CHAPTER 14

Sarah

“Meow.”

Sarah paused in readying the conference room for the improvement committee meeting and went to peer out the window. Outside, Siegfried was turning in a circle in front of the book drop box. One. Two. He stopped and sat, watching the door of town hall as if expecting a mouse to dart out.

Only two circles. That’s promising. More heartened than she had been in a while, Sarah rubbed her hands together. It was more than Siegfried that had given her hope, though. Grace had spent almost three hours this morning going through the town archives, and when she’d emerged, she’d been deep in thought, as if something had occurred to her.

Please let her have a great idea. A wonderful idea. A fricking brilliant idea.

The door to town hall swung open and Zoe stepped out, dressed in a formfitting sheath dress of chocolate brown trimmed with a Peter Pan collar. She carried a stack of folders, a pen tucked behind one ear. She glanced both ways, then crossed the street and walked toward the library.

Siegfried meowed again and then wandered down the street and was soon out of sight.

Sarah went back to getting the room ready for the meeting, setting out bottles of water and notepads.

Zoe came in. She didn’t stop by her usual chair but walked straight up to Sarah. “Okay, how’d you do it?”

Sarah blinked. “How’d I do what?”

“This.” Zoe held out the Italian phrase book Sarah had handed her a few weeks ago.

“Ah. That.” Sarah put the last bottle of water in front of Grace’s seat. “It’s not easy to explain.”

“Explain it anyway.”

Sarah took stock of the militant sparkle in Zoe’s hazel eyes. “I take it you needed that book after all.”

Zoe’s mouth tightened. “Yes. But don’t you dare ask me why.”

“Fine. But you give, I give. I’ll explain exactly how I knew you needed that book, but only after you tell me what it did for you.”

The mulish line of Zoe’s mouth said all Sarah needed to know, so she grinned. “I’m glad it was handy.”

Zoe didn’t smile back. “Out with it, Dove. How do you do it?”

People had asked that before, and over the years Sarah had learned to tread carefully. Some believed, some didn’t, and it was a waste of time trying to convince the nonbelievers. “It just comes to me.”

“How?”

She shrugged. “They tell me, and I listen.”

“The books talk?”

“Sort of. Not out loud but inside my head.”

“For the love of— Here.” Zoe thrust the book into Sarah’s hands. “Take it back.”

Sarah looked down at the book. It seemed to be laughing softly, but as it didn’t argue, she tucked it under her arm. “You seem upset. Did you—”

“It doesn’t matter what happened. I don’t want that book anywhere near me. It’s— I didn’t—” Zoe clamped her mouth closed and then spun on her heel and walked back to her seat.

The book was now laughing even harder. Sarah patted it. “I’m sorry if it caused you problems. I’ll reshelve it as soon as the meeting is over.”

“Thank you,” Zoe said stiffly.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want you upset.”

“I’m not.” Zoe sat down. “Is everything ready with Plan G?”

“Yup. I just got off the phone with Ava and she’s on board. I— Ah, there’s Grace. Good afternoon!”

Grace breezed in and made her way to her seat. “Good afternoon.” She was carrying a new stack of folders and she smiled as she walked past Sarah.

Sarah noticed that the faded folder Mrs. Phelps had used for years had been replaced by a set of neat, color-coded binders. A sign of permanence, she hoped.

Ed and Erma walked in, Nate following, and soon the room was buzzing. Grace had just looked at her watch when Kat and Ava came hurrying in and found their seats.

“Sorry we’re late,” Ava said. “Kat had some unfinished business.”

Kat put her folder down but remained standing. “Before we begin, I have an announcement, thanks to Grace.”

Everyone looked at Grace, who appeared shocked. “Me?”

“Yes, you. After our conversation at the Moonlight, I realized I’ve been limiting myself. So . . .” She beamed at everyone. “I started my own business.”

“What?” Erma exclaimed.

Kat grinned and pulled a small stack of business cards from her pocket and handed them out. “I’m just beginning, and it’ll be a while before I turn a profit, but at least I started.”

Erma held the card at arm’s length and tilted her head so that she could look through the bottom part of her glasses. “ ‘Carter Commercial Real Estate, LLC.’ ” Erma lowered the card. “How’s this different from your mother’s company?”

“Mom works in residential real estate, while I’ll be working with commercial properties, both rentals and sales. Mom hates the commercial end of the business because of the paperwork, but there’s a lot more money to be made there. Or”—she corrected herself—“there will be soon.”

“Congratulations,” Grace said. “I think you’ll do great with that.”

