Bright Shining World by Josh Swiller

Author:Josh Swiller [Swiller, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

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Ms. Marguerite Hoch, a tiny, concentrated woman in a purple skirt and jacket and four-inch heels, makeup sharp as a razor, a bun of hair on top of her head pulled tight as a stone, walked to the podium. Then she smiled. The smile was breathtaking in its size and commitment. The smile ate her face.

“Hello! Good evening! Hello! It’s so wonderful to see so many of you here!” she trilled. “What a loving community, what a special town! Since Jackduke first came to North Homer, all the way back in 1983, we have been excited and honored to support the community in whatever ways we can. From Little League to bowling leagues to fun runs, Jackduke is there. When the ambulance broke down, who bought a new one? When the town hall desperately needed its stairs fixed, who paid for their repair? We did! We love the town of North Homer. We live here, too! Our kids live here! Our kids go to this very school! We are you!”

She pumped her head vigorously.

“When something hurts our community, we’re as hurt as you are. Imagine, then, how we feel when we hear accusations that we are at fault for what’s happening to our children!” She paused to imagine it, her hand on her chest. The audience seemed disarmed by the aggressiveness of her politeness, if that makes sense. “Oh, it breaks my heart. So you’ll be happy to know, in the past few weeks we have tested everything at our plant, backwards and forwards. Which is something we do as standard business practice, but we went and did it even more, far beyond EPA regulations. We flew in top experts on plant safety, ethnobiology, energy physics, nuclear physics, and gave them free rein at the facility. And you know what they found?”

She nodded excitedly at us, from one side of the room to the other.

“Every single test in normal range. The North Homer power plant is clean and safe.”

She continued her head-pumping. Did we, the audience, not understand? How could we not understand? The corporation wouldn’t hurt them. The corporation loved them. The experts had found nothing. The shareholders were covered. These colors don’t run.

I glanced around—no one was buying it.

Ms. Hoch wasn’t done. “Let me repeat: there is absolutely no connection between the Jackduke plant and the unfortunate situation here at the school. But we still want to help! Jackduke cares about this community. I personally update my father about the situation here, and he is very concerned! ‘You are us,’ he said. ‘We are you.’ So tonight we are very happy to announce that Jackduke has found a solution!”

She paused again, nodding vigorously again. Possibly she was waiting for applause, which was not coming.

“Yes. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Milos Lehmann, of the world-renowned Stanford-Harvard Institute on Transitory Sociology, to speak about a very auspicious discovery….Dr. Lehmann.”

Clapping—the only one in the gym doing so—Ms. Hoch looked to the side of the room. The

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