Plover Landing by Marie Zhuikov

Author:Marie Zhuikov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
Published: 2014-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Melora and Drew lay in bed, listening to the sounds of the night coming through her open window. Above the dull roar of the freeway traffic at the bottom of the hill, they could just make out the trilling of spring peepers in some far-away pond. A ship approaching the lift bridge gave the distinctive three-whistle signal for the bridge to rise. A few moments later, the bridge answered in kind.

The two still faced each other, their eyes closed. From somewhere in the west end of the city, an ore train made a rhythmic rumble as it hauled taconite pellets to the docks along the harbor. The sound had a musical quality that reminded Melora of the symphony. She opened her eyes and saw that Drew’s were open, too. He said, “So what have you been doing since our last phone call?”

Melora thought for a moment. “I had a good time with Demetri at the concert.”

Drew looked at her with mock jealousy and then hugged her to him. “I’m glad,” he said.

“Samantha played the most haunting piece of music, and little Demetri told me all about the song’s background.”

“I bet he did.” Drew gave a low chuckle.

Melora couldn’t help it, she let out a sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Drew asked.

She explained the issue with the Sky Harbor Airport and the FAA to him.

Drew’s heavy brow furrowed. “But won’t cutting the trees scare away the plovers?”

“Yes.” Melora rose up on one elbow. “But when we had our meeting, everyone there, except for the FAA guy, was against cutting the trees, especially now, when the plovers are starting to nest.”

“Well, that’s good,” Drew said, “except for the FAA guy. What’s his beef?”

Melora thought for a moment. “I really don’t know. I got the feeling that he wanted to go ahead with the tree cutting just because that was their original plan. But we came up with an alternative. For the short-term, we’re going to put up warning lights and shorten the runway. Then for the long-term, we’re going to look at moving the runway closer to the harbor so that it’s farther away from the trees.”

“How can that be done?” asked Drew. “From the beach it didn’t look like there’s much room.”

“They’d use the soil dredged from the bottom of the harbor.”

“Won’t that be kind of expensive?”

“Yeah, but maybe the FAA will pay for it.” Melora snickered.

“It doesn’t sound like you like the FAA much.”

“The guy they sent was so intent on cutting the trees, and he gave me the creeps—he looked pretty normal but was all cold and clammy and bureaucratic.” Melora shuddered involuntarily. Drew put a hand on her waist, which she found comforting. After a moment, she said, “Anyway, the mayor is taking the lead to draft a letter, asking for permission to do those other things rather than cutting the trees. We’ve got to get it to the FAA in three weeks or they’ll go ahead with their plans to cut.”

Melora lay back down and sighed again.

“Now what’s wrong?” Drew asked.

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