Record Keepers
by
Theresa Chaze
She halted beneath the weather worn sign that had once read "Ferrari's Market". She stood erect, watching the crowd of policemen hiding behind their autos; some had their revolvers drawn. Beyond them, Kaleva’s thrill seekers gawked from the schoolyard, not realizing the distance capacity of the old woman’s bullets. Slowly she descended, each wooden stop creaking under her weight. The Sheriff dashed across the payment and dragged her behind the barricade.
"What did she say, Shawna? When is she giving up?"
Shawna stared up into his brown eyes and he shifted his gaze from the harshness he saw. "She isn’t."
Angrily, he grabbed her shoulders. "You were supposta make this easy--so no one else would get hurt! Instead you just wasted valuable time."
"You didn’t get exactly what you expected. You thought it would be easy to steal Agnes's land. She eighty-three. Helpless. Or so you thought."
"Agnes is senile!"
Deliberately she reached up and bent back his index fingers, forcing him to relinquish his grip. "It’s a little late to whine. You bribed, blackmailed or whatever to have Agnes committed and become her legal guardian. You started the war. But she’ll fire the last shot."
"She’s just an old lady!”
"A woman with a rifle and a grudge in her heart."
"Those apartments are very important to the community. You can’t expect us to let a run down--"
"How much are you willing to pay for the land? Your life maybe? Another deputy?"
Shawna purposely pushed past him and walked into the crowd, a path clearing before her. "I’ll call the State Police! They won’t be so nice! We need those apartments!"
She continued to walk in the opposite direction.
*********************
Anna Lynne Mckenzie watched from the safety of her hotel room. Leaning against the headboard, she listened to the familiar heckling of the crowd. She had expected some controversy over the planned destruction of the historical sites, but an elderly woman holding off the sheriff and his deputies for two days, while the town sat in the peanut gallery, wasn’t what anyone would expect to find in small town USA.
Closing the window, Anna could almost convince herself that this was a normal shoot. Usually Anna liked taking pictures for the Michigan Historical Society, but most of her assignments had been restorations not mass destructions.
Kaleva was notorious for negating its past. Two years earlier, the Catholic Rectory celebrated its centennial; several months later, it was condemned and torn down. The year after, the school beside it caught fire and was destroyed. The blame was placed on four grade school boys. But after reading the reports, Anna knew the four-story structure constructed mostly of brick and marble could not have turned into an inferno within a few hours just from careless children playing in the basement. With the land cleared, the church officials built their badly wanted, but little needed community center and two more historical sites vanished.
Anna believed the town was trying to erase it heritage by razing the buildings from its prosperous era. At one time, Kaleva had been billed as the "city with more millionaires per capita than any other in the United States". Millions had bee made from the vast forests of Michigan and the Kaleva River, which transported the logs to Lake Michigan. Lumber barons created mansions, wealth and fierce pride, while stripping and corrupting the land; then following the receding tree line, they vanished, leaving those that remained embarrassed and resentful.
She considered photographing the farce below, representing Agnes Ferrara as the eighth monuments Kaleva set out to destroy. In a way it was true. The Ferrara family was one of the founding members of the town. The store was the first in area and had been the center for many years. But gradually the center of power shifted, but the store remained mostly unchanged.
Looking out the window, she realized that this was a no win situation.
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Described as a woman who has the courage to play with dragons, Theresa Chaze has gone where fools and angels fear to tread and has flourished. To read the treatment of her military series, Operation Home Base and excerpts of her screenplays go to her site at http://www.theresachaze.com/
Courage isn't the lack of fear, but the ability to set it aside and focus on what is truly important