“I hope so,” Kat said as she took her seat. “I’m going to try. I’ll still work with my mom until I’ve built up my business, but I’m hoping it won’t take long.”

“Way to go,” Ed said approvingly. “If I hear of anyone looking for commercial property, I’ll share your information.”

“Thank you.”

“I can think of a few people you need to talk to right now,” Zoe said. “May I have more of your cards? I’ll need at least five.”

Kat handed a small stack to Zoe, who tucked them into her folder. “Thank you.”

“That’s excellent news, and it plays right into what I have to say.” Grace looked around the conference table. “Are we ready to begin?” When everyone nodded, Grace said, “Old business first. Did you all read the report Zoe emailed this morning?”

Ava made a face. “I tried.”

“It was too long to read on the computer, so I printed it out and wow, was it thick,” Nate said with a grimace. “Or maybe I am, because I still couldn’t figure out what it meant.”

Grace looked at Zoe. “Care to explain what we’ve discovered?”

“Sure. I brought copies in case some of you didn’t have a chance to read it.” Zoe flipped open her folder and handed out copies of her report. “Grace and I were wondering why the festivals have lost their audience. So we worked up a fiscal analysis of the festivals and, since we were there, their impact on Dove Pond.”

“We dug way, way back in the financial records,” Grace added. “And then I topped it off by spending some time with the archives.”

“We discovered that the festivals and the town have the same problem,” Zoe added.

“Only one?” Nate looked disbelieving.

“A big one,” Zoe said firmly. “Large and costly, too.”

“What is it?” Erma asked, looking interested.

“The town lost sight of why we had the festivals to begin with. They were originally held to benefit the residents while celebrating Dove Pond and its history.”

“Those are good reasons to have a festival.”

“True,” Zoe agreed. “But as time went on and the festivals became more successful, the town took over and they became a cash cow for the Dove Pond coffers.”

“What do you mean, ‘took over’?” Erma asked.

“Exactly what I said. The town also began to charge for their contributions—use of the park and security and other things as well.”

Grace nodded. “They charged vendors for booths, too.”

“Wait,” Kat said. “I thought our festivals always lost money?”

“They do now,” Zoe said. “But at one time, they brought in a lot of cash.”

“Just not for the town,” Grace clarified. “You see, the original purpose of the first Apple Festival was to help the people of Dove Pond. So farmers and the stores in town would bring their extra stock, crafts they’d made, the last round of produce, and whatever else they had to sell, and that money would help them make it through the winter.”

Zoe added, “Conversely, the Spring Fling was held to bring everyone together to celebrate the early harvests and to assist the farmers and local businesses in finding the help they needed for their bigger summer crops.”

“It was a big hiring fair, in a way,” Grace said.

“So originally, neither of our festivals were meant to make money for the town,” Erma said. “They were meant to help the citizens.”

“Exactly.” Grace tapped one of her binders. “But as the years passed, the focus moved from helping the residents to establishing a cash flow for the town coffers. And as it did so, the festivals became less and less successful.”

“That’s not good,” Kat said.

“It wasn’t. Things really got bad when the festival became an official town event in nineteen seventy-seven. That decision was made under Mayor Jenkins, Mayor Moore’s predecessor. Jenkins made the festival an official part of the town clerk’s job.”

“Jenkins was a penny-pincher,” Erma said with distaste. “Getting him to pay for anything was like pulling teeth. That’s why he was voted out.”

Grace nodded. “Under his aegis, the festivals became stale and anemic.”

Zoe returned the report to her folder. “We were left with two poorly functioning generic festivals mainly geared toward tourists, which was completely contrary to why the festivals were originally established. The further away from the original purposes of the festivals that the town got, the less successful they were.”

Kat sat back in her seat. “We forgot our client base.”

“Exactly,” Grace said.

There was a moment of silence as everyone considered this. Nate dropped the paper on the table in front of him. “We need to go back to the old formula.”

“Yes,” Grace said. “Which is why I want to revisit the festival budget.”

“Praise the Lord!” Erma said.

“What’s to revisit?” Ava asked. “You said at the last meeting that we need to do some sort of business outreach or we’re sunk, and that there’s no more money.”

“Which is still true, and I’m going to address that. But first I want to talk about something I discovered this morning.” She looked around the table. “I went through the town archives, almost three hundred years of history. It was a fascinating history lesson. But now Dove Pond is failing, and there are similarities to the failing companies I used to help restructure, more than I’d realized. As I told Sarah this morning, when we’d first take on a company, we’d spend weeks, sometimes months, getting to know who they were, what they were, and how they were viewed. That’s their branding. And of all the things a company owns, their brand is worth more than anything else.”

