After the Republic (22 page)

“If there are more than five candidates voting will be by secret ballot,” Joshua continued. “The top five vote getters will be elected. Unless there are questions, the floor is now open for nominations.”

Perry raised his hand and said, “I nominate Joshua Winston.”

“I had a feeling that was coming,” Joshua chuckled.

Thomas nominated Drew, Rebecca nominated Perry, Drew nominated Thomas and Chuck nominated Bob.

“We have nominations for Bob Kendall, Thomas Page, Drew Thompson, Perry Edwards and me,” Joshua said.

Bob raised his hand. “Mr. Chairman, I nominate Ruth Moore.”

Drew’s head snapped around in Bob’s direction. Bob glared back at him with a condescending grin.

“Are there any further nominations?” Joshua asked.

After a few moments of awkward silence Jack moved to close nominations. The motion carried.

“We have six nominees for five council spots,” Joshua said. “That means we will have an election by secret ballot and the top five vote-getters will be elected.” Rebecca was furiously tearing sheets of paper into small strips. “Rebecca is in the process of making ballots. I will appoint Jim, Chuck and Andrea to serve as tellers. Everyone must sign in to get their ballot. After all of the ballots have been cast the tellers will count the votes.”

The tellers made their way to a table and everyone lined up to cast their votes. Drew was fidgeting nervously and Bob had a confident smirk on his face.

As the first people received their ballots Thomas stood up. “Joshua, can I say something?”

“Sure, Thomas, what is it?”

Thomas removed the toothpick from his mouth and twisted it between his fingers. “Man, I’ve never been one for serving on boards and committees and stuff like that. I agreed to be on the council last year because y’all seemed to really want me there. You folks seem like you’ve got it pretty well under control, and I don’t need to be on the council. I’d like to withdraw my name.”

Bob’s confident grin immediately turned into a scowl. “Son of a…” he muttered out loud before catching himself.

Joshua was also caught off guard. “I, um… Thomas is withdrawing from the race. That leaves us with five candidates for five seats.”

“Man, I’d like to make a motion that we elect those five candidates to the council for next year,” Thomas said. Kim seconded the motion.

“We have a motion and a second,” Joshua said. “Is there any discussion?”

There was no discussion so Joshua called for a vote. There was a loud chorus of “ayes.” When he asked if there were any opposed a lone voice rang out: Bob’s.

“Ruth, welcome to the council,” Joshua said. “You’ve got a lot to offer and I look forward to working with you. Thomas, thank you for your service during the past year. That concludes our business at this meeting. Our governing rules state that the council is to elect a chair immediately following this meeting, so I will now call the council meeting to order. Those of you who are not on the council are welcome to stay, but I certainly understand if you have other things to do.”

Joshua began the council meeting. “It has been a tremendous honor and a great responsibility to serve as your chair for the past year. We’ve come a long way, and I greatly appreciate the trust you’ve placed in me. With that said, if someone else is interested in serving as chair, I would gladly step aside.” He noticed Rebecca cock an eyebrow.

Perry immediately interjected, “Joshua, I think you need to be our chair for at least another year.”

“I realize I sprung this on you guys,” Joshua said. “If you want to sleep on it, I will accept a motion to table the chair vote for one week.”

“I stand by my statement that you need to be our chair again, but if you want us to think it over I’ll make the motion to table this for a week,” Perry said. Ruth seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Bob stormed over to Joshua immediately following the meeting, red-faced. “You tipped Drew and Thomas off, didn’t you?”

“No, I did not.” Joshua shook his head. “I was as surprised by his withdrawal as anyone.”

“I’m not sure I buy it,” Bob said.

Drew walked up as Bob was speaking. “Bob, predicting that you would nominate someone to get rid of me was so easy it was pathetic. You may know military tactics, but I know
political
strategy, and I saw your move coming a mile away. I didn’t know it would be Ruth, but I knew you would talk
someone
into it.
No one
had to tip me off.”

Bob glared at Drew but did not speak.

“Drew, are you saying you
asked
Thomas to step aside?” Joshua inquired.

“No,” Drew said. “I did talk with him about the fact that I felt like Bob would try to get rid of me, and he
volunteered
to step aside. He said that serving on the council just wasn’t his thing and that he trusted us to take care of things.” Drew smiled like a victorious warrior. “Oh, by the way, Bob, that was
six weeks ago
.” He pointed at Bob’s chest. “Your move was all too easy to predict.” He rubbed his nose with his handkerchief, then turned and strutted away.

“Joshua, I apologize for implying that you tipped them off,” Bob said. “I was just surprised and upset by what happened.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Joshua said. “I’ve been on the losing side of some elections and have reacted the same way myself. Consider it water under the bridge.”

As soon as Bob left Drew made his way back to Joshua. “I gather from Bob’s statement that you had advance knowledge that he was trying to get rid of me?”

“He told me about it this morning.” Joshua pursed his lips. “That’s when I found out, and I didn’t see you until the meeting started tonight.”

“Hmm. That’s fine.” Drew said. “On a different note, if you’re serious about wanting someone else to step in as chairman, what would you think about me in that role?”

Joshua froze. “Umm… Let me sleep on it. This has been a somewhat tumultuous meeting and I want to process everything. If you’d like I can also talk with the other council members and see what they think.”

“Sure thing,” Drew said. “Be sure to bounce it off of Bob and let me know what he says.”

