Sutter's Cross by W. Dale Cramer

Author:W. Dale Cramer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2003-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Over the next few weeks Jake talked to everybody he could think of in the housing market. All he got for his time were blank stares and condescending smiles. Everybody made promises, offered platitudes about how they would be sure to call him “as soon as something comes up,” although they wouldn’t look him in the eye. Word had gotten around that Jake was on Web Holcombe’s list, and nobody wanted to cross Web Holcombe.

The last thing Jake wanted to do was go out of town looking for work, but the situation was becoming desperate. The first week in August he received a call from an old friend over in Kate’s Cove who wanted a new house built. It was an hour’s drive over the mountains, and he didn’t want to be that far away from home with Lori pregnant. But she still had a long way to go, and Jake figured he could finish the house well before Lori’s due date.

He was surveying the site in Kate’s Cove when the rezoning of the Sutter’s Cross Women’s Center came before the city council. When he arrived home that evening Lori was still at the meeting. He had heated some leftover spaghetti and plopped down in the recliner to watch the Braves game when he heard Lori’s car pull into the garage.

The whole house rattled when she slammed the back door, and her pocketbook hit the kitchen counter with the force of a small meteorite.

“That TURKEY!” she railed. “Of all the unmitigated . . . RRRRRRGH!” She stomped into the living room and flung herself down on the sofa, red hair flouncing unheeded across her eyes as she crossed her arms and glared at the TV.

Jake waited a full minute before he said anything, reluctant to toy with a ticking bomb. Lori was in Global Warming mode.

“Is there a problem?” he asked, bracing himself.

She took a deep breath. “The NIMBYs showed up!” she said. “All the people we were expecting from the neighborhood and then some. They took turns cackling like geese about how the Women’s Center would degrade the atmosphere of their fine old tranquil street. Remember the little guy who was so nice when he dropped in to see what we were doing and wished us all the luck in the world? Well, he whined for thirty minutes! Said he’d be afraid to let his grandchildren out of the house when they came to visit. Said the street wouldn’t be safe anymore with all the ‘rabble’ drifting in and out at all hours!”

“He was the turkey?”

“NO! That wasn’t the worst of it. That no-good, low-down, backstabbing Orde Wingo showed up at the last minute! He told the council he was there in his ‘official capacity as the chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee, representing Sutter’s Cross Community Church, if you will.’ ” She’d retracted her chin and was doing a passable impression of Orde’s public voice. “And he told them the church opposed the opening of the Women’s

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