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“Agreed.”
“Did someone say Harry Tuba?” Doug strolled in through the open door, but stopped short when he noticed Mimi wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?” He smiled at Momma.
“Momma, this is Doug Wentworth, the new city manager,” Mimi said by way of introduction. “My mom, Ann Powers.”
Doug shook Momma’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Momma said in a chilly, but still polite voice. She gave Doug a thorough look over. “So, you’re Paul’s replacement? I heard the city had hired an outsider to clean things up.”
“Doug came to us from Old Explorer’s Bay,” Mimi said.
“Yes, but that’s not where you’re from originally, is it?” Momma asked him. Momma was always suspicious of anyone who came from more than a fifty mile radius of the place they ended up. It was all right to go off to school but then afterward she believed in settling down near your roots. The fact that Mimi’s brother Luke lived in Atlanta was a sore spot for her.
Doug kept his smile firmly in place. “You’re right, it’s not. I was born and raised in Kansas.”
“Kansas? Lovely country, I’m sure.” Momma said it like she expected Doug to take off in a hot air balloon and never come back.
Mimi began to cough.
“Are you all right?” Momma asked. “Maybe you shouldn’t have chugged all that water earlier.” She glanced between Mimi and Doug. “I take it the two of you have work to do?”
“I can come by later,” Doug said.
“No, no…I have to be going anyway.” Momma stood and gave Mimi a long look. “We’ll talk soon.”
Hopefully, soon didn’t mean in the next couple of hours. Knowing Momma, though, it probably did. If Mimi wanted to avoid another call this afternoon, then she needed to take care of some family business. “I’ll stop by the house on my way home.”
“You will?” Momma’s gaze sharpened. “Good. Your father and I will expect you no later than six.” She left, not bothering to close the door on her way out.
“She seems like a nice lady,” Doug said.
“Are you sure I’m the only politician in the room?” He smiled and Mimi motioned for him to take a chair. “So, what’s up?”
“I was wondering if you’d had a chance to look through the festival papers.”
“Not yet,” Mimi admitted.
“Then let me save you the trouble. The festival’s broke,” Doug said.
“Broke? As in, there’s something that needs to be fixed? Or broke as in there’s no money?”
“Broke as in, no money. According to what I could piece together, Bruce overspent on advertising last year. And for some reason, a lot of people left the festival early. Based on the previous years’ revenues, it’s the late evening crowd that spends the most money on food and drinks.”
“I’ll tell you why people left early,” Mimi said. “Bruce promised us that Billy Brenton was coming to put on a concert. He did everything but put up a billboard along the highway.”
“Billy Brenton? Isn’t he some big country music star?”
“Yep. At the time, we all thought it was too good to be true. Which, of course, it was because Billy never showed. The festival organizers had to substitute Harry Polka and his tuba band at the last minute.”
“Harry Polka?”
“Yeah. The name pretty well sums it up.”
“I wish I could help you with this festival,” Doug said, “But I have my hands full with getting out the new budget.”
“Oh, no worries. This is what I signed up for when I ran for mayor.”
He looked as if he was about to leave, when he said, “I was thinking, maybe we could get that cup of coffee today after work?”
