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Looked Down On
Ten Months Later
“Carter,”Mason Rauch said to him when he walked into the town hall meeting in early May. “I’m not surprised you’d be here.” Mason was on the Island Planning Board.
“Really?” Carter asked. Most people would be. He was one of the quiet Bonds. Hardly speaking unless spoken to.
He ran his garage well because he only talked about what needed to get done and didn’t care about much else.
“It’s nice to see more business owners here,” Mason said.
Mason was related to him somewhere along the lines by marriage. He had no clue how close though at this point. Mason had married Sophia Nadar who was from Patricia’s side of the family. Carter was from William’s side. The poor side. The troublemaker Bonds. At least generations ago.
They’d made a better name for themselves in the past fifty or so years though. At least he liked to think so. Even if what he did for a living was looked down on by many. Nothing wrong with an honest day’s work in his eyes. Someone had to do it and it paid damn well to him.
“I doubt many of the hotel owners will be here,” Carter said.
Which meant Mason’s daughters, Penelope and Emily, who owned Atlantic Rise. There was also the Bond Casino and The Retreat among many rental properties and bed and breakfasts that members of the Bond family owned.
Not him. Not his immediate family either.
The only homes they owned were their personal homes and nothing like the other branches of the family.
“Probably not,” Mason said. “This is more about services that are needed on the island. We need to hear everyone’s voice.”
“We always need things here,” Carter said. “The problem is finding people to start the business. Most can’t afford to move here unless they already have a house here.”
“That is problem number one,” Mason said. “Number two is finding property for a business.”
“Always going to be an issue,” he said, moving toward the meeting room. There were more small business owners coming in along with members of the community.
The business owners would get to talk first about the things that would help them or they’d need and then the residents would go next.
It didn’t take long for the place to fill up and the meeting to start.
Once the agenda items were ticked down, business owners could go up one by one to the microphone and talk about what they’d like to see on the island to help improve business and tourism.
There were some good ideas and some ridiculous ones, but he waited until the businesses were done and then got in line with the residents.
He was the second one there, wanted to say his part and then leave. He’d already been in here an hour and it was testing his patience more than he’d thought it would.
“Carter, you’re up next.”
“We need a full-time veterinary hospital or clinic on the island.”
There were a lot of murmurs and head nodding around him. “It’s something that we’ve tried for years,” one of the members of the board said. He didn’t know her name. He should have probably been paying more attention, but she was newer to the island. Someone he’d seen a few times, maybe once in his garage, definitely here at meetings.
“I know,” he said. “It’s hard to convince someone to come here. The part-time clinic we have now is small and needs work done to it, but it’s a start. Why can’t we offer tax breaks for a year or so if they can find another property? The town owns the clinic, right, and charges rent?”
He remembered that. His father had been one of the few that pushed for this twenty years ago. The island had let a building be used and only rent was paid, not even a lot. But the building was small and in need of repair at this point.
“It does,” Mason said. “I think we might be able to put some thought into this if it helps to get someone here.”
“I had to bring my dog to Boston last week on the ferry for emergency surgery,” someone in the room said. “I almost lost him. It’s always a hardship to get animals on and off the island. More so if they are big dogs.”
Carter knew that better than anyone but was thankful his St. Bernard, Dopey, was so well behaved. He’d be bringing home another pup in a few weeks, and as much as he wanted the second dog, he knew getting the vet appointments were going to be hard with having a vet on the island only once a week at best.
