The Town He Came to Erase
Chapter 04 - The Town He Came to Erase
By morning, everyone in Bellweather knew why the black cars had come.
Mercer Consolidated Rail intended to build a new freight line through the county. The route would bring jobs, money, and a depot large enough to put Bellweather on the regional map.
It would also require demolishing almost half of Main Street.
Daniel had approved the preliminary route from an office eight hundred miles away.
On paper, Bellweather had been a handful of parcels, tax figures, and acquisition costs.
Now it had a soup pot.
Now it had two hungry boys.
Now it had Clara.
At the county hall, farmers packed the benches while Commissioner Sloan praised "progress." Victor displayed maps on a wooden easel.
Daniel barely heard him.
Clara stood in the back.
She had not come to speak. She came to listen.
Then Victor pointed toward a block of red properties.
"The remaining owners will be compensated at assessed value."
A man near the front stood.
"Assessed by whose bank?"
Murmurs filled the room.
Another woman called out, "The Bellweather Savings Bank has been lowering values for two years."
Daniel looked at Victor.
Victor's eyes flicked away.
Clara saw it.
After the meeting, she found Daniel beside his car.
"You're buying property from people who can't afford to say no."
"We're paying legal value."
"Legal isn't the same as fair."
"You don't know my business."
"No. But I know hungry people."
Daniel's patience cracked.
"And I know poverty. I lived it."
Clara stared at him.
"Then don't pretend you forgot what it looks like."
He turned away.
She should have let him go.
Instead, she said, "Your father owed money to the same bank."
Daniel stopped.
Clara continued.
"The old bank president was Harold Hale."
Victor's grandfather.
Daniel slowly turned back toward the county hall.
Victor was standing in the doorway, watching them.
For the first time since arriving in Bellweather, Daniel wondered whether his return had been an accident at all.
Then Luke came running down the street.
"Grandma!"
He was out of breath.
"Jamie's gone."
Clara dropped everything in her hands.
Luke held up a piece of paper he had found beneath Jamie's pillow.
May you like
On it, in a child's uneven handwriting, were five words:
I WON'T BE A BURDEN.