“Sure,” Kat said. “Like Nike or Nabisco—you know what those represent.”

“Exactly. When you’re helping a company restructure, the last thing you want to do is damage their brand. In fact, you do everything you can to protect it and, if you can, build on it.”

“And you think the Apple Festival is part of the town brand?” Erma said.

“No. The town’s brand isn’t the festivals. It’s all of you.”

Sarah leaned forward. “Us?”

Grace nodded. “While I was reading through the deeds and the old newspapers and the old flyers for references to the Apple Festival, I kept seeing the same thing over and over. I saw the Bells, the Doves, the Parkers, the Moores, the Carters, the Jepsons, the Tingles, the Boltons—all of you, all your families. And you’re all still here. You’re the brand.” She tapped the binder in front of her. “The Apple Festival was a huge event because it was a family event.”

Sarah blinked. “And family is what Dove Pond is all about.”

“Exactly. That’s our brand. And that’s what we need to focus on if we want to bring the town back.”

“But . . . how do we do that?” Ed asked.

“We sell ourselves on the basis of what we have, not what we don’t.”

Ava looked confused. “But what do we have?”

Grace pointed to Zoe. “We have a bank eager to increase its business accounts.”

“You know it,” Zoe agreed in a fervent tone.

Grace pointed to Kat. “A huge amount of available, low-cost commercial properties.”

“Most of the owners would be willing to cut good deals, too,” Kat said. “Especially for long-term leases.”

“Good,” Grace said. “We also have plenty of businesses interested in promoting themselves and finding new customers.”

“Count me in,” Nate said.

“Me too,” Ed agreed.

“Oh my God,” Ava said. “I’m starting to see what you’re saying. We should combine the two.”

Grace smiled.

“Wait. What?” Sarah felt as if she was the only one being left behind.

Zoe sent her an impatient look. “The Apple Festival could be the ultimate small-business outreach event.”

Grace leaned back in her chair. “But we have to go back and make it what it used to be, a festival about this town, about the people who live here.”

“How do we do that?” Sarah asked.

“We showcase who we are,” Grace said. “Dove Pond is a beautiful, friendly, family-oriented town.”

“With,” Zoe added, “a huge potential for low-cost, small-business start-ups. That’s who we’ve always been. We just haven’t focused on that. We haven’t told anyone.”

“Which means,” Grace said, “that every business and every community entity in Dove Pond should have a booth.”

“All of them?” Nate looked surprised.

Grace nodded.

“The churches could have booths,” Erma said. “They could do a cake walk or something like that. They’ll love it.”

Grace added, “So will most community groups.”

Ed brightened. “I’m a member of the Kiwanis and we just had the Callahan brothers make us a half a dozen corn hole boards. We got them for our summer barbecues, but we’re always looking for ways to raise money for the children’s hospital. People love that game, too.”

“That’s a great idea,” Grace said.

“The Moonlight could set up a lunch tent,” Ava said thoughtfully. “I could sell spring plants, and my teas too.”

“The bank can hand out piggy banks and totes,” Zoe added. “Dad was just saying last week that we don’t do outreach the way we used to, so this would be a good start.”

This is so exciting. Sarah’s mind whirled with ideas. “The Callahan brothers make beautiful wood items like cheese trays and salad bowls and cutting boards. And Doc Bolton is always saying we should have a health fair, so I bet he’d be willing to host a tent for free blood pressure readings, where he can hand out some of his pamphlets.”

“He loves handing those out.” Ed rubbed his chin. “Maggie and I can do dog grooming and sell some of the discontinued items we’ve got in boxes in the back. We need to get rid of that stuff, anyway.”

“You can sell new items, too,” Zoe reminded him. “Just mingle it between the sale items.”

“That’s a good idea,” Ed agreed with a thoughtful nod.

“I’ll set up a summer gardening display and do some planting workshops,” Nate offered.

“We could put the schedule on the website,” Grace said.

“Great. I’ll get that to you this week.”

“Hmm.” Kat tilted her head to one side. “I wonder if Lisa Tilden would be willing to bring some of her coworkers and do mini massages? It would be a great way for her to build up her local client base.”

“Perfect!” Zoe said. “I’d pay for that.”

“Me, too,” Nate said fervently. When everyone looked at him, he flushed and said, “What? I’ve got a bad back.”

Kat grinned. “Right. Bad back. That’s a great excuse, Nate.”

