Just a Small-Town Mayor

Sam leaned over his desk and pointed to the calendar hanging on the office wall. “Why don’t we have something set up for Friday?”

Zoe sighed. “Honestly, because people are a little hesitant to let the mayor come see how their operations work. They don’t see it as you wanting to reach out to them. They see it as you wanting to spy on them.”

“But how can I help our city reach its potential if I don’t know our community?” Sam sat in his high-backed chair with a heavy thud. “I want to understand the people who helped elect me. I want to understand their concerns and the things that a politician usually doesn’t get to see.”

Zoe sat on the edge of his desk and smiled. “Which is why they think you are trying to spy on them.”

Sam rubbed his face and stretched his long legs under the desk. “Fine. What were you able to get for the rest of the week?”

“You’ll be at Ruby’s Little Dumpling Daycare tomorrow, then—”

Sam held up a hand, stopping Zoe mid-sentence. “You set me up at my sister’s place? I’m not sure that will help me win the town’s trust.”

Zoe stood and poured herself a glass of water. “They like you—from a distance. But you need to connect with some of the parents, and most of them take their kids to Ruby’s place.”

Sam eyed Zoe warily as she sat in the chair across from him.

“You are the first bachelor mayor that the town has ever had,” Zoe continued. “Which means, you have no idea what it is like to have kids, or be married for that matter, which sets you apart from the majority of the population. You need to be there tomorrow, to show them that it doesn’t matter. That you are still one of them.”

Anxiety gripped Sam, his chest tightening. He wanted to be a mayor that the town of Amor would remember—a mayor who actually made a difference. But kids terrified him. The parents he could handle; he wasn’t so sure about their offspring, though. They were chaotic and did things for no apparent reason, and that wasn’t the type of situation he wanted to be in if the press showed up.

“Okay,” he said, trying to block out images of packs of wild children ambushing him. He was pretty sure they could smell fear. “I’ll go kiss some babies at the daycare tomorrow.”

Zoe gave a satisfied nod, her eyes dancing.

“What?” Sam asked.

“Nothing,” she said with a grin that told him she had something planned for his field trip to Ruby’s drool and poop fest, but she was going to let it be a surprise.

Sam waved a hand at her, indicating she should continue with the schedule.

Still wearing her ‘you are so going to hate me tomorrow’ grin, Zoe said, “You’ll have CJ’s Auto Shop on Wednesday and then Dale’s Custard Stand on Thursday.”

That made Sam sit up a little straighter. “As a taste tester?” He tried to stay trim to maintain his image, but he couldn’t ever pass up Dale’s custard. He sold it out of a little stand at a downtown park, and it was the best custard in New Mexico, or so Dale claimed. And Sam agreed.

Zoe laughed, combing her fingers through her spiky black hair. “Not quite. Remember, you’re there to connect with the community, not put Dale out of business by eating all of his product.”

Sam gave a small shrug. “A guy can hope, can’t he?”

“You know the only people who agreed to let you follow them for a day are your friends, right?” Zoe asked, standing up and smoothing down her knee-length skirt.

Sam nodded and rubbed his temples. He felt a headache coming on. “Yes, but I’m hoping that once others see me working side by side with their favorite mechanic or custard vendor, they will begin to trust me enough to tell me what they really need. And of course I’ll be at the luminarias over the weekend and the Amor holiday festival next week. How are plans for that coming, by the way?”

“Good. The event planner said she’ll have the finalized details to me within the next couple days so we can start working on it.”

“She was supposed to have sent them over three weeks ago for approval.”

“There wasn’t much I could do about it. She said something about a family emergency.” Zoe handed Sam some Tylenol with a cup of water. “I know your intentions are good, and after seeing you around the town for a couple weeks, I don’t think people will be able to doubt your passion for wanting to improve things.” She paused, like she wasn’t sure if she should continue. “But it’s not just the community you need to convince, Sam. There are a few people on the city council that would like nothing more than to prove that you don’t have what it takes to be a successful mayor.”

“Don’t I know it,” Sam said.

Zoe squeezed his shoulder. “Just focus on the task at hand, and you’ll be fine.”

Sam’s thoughts turned to his first assignment. His sister’s daycare. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t do more harm than good.”

                                                                          * * * * *

When Sam pulled up to Ruby’s Little Dumpling Daycare, what first caught his attention were the cameras and news vans. “Zoe,” he muttered. She had wanted publicity surrounding his travels, but he had expected maybe an article in the local newspaper.

Zoe waved to him from across the parking lot. When she walked up to greet him, she seemed a little hesitant, like she didn’t know how Sam was going to react.

“You went all out for this one,” Sam said, trying to keep his tone light and his anxiety at bay; he never knew when someone was recording him.

Zoe broke into a smile. “Everyone loves a man who enjoys children, and you certainly look the part,” she said, nodding in approval.

Sam didn’t think he had done anything special, just threw on a baseball cap, a T-shirt and jeans, but he supposed people weren’t used to seeing him dressed down. He was trying to change the stiff perception they had of him, so Zoe’s approval meant a lot.

“Ruby’s waving us in,” Zoe said, pointing to the daycare.

