To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman

Author:Romalyn Tilghman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

TRACI

The Quilters have turned into an army in their mission to save the arts center. All they can talk about is how to raise enough money to keep me here and keep it going. They got Brett to write an editorial in the Gazette, and it was pretty damn impressive. He wrote about how people wanted to live in a place that’s vibrant and thriving. About how the arts center helped change New Hope from nowhere into somewhere. How even Brigham Young built an arts center before he built a church when he got to Salt Lake City. The historical reference impressed Angie for sure, as if she weren’t already crazy for the guy. He wrote how “hope” is both a noun and a verb, and it’s time we put some muscle behind the verb. He wrote about how he’d once had a son and dreamed his son would find his own voice here.

The women wrote their own letters to the editor too. Jennifer wrote the arts are the soul of a community, whether it’s a big city like Washington, DC, or a small town like New Hope. Rachel bragged about me, how important I’ve become to both the Guilters and the Teens, what a difference I’ve made. Even Gayle, from Prairie Hill, wrote saying how jealous they are of our arts center. The Gazette published them all.

None of it is making much difference though. The Wednesday night potlucks have dropped off, and tonight raised twenty dollars. Rachel didn’t want me to notice when she counted the money, but I can see there are just a few bills, most of them single dollars. Some families have stopped coming altogether, scared of the Lubbers and their pals. The contributions are down (as is the quality of food, to be honest. Lots of chicken, some of it leftover, more Jell-O than ever). Rachel said not to take it personally, that people are feeling both hot and poor, but she has a crease in her forehead that usually isn’t there, so I can tell how worried she is.

When I turn on the computer, there are responses to the editorial on the art center’s website. Really mean responses. Anonymous and mean.

“If we wanted to live in a city of depravity, we would live in a city of depravity,” Citizen for a Clean America writes.

“Junk is junk is junk is junk,” and “Junk is NOT art,” writes Patriot. “Frivolous at best,” says letsgetserious. “Send ‘the artist’ home,” writes Watchdog.

As if I have a home.

The decent thing would be for me to quit, pack up my supplies, hitchhike out of town, end the controversy, and let the Quilters hang their ordinary, well-made quilts. At least those quilts are getting more impressive every day as the No Guilters are learning to play with color and embellishments. At least I can be proud of that. If I left town, maybe everyone would settle down and they could keep the arts center.

It would break my heart to leave now. This comes to me with the force of a Grade Five tornado.

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