“What about T.W.?” Erma asked. “He’s got all of those near-tame animals. They’re like house pets.”

“So?” Ed said.

Erma gave him an impatient look. “So he could do a petting zoo. He’s got chickens, pygmy goats, a pony named Bruce Lee, and the cutest baby donkey right now, too, as well as two lambs.”

“Yes!” Grace couldn’t have looked more pleased. “You see what’s happening? Dove Pond is happening. This is who we are. And this is what we need to sell.”

Sarah heard Grace say “we” and had to fight the urge to yell out a celebratory “whoop-whoop.”

“I like this.” Kat tapped her folder. “We should also invite these businesses who’ve left. Most are still local and would see our community as potential clients.”

“Great idea,” Grace agreed.

“I’ll buy in,” Nate said. “I don’t see how we can’t. But how do you envision the outreach part of your plan?”

“At the festival, we’ll have a special area where we’ll welcome any and all businesses. We’ll treat them for what they are, prospective investors in our town. We’ll have a packet of key information available for each of them when they arrive, and we’ll assign a guide who will show them our beautiful town.”

“I love this,” Erma said, beaming. “I take it you’ve already thought about the funding issue? You’ve thought of everything else.”

“Zoe and I figured that out earlier this afternoon. We’re going to add vendors to our fair.”

Erma’s smile slipped. “We’ve always had vendors.”

“Not this many. We’re going to add a lot.”

Zoe nodded. “We’re expanding the size of the festival—doubling it, in fact.”

“My God,” Erma said, her eyes huge behind her glasses. “But how will that make our festival affordable?”

“Because we’re going to charge a vendor fee again.”

“No!” Erma threw down her pen. “People will hate that.”

“We already thought about that,” Zoe said smoothly. “We’re not charging a traditional fee. We’re only asking for a cut of profits over a certain amount.”

“A generous amount,” Grace said. “If a vendor doesn’t make a good profit, neither will we.”

“Isn’t that taking a chance?” Ava asked.

“I’d prefer to call it a calculated risk,” Grace said. “But it means we’ve got to hit the ground running. We need to plump up our vendor list as soon as possible and get commitments. Erma, I was hoping you’d take the lead on the vendors.”

Erma flushed but looked pleased. “Me?”

Grace pulled out a folder. “Would you mind?”

“No! I mean, I’m glad to help.”

Grace slid the folder to Erma. “We’ll talk about it after the meeting. Since we’re going to ask for a cut of their profits, we’ll need to do more for the vendors.”

Zoe nodded. “Welcome baskets, a listing on the town website and on all promotional materials—we want to get the word out for them.”

“Sheesh,” Sarah said. “I never thought about having a welcome basket for vendors.”

Ed shook his head. “Every year, we had a festival checklist and we’d just go down it and check off the boxes. And when it was done, we just sort of quit.”

“Some of that was Mrs. Phelps,” Ava pointed out.

“She was too busy to do more than the basics,” Grace said. “The clerk’s job can be overwhelming; there’s a lot of paperwork. I daresay she saw the social club the way I did initially—as an inconvenience that needed to be gotten over with as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

“Done right, it’s a big job.” Ed closed his folder and leaned his elbows on it, his hands clasped on top. “But shouldn’t we be careful what sort of businesses we try to lure to our town? We want the ones that would be a good fit, the ones the locals would support.”

Nate gave a skeptical laugh. “Can we target like that?”

“Sure,” Zoe said. “We’ll do it the same way you sell mulch at the hardware store. You put it on display by the front door with a lot of photos of gorgeous lawns, and you ask every single person going through the checkout line who has bought a spade or a garden hose if they need any.”

Nate grinned. “It works.”

“Exactly.”

“But how do we know which businesses to ask?” Ava asked.

“Grace and I are working on a list,” Zoe said. “Some are obvious. We lost our local pediatrician when Dr. Lynn retired, and his offices are available. He was plenty busy, too, so there’s an opportunity there, if we could find a good match. And the theater has been closed since Lou Jacobs died. It’s a beautiful building. After his death, Jules Stewart from the Moonlight bought it. She said she’s willing to let it go for the right price, and it’s the perfect place for an independent movie house.”

“I love indie films,” Sarah said.

Grace looked at Ava and smiled. “You’re on our business list too.”

“Me?” Ava looked from Grace to Zoe and back. “I already have greenhouses and an office.”

“Yes,” Zoe said, “but you don’t have a teahouse.”

Ava opened her eyes wider. “A teahouse?”

