Chapter 21
The site of the numerous media crews parked in front of the Court House surprised Silas. He noticed Doug standing on the steps, keeping the crowd outside, but Silas had to admit he wondered how much longer Doug could keep them under control.
“Damn, this is going to be one hell of a mess,” Silas groaned.
He decided to go around to the back, and if luck allowed, he would sneak in unnoticed.
“Hi Silas, he’s waiting in his office for you,” Maggie said as she hung up the telephone again.
Silas did not say a word; he just opened the door to Andrew’s office, stepped inside, and then closed the door behind him.
“Thank the Lord you’re here,” Andrew said breathlessly. “Poor Doug is having one hell of a time keeping them all outside.”
“Yeah, I saw that. The kid seems to have his hands full, doesn’t he?” Silas walked over to the window and looked down at the growing crowd.
“I guess I need to go down there before they storm the door.” Andrew looked at Silas hoping he would try to stop him.
“Why don’t both of us handle this? I’m sure they’ll want to talk to me since I’m the Chief of Police.” Silas grinned when he saw the look of relief appear on Andrew’s face.
Both men took a deep breath and walked to the door, each wondering what would unfold as the day went on.
Jen knew she should stay at home and wait for Silas, but her nerves were on the edge, and she needed to do something before she went crazy with worry. With several more children coming down sick, the administrators had decided to close the schools down temporally to prevent any further spreading of the virus.
“I’m sorry Silas, but I need to get out of here for a while,” Jen said aloud as she grabbed her purse and walked out to her car. She had decided to go to the hospital and check on Shelby and Sheila.
On the drive to the hospital, she was surprised to see all of the News vans gathered around the City Hall building.
“Damn, that doesn’t look good at all.” Jen worried if this would shed a bad light on Sandley and if it would bring people to town with an agenda and the desire to blow it up into something that would cause problems for Chuck Wilson. She was glad to get to the hospital without anyone from the media bothering her.
Jen pulled into a parking space at the hospital and walked inside praying there was good news about Shelby.
“Oh Jen, I’m so glad you came,” Sheila cried out as Jen walked through the door.
“How’s she doing today?” Jen looked at Shelby lying in the bed with tubes and monitors attached to her delicate frame.
“She’s in and out of consciousness, but there’s still no movement in her legs.” Sheila looked tired, and her eyes were red and puffy from hours of tears.
Jen fought back her tears, as she hugged Shelia. “I’m so sorry this is happening. I don’t understand how something like this is here. Do the doctors know how she got it?”
Sheila looked at Jen with a look of anger replacing the tears. “They won’t come straight out and say it, but I’ve heard whispers that they believe it came with those children from the mill.”
Jen looked at Shelia, surprised at this announcement. “Are you kidding me? How could the government bring sick children to our town?”
“I don’t know, but they say cases have been breaking out all over the country where they’ve taken them.” Sheila glanced over at Shelby and frowned. “I guess the health of our children isn’t as important to those in DC. You know, I watched the news for a while last night, and all I heard was how those children deserved a chance for a better life. That’s all fine and good, but what about the lives of OUR children? What happened to protecting the citizens of this country over those who broke the law to get here? I’m a Christian woman, and I believe in helping my fellow man, but I don’t believe the Lord wants us to do it at the expense of our own.”
Jen had to agree with Shelia. For the life of her, she could not understand why the federal government would endanger its citizens in such a way.
“Where’s Craig?” Jen asked.
“He stayed at the house last night with the kids, and this morning he went to do some repairs at the hardware store. I guess someone did some damage there last night.”
“Really, I’m surprised Silas didn’t mention it.” Jen wondered what could have caused someone to vandalize the hardware store.
“Carl didn’t find the damage until he opened this morning. You know; the other day Carl did mention to Craig that he’s having problems with a few of those people from the mill coming to the store and letting their children run amuck and leaving a mess. He said their children would move things around the store, climb all over the displays, get the free popcorn, and just throw it at each other causing a mess all over the floor. He also noticed when he did his inventory counts that several products were missing,” Shelia looked at Jen and could see the concern on her face.
“Anyway, Carl said he’d finally had enough and refused to do business with them. He told them if they couldn’t control their children then they should leave them at home, or they weren’t welcome in his store.”
This news surprised Jen. “I didn’t know about that. Carl is usually an easy, going man. It must’ve been bad for him to ban them from the store.”
“I guess he’d asked them several times to control their children, but apparently they didn’t understand or didn’t care.” Shelia never did understand why parents did not teach their children how to behave in public.
Jen suddenly had a sickening feeling come over her. “Sheila, do you think the damage may have something to do with Carl banning them from the store?”
“I wondered that myself. I’m wondering if they wanted to send Carl a message. He did have to chase a couple of those rough looking teenagers from the mill out of the store last week after he caught them trying to steal one of those fancy knife sharpeners Carl has in the store. I wonder if it was them.” Shelia shuttered at the idea of what could happen next.
“I don’t know, but it would make sense. I need to get going. I need to stop by the grocery store and pick up a few things. Is there anything I can pick up for you?” Jen forced a smile.
Shelia looked at Jen and understood the worried look on her face. “No, Craig said he’d stop after work and pick up something for dinner, but thank you.”
“Okay, but if there’s anything I can do, please don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” Jen smiled, hoping things would get back to normal soon.
“I will. Hey, I heard that they suspended classes for a while because of this virus,” Sheila said.
“Yeah, they were worried that it would continue to spread, so they thought it was the best for the time being. To be honest, I’m glad. There is too much going on at this time,” Jen groaned.
“Well I believe it’s for the best,” Shelia said with a hint of anger in her voice.
“I do too.”
Both women hugged and said their goodbyes then Jen walked back out to her car. As she reached for the ignition, a thought came to her. If they went after Carl, would they do the same to Chuck?
“Hello, Jen. It’s nice to see you,” Paul Jackson, the owner of the grocery store said as she walked through the door.
“Hello, Paul. It’s nice to see you too. How have things been going for you lately?”
“Well, I hate to complain, but I’ve been having some problems with our new residents,” he frowned.
“Problems? What type of problems?” Jen hated to think what else could be happening with the local business owners.
“I normally don’t say anything when people sample a grape or cherry, but I can’t afford people letting their children rummage through the produce, playing with it, and tossing it on the floor.”
“Are we speaking of the ones from the mill?” Jen held her breath and waited for his answer.
“Yes, and it’s not just the produce. I’ve been finding op
ened cereal boxes, cookie packages, and milk cartons sitting on the shelves as well. I hate to point a guilty finger at people, but I never had this problem before they came to town. I can’t continue to eat that loss. If it doesn’t stop, I’ll have to raise my prices, and that’s not fair to the rest of my customers.”
“I’m so sorry to hear this, Paul. I just heard that Carl has had problems at his store as well.” Jen hated to think of these two decent men facing such problems.
“Yeah, I heard that someone vandalized his store last night. Jen, this has always been such a nice town. We may have had our problems from time to time, but nothing like the things happening lately. I’m worried. I’m going to call Andrew this afternoon and see if he’d be willing to call a meeting of the local business owners. We need to decide the best way to handle this problem,” Paul looked at Jen then frowned.
“Paul, I don’t think it would be a good idea to have a public meeting with all those media people in town. I just drove past the City Hall building, and there were several news vans and reporters parked out in front.”
“Crap, someone mentioned it earlier, but I thought they were just exaggerating. This can’t be good. I bet they’re here because of the shooting out at Chuck’s place,” Paul groaned.
Jen looked at Paul and nodded her agreement. “I’m worried about that myself.”