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“What’s wrong with the strip?” Augie yelled out.
William peered through the crowd, trying to find the source of the question. When his gaze landed on Augie, then slid to the rest of us standing shoulder to shoulder, his lip flickered in disgust.
It wasn’t lost on any of us. Augie stiffened beside me, and Fawn put a hand on his arm.
He glanced down at her, relaxing visibly.
This was exactly why I’d brought her. She was an Augie muffler, and sometimes, the guy needed it.
William was completely unaware he’d set off Augie and his ticking time bomb, though. He scoffed into the microphone. “I think the question is what’s right with it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Once you see what’s beneath these cloths, I think you’ll all be very excited for the changes ahead.” He pulled the cloth off a large posterboard to one side with the flourish of a magician. “These are my plans for Saint View Strip.”
A gasp ripped from my throat, but it was lost in the clapping of the crowd.
“My plans are to demolish every building and replace them with a new lineup of stores and services. I’ve already had interest from a yoga studio and a health food store, and we’ll continue searching for other high-quality businesses that will service the entire area, both Providence and Saint View.”
Lyric turned to me with wide eyes. “Is this guy for real? He wants to knock down the entire strip to put in yoga studios? He can’t do that!”
Damn right he couldn’t.
“Excuse me,” I called.
William glanced quickly in my direction, took in what I was wearing and the people I stood with, and carried on like I hadn’t spoken. “Once the construction is finished on the strip, we’ll move into the residential areas. I have developers…”
I raised one eyebrow. I’d come here willing to be civil. Willing to put forward my objections calmly and professionally. But I hadn’t come here to be looked down on. For my voice to be dismissed because I wasn’t wearing a flowered dress with a fucking petticoat beneath.
I pushed my way through the crowd until I stood at the front. Without checking, I knew the others stood behind me. They always had my back. Just like I had theirs.
“I said,excuse me,” I interrupted.
William finally glanced down at me from his spot on the podium. “Yes?”
“Have you actually asked the people who live in Saint View what they want?”
William was smooth as honey, and it dripped from his sickly sweet words. “Just like every other member of this community, Saint View residents have had the opportunity to express their needs and wants at town meetings.”
“Town meetings held in Saint View?” I asked.
William’s smile faltered an inch. “Well, no. The meetings were held here in Providence.”
I nodded, like I completely understood his point. “Right, so all the members of the Saint View community, a large number of which don’t have access to a vehicle, they were just supposed to walk here?”
He smiled tolerantly, though as close as I was, it was clear to me it was forced. “I can’t be expected to personally chauffeur the entire community now, can I?’ He chuckled, and his followers laughed right along with him, like the poor excuse for public transport in Saint View was something to laugh at.
It wasn’t.
“Did you even tell anyone in Saint View about these meetings? Did you send letters to those families, the way you did here in Providence?”
His stare turned challenging. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
The insult was ingrained in his tone. The put-down. The clear,I’m from Providence, you’re from Saint Viewline in the sand that had existed for as long as I could remember.
I wasn’t playing into that. “Actually, I didn’t receive any sort of notice about this meeting. I live in Saint View. I own two properties there, as well as a business on the strip. But not one of those properties received this flyer.” I held up the notice about the meeting. “This, I got from my hairdresser, in Providence. It was pinned on her front desk, and when I walked back to my car after my appointment, I saw most of the businesses there had notices up about it, too. If I hadn’t needed a haircut this week, I wouldn’t have had a clue about any of this.”
There was a titter of uncomfortable laughter that only riled me up more.
“Well, I’ll have to look into that. But as I was saying—”
My blood boiled over. I would not be dismissed. Not by some privileged old white guy who had never roughed it a day in his life. He had no idea of what Saint View was like. He’d never lived in a tiny, government-owned house that was so derelict it should have been condemned. He’d never had to wonder where his next meal was coming from. Who was he to pretend he knew what the people of Saint View needed? He didn’t know shit if he thought we needed yoga studios. There was no representation here. None except for me and the four people who stood at my side.
