First Day in the Caribbean 11

"Both of you can call me Asch. Everybody else does. So what brings you to the bike shop, Sharon?"

"I had to tell Jenny my good news," she said brightly. "I got a full scholarship to a college in the states!"

Asch was carefully neutral. "Congratulations." He noticed the Easthaven newspaper, an eight-page tabloid, on the counter and picked it up. The front page held a headline about the new plant as if the deal were all but signed, sealed, and delivered. "Is your dad the mayor of Easthaven, by chance?"

"Yes. Good old dad, always working for the community and all that. I brought the paper with my scholarship article in it. Here," and she opened the paper for him.

Asch glanced at it. "So are you actually excited?"

Sharon stared at Asch for a moment, then her expression became downcast. "Well, I thought I'd get excited if I acted excited and told Jenny about it—but it's not working," she looked at Asch and Jenny with watery eyes, "they want me to go to Harvard. I'm not Harvard material. I just know I'll flunk out the first semester. I looked up some of their sample entrance exam questions and I couldn't answer a single one. And I've been looking forward to attending locally—with Jenny and a lot of my classmates—about all my life. I don't even know who donated the money—I just got this letter from the school explaining that I had gotten the scholarship, and Mrs. Needle at the paper said she had gotten a letter, too, as a press release, so she put it in."

"If you drop out that early," Asch remarked, "your donor will save a pile of money on that scholarship."

Asch glanced at Jenny, then folded the paper closed, revealing the front page. "Sharon, how do you feel about this?"

"Oh, I dunno. I suppose it'll be good for Easthaven and all that. The guy from the big company stopped by the house one evening for a private meeting with Dad, and Dad came out of that meeting in favor of it. I was at the council meeting, and the guy gives me the creeps, like he was oily. The guy from the little company seemed real down to earth, though."

Jenny looked from Sharon to Asch and back. "Something is going on."

"Why is there so much competition for this location?" Asch was genuinely curious. "Aren't there lots of islands around? And why now?"

"There's one civics question I know the answer to! Well, I guess that's two questions—but anyway, the land belonged to a spinster lady, the last in a long line of folks who've lived here. When she died, she gave the land to the city with the stipulation that it be put to use for the benefit of the whole town." Sharon paused. "There was talk about making it into a park, but the town's not exactly rich, and there's lots of recreational land around already; I mean, like, we're on a Caribbean island, right? Duh. So there was a movement of sorts to make some money for the town. Some talk about a solar farm, but not much got done, and then these two companies showed up. I think they like the water. There's a spring or something. I didn't follow that part too much."

"I'd like to learn about that water. Fresh water is a precious commodity on an island." Then Asch came to a decision. "Sharon, may I show you some things I found out?" he asked.

"Uh, I guess so, sure," she said. "Can Jenny see, too?

"Yes. I think Jenny will have a lot to say about this, too. Let's go get on the computer." They went into the office, and Asch took them to several business gossip sites, some sites representing environmental and workers' causes, and chambers of commerce. He bookmarked each one after pointing out the relevant pages and topics. From the headlines the girls got a taste of where this was going and as soon as Asch was done they dove into the information, moving him aside in their eagerness. Asch smiled and thought to himself, "funny how we humans are always eager to dig up dirt."

"Okay, keep your eyes open for customers. I'm going to move along. Let me know what you think when you're done. We could use some ideas." He headed for the library.

"Why hello, Mr. Jones, how nice to see you!" said the librarian, whose name was Marian. She was a prim-looking grey-haired not quite elderly lady with her hair pulled back in a bun. "What brings you here this fine day?"

"You really don't have to call me that; Asch is fine," Asch said.

"Now, Mr. Jones, we've had this conversation before. Everyone deserves to be addressed by their last name. It's a sign of honor on the one hand, and respect on the other. And I certainly respect you," she batted her eyes, "and you should be honored."

Asch suspected the respect was a function of the contribution he made when he joined the Friends of the Library, but he knew an old maid librarian when he saw one, too. "Well, I'd certainly be honored if you could point me to the answer to a question about this island's geology." He gave her his best polite smile.

"Do you by chance want to know about the spring on the south end of Easthaven?" She asked.

Asch was taken aback. "Yes! How did you know?"

"It's the only inquiry I get from adults about the island's geology, and I've gotten several in the past few months." She saw he was interested, so she continued, "It all started about a year ago, with a thesis. Here, let me show you," and she took him to a back room filled with what looked like homemade books, and pulled one down. "These are the theses from the college. We offer master's degrees, but not doctorates, so there's no dissertations, but some of these theses are pretty interesting reads. I usually at least look through them when they come in, and one on geology was particularly interesting. I called the student and told him he should write a condensed version and submit it to a magazine. Well, he did, bless his heart, but the only magazine that would take it was Craft Brewing Hobbyist. He took me out to dinner to celebrate—he was such a nice boy; I couldn't turn him down." She got a dreamy look on her face.

Asch chuckled at her sigh, figuring she didn't get out much. "And that led to inquiries?"

"Oh yes! Our new geologist was offered payment to show some guys around on the condition that he not show the place to anybody else. Well, he refused, but he showed them the mountainside anyway for free. Such a nice boy. No wonder he's poor." She leaned toward Asch and gave him a conspiratorial look. "He told me all this later. Except about being poor. I figured that out myself." She continued, "it turned out that two actual beer companies approached him, and he showed them both around." She handed the thesis to Asch. "One of the people actually sat down and read the whole thing. We don't let people check these out, you know. He said he was a beer hobbyist. The other guy offered me a 'donation' to let him check it out. He wasn't even from the island! So of course I wouldn't compromise library policy, and he photocopied the whole thing, at a nickel a page, too. I could have offered him a discount, but I didn't."

