The Fight for Kidsboro by Marshal Younger Page B

interrupted. “I don’t wanna hear this.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI don’t want you bringing him to trial. What if he’s found guilty?”
    I was confused by the question. “Well … then justice would be served.”
    â€œWould we banish him?”
    â€œSure, I guess.”
    â€œThen where would we get our wood?” she said. Alice and Nelson nodded in agreement.
    My heart sank. I never expected anyone on my city council to place more value in wood than in justice.
    â€œWood?” I asked weakly.
    Jill continued, “I mean, I’m for justice being served and all that, but if we banish Max, we’re in deep trouble. We can’t build anything. We can’t add to the population. We have to think about the future of the town.”
    â€œThe future of the town?” I asked, my voice raising. “What kind of future are we going to have if people like Max know they can get away with stuff like this? What happened to our laws? Who cares about the quality of our houses? What about the quality of our people?” This was a great line, and if I hadn’t been trying to make a point, I would’ve written it down and saved it for the debate.
    Jill thought for a minute, but then shook her head. “Maybe we should let this one pass. Sorry, but like it or not, we need Max.”
    â€œShe’s right,” Alice said. “I hate crime, but we gotta have wood.”
    Nelson nodded along with her. Scott had been completely uncommitted from the moment I started talking. My mouth hung open in shock. I had nothing else to say. I turned around and left, defeated.

    I talked to Roberto the next day at school and told him he was welcome to come back to town. He was hesitant, saying that he didn’t feel comfortable coming back right now. I could tell it still hurt him that people had jumped to the conclusion that he was a criminal. I understood and said that I’d be back to ask him again soon.
    The election was to be held on the first day of May, and I felt that the past week had been a definite victory for me. I’d been right about Roberto. My approval rating was probably up, and Valerie had lost her whole “He’s letting criminals into town” argument. So even though I was disappointed in my city council, I had something to keep my head up about.
    I headed over to Jill’s office to see how she was planning to cover the Nick/Roberto story in the newspaper. As I approached the newspaper office, I heard two angry voices coming from inside. I rushed in to see what was going on. It was Jill and Marcy. Marcy had one hand on her hip, and with the other she was shaking a pencil in Jill’s face.
    â€œYou just think you’re Miss Journalism, don’t you?” Marcy said, not seeing me yet.
    â€œI’m not running your story,” Jill said. “That doesn’t mean I won’t run other stories.”
    â€œIt’s a perfectly good story.”
    â€œThere are finally some things going on in this town. We don’t need fluff. Nobody cares about your canary.” Jill glanced over at me. “Ryan, do you care about Marcy’s canary?”
    I’d seen Marcy’s canary. It was cute. Would I throw myself in front of a bus for Marcy’s canary? No. But did I care about it?
    â€œAre you gonna answer the question, Ryan?”
    â€œOh … uh … I don’t know. Why?”
    â€œWell, you see, Marcy’s my new assistant. I’m paying her 10 tokens a week so she can keep her house.”
    Hey! The Everybody Works program in motion! I thought.
    â€œSo I told her to write a story,” Jill continued. “Well, she came back with a story that I don’t think works very well for our newspaper.”
    â€œBut it’s great!” Marcy said. “It could become a regular column: ‘Citizens and Their Pets.’ I think Nelson and Valerie have a Siamese cat.”
    â€œGreat.