign reading "Columbus City Limits".

The city of Columbus Georgia is located almost dead center of the state's western border. On the other side of that border lies the small town of Phenix City Alabama and together they form the Bi-City area. You would think that two municipalities so close together would be virtual mirror images of each other but nothing could be farther from the truth. The town of Phenix City was small and economically depressed while Columbus was large and very prosperous.

In some ways Columbus was very similar to Magnolia. Just a lot less of those similarities were visible. But, most of those similarities were geographical. For example, both municipalities had magnolia trees, but then, it's hard to find a place in the state of Georgia that doesn't have magnolia trees. And of course, as did Magnolia, Columbus also had an abundance of the red clay and pine trees. The big difference between the two cities was not geographical. It was, that in Columbus, the corruption was hidden far better to the point you could actually live with it!

She was lucky enough to find a loft apartment for about two-hundred dollars a month in the area of the business district of Columbus known as Uptown. For most of the city's existence, the locals used to refer to it as 'Downtown' until someone advised them to rename it to the more politically correct, upbeat Uptown. Then again, because of the numerous fountains running along Broadway, Columbus used to be a known as the 'Fountain City' until a developer tore them all out the last time the business district was remodeled.

The apartment, conveniently located directly across from the Federal Courthouse / Post Office, was actually the entire 2nd floor of a two story building. The bottom floor of the building was occupied by a small sandwich shop and was probably the only one of its kind in the business district. It had three massive glass windows that were about six feet wide and eight feet tall, ten feet high ceilings and was almost 1800 square feet in size. Except for a bathroom, it was all one really large room. As it was just two blocks away from the Government Center with its massive law library it was perfect for her.