“That would be a nice addition to town,” Erma said.

“I love teahouses,” Sarah said. “Nothing goes better with a good book than a cup of hot tea and a scone.”

Ava considered it. “I guess I could. I never thought about it, but—no. I don’t know how to cook, and no one wants tea without food.”

Kat shrugged. “If you’re interested, we can work on that.”

“She’s right,” Zoe said. “That’s the least of your worries. And if you had the right manager, you wouldn’t even have to be there. It would turn a heck of a profit without you having to divide your attention between the two places.”

Ava leaned back in her seat. “I’ll give it some thought. But . . . you know, I could do it. I just never thought about it.”

“Exactly.” Looking smug, Zoe turned to Kat. “We’re going to need a list of all the available office and warehouse spaces in town and their prices. We want to include it in the business welcome packets.”

Kat brightened. “I’ll get right on it. May I put my company name on the list?”

“Of course. You’re the only commercial realtor in town, you know.”

Grace beamed around the table. “I know it seems overwhelming, but the reality of Dove Pond is that it slipped away slowly, one business at a time. We can bring it back the same way.”

“One business at a time,” Ava said, looking bemused.

“Do you really think it’s possible?” Erma asked.

Grace shrugged. “Nothing’s guaranteed, but yes, I do. I think Dove Pond will get better and that this committee will make it happen.”

“And better is”—Sarah grinned—“better.”

“Wow,” Erma said. “Just wow.” She placed her hands flat on the table and slid her chair closer. “So what do we do now?”

“First things first,” Grace said. “We’re going to focus on our festival planning for the rest of the meeting. We’ll call an extra meeting Monday to brainstorm the business aspect. Zoe will be in charge of that.”

“On it, boss,” Zoe said.

“What will you do?” Kat asked Grace.

“I’ll be in charge of the logistics—tents, electricity, safety. The basic setup.”

Sarah thought about the town, and all her hopes for it, which were too numerous to count. She was happy to see the enthusiasm humming in the room, which boded well for the festival. But today she had a higher purpose. She cleared her throat. “Before we get into the festival planning, there’s another issue I’d like to bring up.”

Everyone stopped talking. As if she sensed Sarah’s nervousness, Ava nodded her encouragement.

Grace, who’d just pulled her notepad closer, looked up, surprised. “What’s that?”

Sarah pulled a paper out of her folder and slid it across the table to Grace.

Grace picked it up and read it aloud. “ ‘Monday, Paw Printz for dog washing. Tuesday, help Ava package teas. Wednesday and Friday, the library for Children’s Hour. Thursday, the Moonlight for pie class.’ ” She lowered the list. “What’s this?”

“It’s something the committee and I put together,” Sarah said. “It’s for Daisy.”

“For Daisy?”

Sarah nodded. “We know you’ve had a really difficult time lately, and we wanted to help. So we’d like to hire Daisy to assist us with a few things. She’ll get two dollars a week.”

“We didn’t want to pay her too much,” Erma said. “That’s not good for a child.”

“But Maggie and I really could use the help at Paw Printz,” Ed said. “Monday’s our busiest day.”

“And you know I always need extra hands packaging my teas,” Ava said. “I have almost more orders than I can fill.”

“I’ve been struggling to make Children’s Hour better,” Sarah added. “Daisy can help me select the books and then read to the other kids. It would be good for her, too, because this way she’ll see at least a few familiar faces when she starts school.”

Grace slowly put the list back on the table. “I— You all . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Nate said. “I’ll run out and pick her up at one every day after lunch. I go right by there on my way back to work, so you won’t have to leave the office.”

Sarah added, “She can ride home with you when she’s done. She’ll be safe and busy, and except when she’s helping Ava, she’ll be somewhere close by, so you can check on her at any time.”

Grace’s eyes were shiny. “I can’t let you do this.”

“You’ll hurt our feelings if you say no,” Ava said.

“It’ll be good for Daisy,” Sarah added.

“And it’ll let Linda spend more time with Mama G,” Kat said.

Grace pressed her hand to her cheek. After a moment, her eyes bright with tears, she looked at Sarah. “You knew about this during our ride this morning.”

“I did, but I didn’t want to say anything until we were all together. This is a gift from the whole town, Grace. All you have to do is say yes.”

“I—” Grace swiped at her eyes and looked at the people sitting around the table as if she were just seeing them for the very first time.

Finally, she met Sarah’s gaze. “I can’t say no. Daisy will love this.” And in the softest, warmest voice Sarah had ever heard Grace use, she said, “Thank you.”