"Dear?"
"Yes, Wayne?"
"It was a very odd morning."
"Why do you say that, dear?"
"Well, I ran by Target. There were a whole bunch of little men outside, waiting for the store to open."
"Dear! That's a terrible thing to say!"
"No, Wanda, I mean little guys.They were bright red. They had little horns on their heads, and they were carrying pitchforks."
"Goodness."
"One of them told me they were lined up for the winter closeout sale. Apparently they all need parkas these days because they're having freezing rain where they live."
"Goodness."
"I told them to try Gottshalks, too. They were next to a nicer older lady. I covered her with my umbrella for a bit. I may have met her before, because her name sounded familiar: Amelia Earhart. She was saying something about being a flier in her early days and then retiring after some time in the circus."
"Well, that's a pretty interesting morning."
"Then who do you suppose wandered by but the Pierce County executive, John Ladenburg, and all the members of the County Council. They were telling me that they've been doing a lot of thinking and decided that government should help the underprivileged and not just the rich. So they've decided not to build a luxury gated golf course at Chambers Creek. They're just going to put in trails and parks with swings and all sorts of neat things for families..
"Goodness."
"And then they said that one nice thing is that instead of buying solid marble fixtures for this golf course, they are going to use their sewer funds to extend sewer service to poor people who don't have it right now. Isn't that nice?"
"Well, yes. But what was the entire County Council doing outside the Target?"
"Well, they were sure pretty surprised to see the University Place City Council. I guess the UP folks were originally going to buy some Ouija boards in the games department and come up with a new plan for their downtown. And they were going to pandhandle outside the store so they could buy more downtown land. But then while they were all waiting around, they decided to simply let the free market and individual business owners decide what businesses should go downtown. Imagine how happy they were to run into Joe Stortini who said he'd be just thrilled to open up his restaurant again on Bridgeport."
"Wayne, I'm amazed you made it back here, with all those people to talk to."
"It was fun, but it's a lot warmer at home. So what's in the paper this morning?"
"I haven't signed on to the Suburban Times yet, dear."
"No, hon, I mean the TNT."
"Oh, of course." Wanda picked up the paper and was scanning the front page. Then she turned to the local section and read a bit.
"Dear, they chose the new mayor."
"I thought Doug Richardson was mayor. Didn't we just elect him?"
"No, dear, he's on the City Council. We only elect council members. They choose a mayor from among themselves every two years."
"Oh. Right, well, Doug did a good job with that police department and all the other new things these past couple years. But I can see them rotating a job like that. So who's the mayor?"
"It says that the three members of Lakewood Cares and Claudia Thomas voted the same way and elected Claudia as mayor and John Arbeeny as deputy mayor."
Wanda heard a strange sound. She looked over the paper and did not see Wayne. She put down the paper, and looked over the table.
The chair had fallen back and lay on the floor. Wayne was still seated, though, with his back on the ground and his legs in the air. His bowl of Raisin Bran had fallen onto his chest, and milk dripped onto the carpet.
"Wayne?"
He stared at the ceiling. Wayne's eyelids were twitching.
"Dear?"
He continued to stare. Wanda thought a bit and realized a familiar sight was missing.
"Sunny?"
There was a muffled sound from underneath Wayne: "Meow?"
"Dear, would you please get off the cat?"
Wayne slowly rolled to his right, and got up off the floor. Soggy bran flakes fell off his chest. Sunny quickly ran toward the basement.
"Dear, are you OK?"
"What did you say?"
"I said, are you OK?"
"No, I mean that part from the paper."
"The three nice men from Lakewood Cares and Claudia voted in the same direction. Now Claudia is mayor and that nice John Arbeeny is deputy mayor."
"Dear, I'm a little confused. Don't the Lakewood Cares people believe we should stop collecting taxes, shut down the city government and lay off the police?'
"I don't think they are quite that extreme, Wayne."
"And wouldn't Claudia want to raise our taxes and give all the money to poor people?"
"I don't think she would do that, dear."
"Well, OK, so maybe I am fuzzy on the details, but I'm just totally confused."
"I was too, dear, but then I read one of those emails from that nice John Arbeeny."
"Oh, yes, I see those. Don't they always have the same subject line? Keep Lakewood City Council in De Pen? For our safety, I guess."
"No, dear, the email program on our computer cuts off the full sentence until you call up the email. You must be reading it in a hurry. What he always writes is 'Keep Lakewood's City Council Independent."
"Independent? How in the heck can anyone from Lakewood Cares talk about independence? Haven't they been meeting as a small group for years to take over City Hall? What's independent about that? That's like saying the Republicans in the legislature vote independently, or the Democrats in the legislature vote independently."
"Well, I don't know about that, dear, but it's a very catchy line. Those nice men are very, very good at writing catchy lines. Anyway, he wrote that he and Claudia have a common vision: they want the city to unite and work together to plan its future in cooperation with each and every citizen. And now it all made Claudia mayor after she had been deputy mayor all those years ago. She's the first black woman mayor in the state of Washington - isn't it about time? She is just a wonderful role model for our young people."
"Well, of course, I'm fine with that. But isn't Claudia one of the first council members?"
"Yes, dear. And remember our crime rate has gone down and the city has improved our lives in many, many ways. Didn't you tell me you loved those blue lights along Steilacoom Boulevard this Christmas? And that's just a little thing."
"But didn't the Lakewood Cares people pretty much wage war on the council? And on our city's employees?"
"Well, they thought they had to, dear. They said people were not listening to them. It sounds to me like people were very dismissive of them even though they made a lot of common sense points."
"I just can't imagine these people talking to each other. "
"Well, maybe they agree to disagree on some things, dear. You have to agree to disagree on some things or you'll never move forward. I imagine what happened is that perhaps Claudia and those nice Lakewood Cares men realized they had enough in common to consider voting for each other. Maybe they agreed they want to listen to the public and encourage more people to volunteer and otherwise get involved in government. "
Wayne righted his chair, and sat down. "Well, it just doesn't sound very much like Lakewood. We take our politics personally here. When someone asks a question, we insult the person for asking the question. We ask about their motives. We figure if they ask a question, they don't trust us. We ask what they are secretly trying to accomplish. I mean, it takes a while before we actually consider their question."
Wayne went on: "It sounds here like people with some differences have a common vision and have agreed to work together to accomplish something for the betterment of the community - even if they disagree on many, many things."
"Well, I'm with you, dear."
Wayne thought for a minute. "Political cooperation between factions? People on different sides of issues talking to each other? I'm not sure about this. Sounds sort of new."
"Maybe it's something to try for the next 10 years of cityhood, Wayne."
Sunny returned to the room. He jumped to the table and gently waved his whiskers in the direction of Wanda's cereal bowl. There was a small pond of milk at the bottom. Sunny looked at Wanda.
"Can I have the bowl now?"