The lobby was cavernous and empty. Simon had never been inside the City Hall. He had passed it many times as it was being built when he was a child. They had moved away from Fishs Eddy the year after it had been completed, before it had been officially opened. Because of the issues with the front door, and a myriad of other seemingly unsolvable issues, it had taken two more years to fix the problems with the building so the government officials could move in.

They passed the empty security booth and continued on to the double stairs that led to the second level. The first level did not contain much office space. The lobby took up much of the floor space, leaving only small offices for the lower officials. The offices had windows, and the officials soon discovered that these offices were much better than the larger ones on the upper floors. The offices on the upper floors were all shaped strangely, seemingly random at times and very uncomfortable. It took the occupants a while to figure out what the problem was. They had brought in many Feng Shui experts who had attempted to fix the problems, but had no such luck. None of the interior decorator residents who were born in Fishs Eddy were around when they had these problems. They were all using their skills elsewhere, making lots of money and making the world outside of Fishs Eddy very beautiful.

The climbed up the marble stairs, stopping at the middle landing to look down over the lobby. They saw now why the building had been built as it had been built. It was designed to be very impressive from the lobby and upper floors, the view was amazing. The view down even from this middle height presented the full view of the lobby and the manicured hills outside. Simon tried to imagine what the view would look like from the higher floors.

“It is beautiful,” Penelope said.

“Yes,” Darla said. “One of the last beautiful things in Fishs Eddy. We built this to be the pinnacle of our ingenuity. We used very little of our ingenuity, relying on outsiders to do most of the design and work. We did that purposefully. We were as proud of our management and intellectual skills as are handiwork skills. We did not realize that it could never be satisfying until it was too late. That was when there was a huge upheaval in the small town politics that Charles had spoken about earlier.”

Darla continued up the flight of stairs, and the rest followed in her wake. Simon still had lots of unanswered questions, but he was beginning to remember the stories his mother had told him about building the City Hall. The aftermath of the building was one of the reasons they had left the town. He now remembered that it had not been solely him that had forced the move. Although they did want to get him out because of how crazy Simon had become living in this small town, there was a much deeper issue.

“We left here because of this building,” Simon said. “Didn’t we?”

“Yes,” Darla said. “We have been trying to tell you this for a long time, Simon. You never did believe me or mother or even little Celia. We left because the government changed. The old guard, which protected people like mother, and people like you, had moved out. There was a desire to create something more pure in the town. Something that would bring greater glory and greater leadership to this small town.”

“How would it do that?” Charles asked, scribbling notes furiously. When he paused, he would look around for a bit before nodding and describing what he saw. He was constantly looking for new things to write about in this story. He must have filled half his little book already. At least that was how it appeared to Simon.

“It was a strange time,” Darla said, continuing her slow progression up the marble stairs. The stairs grew wider as they turned the corner. Running along the side of the stairs was a marble handrail with geometric shapes cut out of them. Simon ran his hands along the marble handrail. It was smooth without any creases. He followed his sister up the stairs. Penelope hung back a bit as she followed.

“There has always been conflict in this town,” Darla said. “It was a conflict that would arise in any exceptionally successful town. You see, the people that are born in Fishs Eddy, they have certain advantageous. At least most of them do.” Darla looked with meaning in Simon’s direction. Simon felt himself blush at what Darla was insinuating. He had always felt different from the rest of the town. That was one of the reasons he sought to escape it. It was why he would run away most days, trying to get away from the judging of his classmates and the rest of the town. It was a silent judging. They never said anything to his face. But he would overhear snippets of conversation that would make him understand very early in his life that he was different compared to the rest of the town.

“The conflict grew worse after the City Hall was constructed,” Darla said. “We thought this project would bring the town together. We thought it was something that would bind together the surrounding provinces, show that while our people were the best in some small ways, they were not any better than the rest of the people on the planet. We brought something that was important, but that something was only a small part of the world. Brilliance in an activity, genius if you will, was important. But its importance only went so far. Some of the smartest people in the world knew this limitation. While they were great at certain things, they were not terribly skilled at others. I think of the great business people, who could run a business, but could not hold a conversation in an ordinary social environment.

“The town hall hired only outsiders that lacked our skills,” Darla said. “We knew we could do it better. We could call back others from out of town and apply their skills to our City Hall. But we would not do it. We would use only outsiders skills and show the entire town that they could create beautiful things as well as we could. At least that was the plan.”

“It didn’t work out as you planned,” Charles said. “Did it.”

“No,” Darla said, agreeing. “As you saw, mistakes were made. People could not look beyond these mistakes to the beauty that the outsiders created.”

They had made it to the top of the staircase. When Simon turned around he saw the wonders that the outsiders had created. It was now apparent why they chose not to include offices on the first floor. The view of the openness was amazing. And then it struck him. Simon saw the reflection in the highly polished floor. He saw the reflected ceiling, which contained silvers and gold polished to an extreme shine. The geometric patterns joined together. The reflections on the ground and the lights from the ceiling; the mirrored metal and the gold-plate walls. It all began to come together in a wonderful image on the floor. Simon and the rest stood transfixed by the view.