Asch joined her in a snicker.

"Anyway, long story short, I subscribed the library to the magazine, so you can check it out, but I had to actually mail order the one with the article in it because it was a back issue. Would you like to see it? It might be an easier read than the thesis, though I'm sure you, of all people, could handle the thesis easily." She looked at him expectantly.

Asch inwardly rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'd like to see the article, thank you. It should make a good introduction to the thesis for me."

"Okay! The précis is pretty useful, too. Even shorter than the article" She tapped the thesis and scampered off to get the back issue.

Asch took a table and started to read. The précis was a good intro to the article, but the magazine had pictures. He paged through the thesis, looking closely at the topo maps and reading passages that had been underlined. He finished up about in time to leave to meet Octavia for supper.

Returning the materials to the librarian, Asch said, "Thank you, Beautiful!" She started to react scandalized, but Asch continued, "All librarians are beautiful. And you've been more help to me than you know. This is just the information I needed." He leaned over and pecked her on the cheek.

She blushed and said, "Well, I'm always glad to help a patron. Now get out of here, before I kick you out for being fresh."

Asch chuckled and took his leave, winking at her over his shoulder when he reached the door. "I'm so wicked, leading the poor girl on so. I'll have to make a confession to Octavia," he thought to himself.

On the way there, he got a text from Jenny, "Shar says shes going 2 hav a talk w hr dad." Asch texted her back. "Can U2 meet w me and some friends at Clay's Tap about 7p?" Then he texted a note to the same effect to Lydia.

Dinner with Octavia was lovely, but he, and then she, was distracted by what he had learned about Easthaven. She teased him about the librarian and promised to keep her eye open for a guy who might be interested in her. "So she'll stop trying to get her hooks into you."

Octavia managed to get another waitress to fill in for her on a promise to return the favor, so she was able to come to Clay's too. They noticed Brian and Carol, the welder and the company receptionist, at a table. It came out that Brian and Carol both lived in Easthaven, so Asch invited them to join the meeting. Brian in particular was interested in the south end developments. He lived on that end of town and would have a stake in what happened.

Clay came over to take their orders. Asch was first. "Say, Clay, did you know the library has a subscription to a magazine about homemade craft beer making?"

Clay's eyebrows went up. "Is that right? Now that might be interesting. I've always wondered what it would take to make my own beer."

"The librarian keeps it close at hand, so ask at the desk." Asch and Octavia looked at each other; Octavia's eyes twinkled.

They ordered something light to share, then the meeting started in earnest. Sharon wanted to talk first. "I just want to tell everybody that I'll deal with Dad. When I'm done with him, that company will have a lot weaker hold on him. You guys'll have an easier time of it, believe me."

Brian and company looked mystified, so Ash gave a ten-sentence summary. Brian leaned back and looked thoughtful.

Asch continued, "Here's why they're so interested in building a plant in Easthaven instead of somewhere else. You all know this is a volcanic island. Well, it's experienced two major eruptions, and the two calderas don't quite line up. One, which makes our bay here on the west, is from the second eruption, and there's a C-shaped basin behind it on the east formed by the first crater's rim. It's hard to see because it's pretty much overgrown, and the top of that crater is about a third of the way down, but the basin holds a lot of water, and it's replenished regularly by the rain. This water is leaking out through fissures in the rock of the first crater, and it meets daylight south of Easthaven. That's our spring, and it gets purified and picks up almost no minerals during its trip through the igneous rock. Apparently a reservoir like this is uncommon, and it makes the water perfect for beer."

"Hence the interest in our location." It was Brian. "How sure are you about the big guys being dishonest?"

Jenny chimed in. "I can give you a list of websites. They're pretty convincing. Lawsuits, anecdotal evidence. Case histories. Reports from activists and victims alike. They're interested in making deals, profit maximization, don't care about the effects they have on people or the environment."

Asch added, "I should add that the spring produces enough water for a small operation, but to support a large plant, they'll have to do a lot of drilling and excavation, and they'll draw water faster than the basin can supply it."

Clay and some of the other customers were able to overhear most of the conversation. "Anybody got any artistic ability?" asked Clay, "I'll be glad to let you put up a poster about this."

"Hey! I can make something. I wanted to get into commercial art before—well, I want to get into commercial art. We can do a bunch of them. I'll get on it as soon as I finish with Dad." Sharon and Jenny grabbed a napkin and began to sketch out some ideas.

"I want to have a few conversations with the neighbors," said Brian.

"Me too!" chimed in Carol.

Asch stood up. "Well, it looks like we have a start. Lydia and I want to meet with a city council member or two."

"And their staff. Especially their staff," added Lydia. "They do all the work."

"Lydia and I have plans to give a couple presentations to a couple groups in Easthaven, too."

"Yes; he's going to be the big heavy-duty expert from the states, come down to share his discoveries with the islanders," snickered Lydia, "or maybe the exotic handsome guy from the states. That should draw the garden club."

"And the library staff?" asked Octavia, to Lydia's puzzlement. Asch snorted and Octavia smiled. "I'll explain later."

Octavia headed back to Rita's, and Asch piled his bike into Lydia's truck and they headed up the hill. Sharon was spending the night with Jenny, and everyone else went their separate ways.

On the way up the hill, Lydia remarked that having Sharon confront her dad might be a good thing, and Asch had to agree. "Ever since her mom died three years ago, she's had him pretty much wrapped around her little finger."

"Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens."