Page 66

Maye slowly raised a hand, not sure of the meeting protocol.

“Yes, in the back. I see that hand,” Todd pointed at Maye.

“Are these all of the volunteers?” she asked, slightly concerned with how few people would be helping run the event.

“No, these are just the leads. Laura handles games, Rex handles food, Melvin is sanitation, and Tabby hospitality. All of the individual volunteers are assigned to one of these areas and then report up to a lead. You will be communicating with the volunteers, assigning them to one of these areas, and working closely with the leads to make sure we’re fully staffed.”

“Is there a volunteer orientation or something like that for each area once volunteers are assigned?” Maye asked.

The heads around the table nodded at each other, seemingly impressed with the idea.

Todd knocked on the table a few times. “Order, order,” he said as the room quieted.

“Sounds like you’ve just initiated your first act as Volunteer Coordinator,” Melvin said.

Todd knocked furiously. “Hey, excuse me? Strike that from the record, please. I will be the one making the declarations here,” Todd said as he flashed glances at Melvin. Todd looked at Maye, placed his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together dramatically. “It looks like you’ve just initiated your first act as Volunteer Coordinator,” he said.

Melvin groaned and Todd knocked to reestablish order.

On a bright, crisp Saturday morning in mid-September, the ground was still wet from the cool overnight air and the leaves drizzled dew every time the wind blew. Maye was able to gather the majority of the Fall Fest volunteers and all of the leads for a Volunteer Orientation. They met downtown where the festival would be held, and where the market would remain until the end of October. The streets had not been shut down to traffic yet, but the vendor spots had been marked and signs pointed in the direction of the games area, concessions corner, and the competition arena, which would be the same professional wrestling ring the town had used every year for the Fall Fest competitions; the ring the town bought at auction after an independent wrestling league in Connecticut went under.

“So why do we use a wrestling ring again?” Tracy asked, looking at the signs.

“It was 2016,” Rex stepped forward and turned to face the crowd. “Which was at the tail end of the independent wrestling boom—”

“Oh lord, here we go again…” Margery sighed.

“There were wrestling clubs popping up all around New England,” Rex continued. “The North Shore in Massachusetts. Nashua, New Hampshire. Even Connecticut, of all places. And this spunky kid from Norwalk, a huge wrestling fan, wanted to make a name for himself. Well, he had a name. It was Ryan. But he wanted to be known. He was able to get enough funding together to form a league, but then it went bankrupt because he spent most of the investor’s money on eBay. The local auction house had such a hard time selling off the wrestling equipment that they contracted a larger, regional auctioneer, which is how a young Councilman Matt Mayer learned of it, and led the charge to acquire the stage lighting and wrestling ring.”

“It’s actually probably paid for itself with the advertising the town’s been able to sell on it,” Sandra said.

“Two follow-up questions,” Tracy raised her index finger. “How do you know all that? And is Ryan doing okay?”

Sandra and Laura began snickering among themselves.

“Oh, Rex the One-Man Wrecking Crew knows all about the amateur wrestling days, don’t ya Rex?” Sandra teased.

“You know it,” Rex said as he flexed his arms into a bicep pose.

“We could use those muscles on the setup and breakdown crew,” Maye said. “Speaking of volunteer positions, why don’t we organize into groups? I’ve put up signs for each volunteer group, so everyone go stand with the group you want to be part of and we’ll see how we need to shift things around.”

As volunteers began forming groups, Tracy poked her head in between Laura, Sandra, and Maye. “Did she tell you that Christoffer Robert R. Walker is coming to our little Fall Fest?” Tracy looked around for reactions.

“Tracy!” Maye scolded. “Why would you tell everybody about that?”

“Everybody?” Sandra said. “It’s only us.”

“Let’s be real,” Laura said. “If we know it, then it won’t be long before everybody else knows, too. We’re not exactly the most tight-lipped group of ladies in town.”

“Yeah, I suppose not,” Sandra said. “Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag, should we start conspiring on how we force them together so they fall in love?”

Tracy rubbed her hands together diabolically. “I love that idea…”

“No. Absolutely not. You will not get involved,” Maye pointed at each of them individually. “No. No. No.”

Sandra, Laura, and Tracy each took a step toward each other, effectively boxing out Maye from their conversation.

“They can judge the pumpkin decorating contest together?” Tracy suggested.