Sam glanced over at his sister standing in the doorway. When her husband had been killed in a plane crash, it had sent her spiraling into a deep depression. But what made it even more tragic was that Ruby had been pregnant, and she’d miscarried a week later. She’d eventually started living again, and without children of her own, it had been Ruby’s dream to help take care of others. She treated the children who attended her daycare like they were hers, and they adored her for it. Ruby had dozens of hand-drawn Christmas cards on her fridge to prove it.

“Bring it on,” Sam said and followed Zoe inside.

Once the door shut, Ruby wrapped her arms around Sam, then punched him in the arm. In her eyes, he’d always be the big brother to tease and torment. His hand shot out in an attempt to grab her wrist, but she laughed and jumped out of reach.

“I never thought I’d see the day when you’d come here of your own accord,” she said, bouncing on her toes. “We have to get a picture.”

“No, we really don’t,” Sam protested.

The women ignored him and Zoe grabbed Ruby’s phone. Ruby threw her arm around Sam’s waist and gave a cheesy smile.

“Say ‘Poopy diapers,’” Zoe said.

Sam shuddered just thinking about it.

“You know that that’s what he thinks your job is, right?” she asked Ruby, handing her phone back.

Ruby heaved a dramatic sigh. “Yes, I do. But I’m hoping today will change his mind.”

Sam crossed his arms and smiled. “That is highly doubtful, but you can try. You have four hours to do your best.”

Zoe cleared her throat. “Actually, she has eight.”

Sam whipped toward Zoe, his heart dancing a staccato in his chest. “Excuse me?”

“It isn’t her fault, it was my idea,” Ruby said. “All of the parents signed a waiver that allows their children to be photographed. I thought if you were here for the full day you’d have a better chance at getting some good video.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw several children approaching the building with their mothers. “Don’t I have meetings or something today, Zoe?”

“Nope, your day is clear,” she said, trying to make it sound like that was a good thing.

Sam let out a long breath. “It looks like I don’t have any say in the matter, so I hope this goes as well as you think it will.”

As the children began trickling in, Ruby handed Sam a T-shirt. “I almost forgot, all employees have to wear this so that the parents know who is supposed to be here.”

Sam stared at Ruby. “This shirt is pink. With flowers on it. And dancing dumplings.”

Ruby grinned. “Yes, it is. I suggest you go get changed because the camera crews are starting to filter in, Mr. Mayor.”

Sam somehow survived an entire day at daycare. Only thirty minutes left until he could trade in his dancing dumpling T-shirt and have a meal that didn’t involve goldfish crackers or celery sticks covered in peanut butter. It didn’t matter how many raisin ‘ants’ you put on your celery logs, you couldn’t hide the fact that celery was the worst vegetable on the planet. The kids knew it. Sam knew it. Why was everyone else pretending?

He was just putting the final touch on a picture of a glittery pink volcano when Ruby walked up. “How’s it going?” she asked.

“Not bad,” he said. He turned to Liv, a three-year-old girl with pigtails, crooked teeth, and her thumb in her mouth. “How do you think it turned out?” he asked.

She studied the picture for a moment, then wrinkled her nose. “Needs more gwitter.”

Sam grimaced. He already had glitter coating his skin, hair, and everywhere else that he could see—and some places he couldn’t. “Maybe that’s enough glitter for today,” he said. Why hadn’t his sister warned him that glitter was the equivalent to super glue?

Then the tears started.

Of course, the cameras zeroed in on Liv, and Sam awkwardly patted her on the back. “It’s okay, nothing that a little glitter can’t fix,” he said, as if that had been his intention all along. Before he could help Liv, she grabbed the bottle out of his hand. He held his breath as he watched her shake the glitter onto her picture. “Maybe I should be in charge of—”

The bottle was snatched up by another little boy.

“I wanted the pink gwitter!” Liv screamed.

The boy laughed and ran around the room. When he came within arm’s reach, Sam tried snatching the bottle from his hand, but the boy held on with a tight fist.

“We have other glitter,” Sam tried reasoning with him. “Would you like the blue glitter?”

“I like pink,” the boy said.

“Are you sure you aren’t just saying that because Liv wants the pink?”

The boy glared at Sam. “My mom says I can like any color I want, and I choose pink.”

“That’s true,” Sam said slowly. “But for right now, it’s Liv’s turn to use the pink.” When he thought the boy was distracted by Liv’s crying, Sam yanked back on the bottle, but the lid shot off, and pink glitter exploded into a mushroom cloud over the table. The world’s first atomic glitter bomb, and Sam was at ground zero.

“Ruby,” he called, trying to wipe the glitter from his eyes. “I can’t see. And it got in my mouth.” He tried to wipe it from his tongue, but it seemed that once it got wet, it gained superhero strength.

Ruby didn’t even try to stifle her laughter. “Here, I have a wet paper towel. Wipe your eyes with it.”

When Sam opened his eyes, he was blinded by camera flashes. Great, his first day out in the community and they were going to see their mayor on the news looking like he’d just stepped out of a Barbie movie. He hoped the rest of the week went a little better, or he might have to consider early retirement.