“Beautiful,” Darla said, breaking the silence. “Isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Charles said. He had stopped scribbling and looked down over the floor and its reflection. “It is wonderful. But if the outside world could create this beautiful image, why were the townspeople still thinking they were special.”

“There was little question that this was beautiful,” Darla said, starting in on her narration again. “It was the little things that started happening. When this was first completed, everyone piled in to dance in the main lobby and view it from the second floor balcony. Where we stand now, he mayor met with the rest of his cabinet, and thanked the architects and designers for the work they did. It was only once the inspection began by Mr. Handover that things started unraveling.”

“What is Mr. Handover?” Charles asked, resuming his writing in the small pad.

“He lived in Fishs Eddy since he was a young boy,” Darla said. “He was one of the outsiders, as we call them, because he was born outside of town. Nobody who was born outside of town exhibited any specialness. Mr. Handover was no different. He was a city inspector in Fishs Eddy, the only one. He was not needed for much in Fishs Eddy. When one of our construction teams built a house or building based on the plans of a Fishs Eddy person, there was little doubt that it would be well built and easily pass inspection. Mr. Handover had a rather easy job, which was for the best. He was not much of an inspector because he was rarely called on to use his abilities.

“But this one time,” Darla said. “We asked him to perform his inspection, and we watched him, the cabinet did, pull out his booklet and began finding things. At first it was small things: there might be a joiner that was not properly fitted. The first few finds were small and easily fixed. Even under the stricter codes outside of Fishs Eddy, they would not require much maintenance or repair. It was only when he started finding the larger problems that we first ran into problems.

“The cabinet quickly fixed the smaller problems,” Darla said. “The outside construction workers and architects came in and took Mr. Handover very seriously. He was a serious man, of course. And somebody who had never really had to make a decision or put his foot down on anything. When he started to put his foot down on first the small things, he realized that he enjoyed, he enjoyed the power much more than he had enjoyed anything else he had ever done.”

“Why did he stay in Fishs Eddy if he knew what was going on with the inspections?” Charles asked.

“It is difficult to know now,” Darla said. “At first, he probably enjoyed the job. Imagine receiving decent pay for a job that was not really a job. The city still had to pay him because it needed to certify all the construction that went on in Fishs Eddy. But we all knew it was a rubber stamp. Mr. Handover was good at that stamping—probably not the best possible person, of course. There was probably the ideal stamper for that job somewhere in Fishs Eddy, as there seemed to be in everything else we held dear.”

“And what about you?” Charles asked. “How do you know all this? Were you on the council?”

“No, I was not in the cabinet,” Darla said. “Our mother, she was on the council. She was not a representative. She was an outsider, like Mr. Handover. But she kept notes for the council and provided the minutes for each meeting. She was decent at her job, and the council liked to point to her as showing that there was a place for everyone inside Fishs Eddy, whether you were born here, or just came to live here.”

“That was not always the case,” Simon said. “All of the houses that we saw half completed outside of the city were for those people who did not find a place in Fishs Eddy. They thought moving just outside it would give them the freedom to live as they liked, away from the pressure of the perfection of Fishs Eddy. You know, I always thought I would end up in one of those houses. There are some people who find contentment in those places. When I was young, I imagined I would run away and live there, in those large fields with poorly paved roads. It was outside but still inside the protection of the walls.”

“You were such a silly boy,” Darla said. “Things began to break down after Mr. Handover began to hand down demands. His demands grew larger and larger, and the city was not sure how to meet any of them without insulting the outsiders. That was when the insiders struck. There was always a collection of people, people who were special mind you, who believed that they were better than the average person. They thought their abilities made them better, and believed that if they ran the city and did away with the outsiders, they could expand their influence and make the world a better place.”

“People like that always believe that when they start,” Charles said. “The Marxist and the Communists and even the Democrats believed that if they formed the perfect government, the world would be a better place.”

Word count: 2,148

Word total: 43,599

Words remaining: 6,401

We’re flying to New York City. It’s been a stress-free travel day. We dropped off Ziggy this morning at the boarding place. He passed his Doggy Day Care exam, where they put him in a room with two other dogs to make sure he didn’t tear their legs off. While he tried, he has very weak jaws, and they checked the “Plays Well with Other Dogs” box, allowing him to join the day care.

We arrived at the airport a few hours early. I always try to get to airports early. When I travel, I tend to stress on missing flights and connections, and when I’m early, my stress levels go way down. We completed our shopping, ate breakfast, bought a book and magazines, and settled into the airplane. We lucked out with a pair of exit row seats, and after boarding first (Doolies flashed her Continental airline Elite card), we settled in for the long haul. After a quick nap, I finished my writing for the day, and now plan to doodle a bit before a few more naps. We’re currently flying over Montana passing Bighorn on our way to the East Coast. I’ll post this when I arrive in Brooklyn.