After a few minutes Joshua and Rebecca began walking back down the hill toward their cabin. “I think we’ve got another problem.”

“What is it this time?” she asked.

“Well, Bob accused me of tipping off Drew and Thomas about his plan to knock Drew off of the council, which I did not. And then Drew seemed upset that I knew about Bob’s plan ahead of time and didn’t tell him, even though I didn’t know until this morning.”

“Well, you can’t please everybody all of the time,” she assured him. “That’s something you’ve said for as long as I’ve known you.”

“True. But now Drew wants to be the chair if I decide not to do it again. I just don’t think that will fly.”

“Probably not,” she said. “On that note, I wish you’d told me you were thinking about stepping back as chair before you announced it to everyone else.”

“Sorry about that.” Joshua pursed his lips. “But I know you’ve always wanted me to step back from politics and leadership roles.”

Rebecca grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks. She looked into his eyes with a deep, penetrating gaze. “Yes, I have wanted that. I never liked everything that goes along with politics, all of the public appearances and glad-handing. But this isn’t about politics. It’s about whether or not we
survive
.”

Joshua looked down for a moment, then into her brown eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it to you. I thought it’s what you’d want.”

“You should know better than to think you can read my mind by now. If you’d asked me, I would’ve told you not to make that announcement. I’m not sure there’s anyone else here I trust in that job.”

“Well, the cat’s out of the bag now,” Joshua said.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet. I need to talk to others on the council.”

When they opened the door Reagan almost knocked them over. “I think he needed to go out,” Joshua observed.

Joshua sat down, leaned back and closed his eyes. Rebecca poured two glasses of water and sat beside him on the couch. He sat motionless for what seemed like an eternity.

After a while she broke the silence. “What’s on your mind?”

Joshua opened his eyes. “Just thinking about everything that happened today. This morning I would’ve bragged how well everyone had adapted and how smoothly everything seemed to be going in the camp. Tonight it seems like things are suddenly going to hell in a hand basket. There is a lot of tension, and we are too small to be divided like this. And I have to admit that it doesn’t sit well with me that people who should
know
better would think I wouldn’t shoot straight with them.”

Rebecca put her hand on his knee. “You’ve always said leadership is a tough business that requires a thick skin. You can’t get hung up on what others think. Their reactions say more about
them
than anyone else.”

“I guess so,” Joshua said. “I just didn’t expect all of this today.”

***

“You said you had something you wanted to discuss.” Perry’s breath was visible against the backdrop of the cold, pre-dawn winter air, and the breeze gently rippled across the lake. “What’s on your mind?”

“The council.” Joshua re-baited his hook and dropped it back into the water. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you out here, where we can have some privacy. You know I’d like to step back as chair, and I know you want me to stay in the position. One of my goals when I decided not to run for the legislature was to spend more time with Rebecca. Now here I am, stuck in another political role.”

“That’s true from a certain point of view, but these are not ordinary times,” Perry said. “You couldn’t have predicted all of this.”

“After last night’s meeting another council member approached me and said they would be interested in the chairmanship if I stepped back.”

“Who was it?”

“Drew.”

“Oh,
hell no!
”

“Well now, how do you
really
feel?” Joshua chuckled.
Perry NEVER uses profanity!
“I have a feeling others will have the same reaction.”

“I would vote for ANY of the other council members over him,” Perry said. “Even Bob… sometimes he scares me, but I’d take him over Drew.”

“I have a feeling Bob will say the same thing,” Joshua said. “And given that he was able to talk Ruth into running against Drew, I think she might go along with him.”

“Joshua, it
has
to be you. I’m not cut out for the job, and neither is anyone else on this council.
You
brought us here. You are a natural leader. The people here trust you.
They are here because of you
.”

Joshua’s brow furrowed. “I see where you’re coming from, but I’m not so sure about that trust thing.”

“Seriously?” Perry blurted out. “What in the world are you talking about? Of course they trust you!”

“Well, Bob accused me of tipping off Drew and Thomas about his plan, which I didn’t, and then Drew was upset that I knew about Bob’s plan and
didn’t
tip him off.”

“Well, the fact that both Bob and Drew were upset probably proves that you did the right thing. That’s why it
must
be you.”

“We’ll see. I’m not going to make an immediate decision.”

“It’s amazing that we’re even here talking about this,” Perry reflected. “A year ago we were at your farmhouse getting ready to watch the State of the Union, with so much hope for a new direction under President Wagner. So much has changed so quickly.”

The conversation was interrupted by a strong tug on Perry’s fishing pole. He hauled in a big trout. “This will make a nice meal!”

A couple of hours later they made their way back to shore as the sun overcame the darkness and pierced the dense fog that hovered over the lake. Reagan lay flat in the bottom of the canoe, shielding himself from the cold wind.

Joshua felt his shoulders clench up when Rebecca opened the door. Her eyes were red and tears were running down her cheeks. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Something
terrible
has happened,” she answered morbidly.

Caroline emerged from behind the door, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Perry pressed.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Rebecca stammered.

“Rebecca,
what’s WRONG?
” Joshua stepped toward her.

“Nothing, we’re just cutting some very potent onions,” she said with a laugh. “But we had you going for a minute.”

Joshua looked at her and then Perry, rolling his eyes. “That you did,” he said with a forced chuckle. “You scared me to death. I owe you one.”

Joshua spread the morning’s catch out on a tray beside the sink. Three trout, one very large catfish and several bass.