Page 52 of The Sixth Spring

Will thought about the way he would bruise if Itori kept holding him so tightly. Tomorrow those spots would be a tender reminder of what they’d done. Of how Itori had taken him apart and put him back together in an arrangement that made more sense.

“I did. I do,” Will said. “You make me feel less alone,” he said, quieter. Too serious.

Itori leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Then I will keep you here, not let you go,” he said.

Chapter 11

On Friday, Adrián closed early again, but this time so they could all attend the Town Hall meeting.

Will went home, showered, and was getting ready to leave to walk to Main, where the meeting was taking place, when a knock came at his trailer door.

No one ever came to his door, so it was a shock to find Raymond on his crumbling stairs, offering a ride.

Which was how Will found himself in the passenger seat of Raymond's old truck, wind in his hair as they kicked up dust down an unpaved road.

For the first minute or so, Will kept nervously shooting the man looks, waiting for the awkward small talk. Instead, Raymond simply checked that Will didn’t mind him lighting up, then popped a cigarette between his lips, arm out the window as he drove.

Eventually, Will relaxed enough to turn back to the scenery.

It was sunset, and the sky was all pink and orange watercolor. With the wind breezing past, it was almost pleasant.

Will tried to remember the last time he’d been in a car. Adrián had once offered to drive Will home during a particularly bad rain storm, but Will had put him off. At the time he had just started working at the grocery store and been too afraid that in an enclosed space he might say something or do something that would make Adrián fire him. Afraid that if Adrián looked too closely at him, he might discover why it was that other men gave him a wide berth.

But if Adrián had in the years since, he’d never said a thing.

When they arrived at Main Street, it was buzzing with people. Raymond pulled his truck into the open field across the street from the Town Hall building that had turned into spill-over parking. There were officers directing traffic around the building as men in suits stood at the front, side-eyeing the locals.

Raymond squashed his cigarette in the ashtray, and they got out. Raymond hadn’t dressed up for the occasion; he was still in the overalls and cowboy hat he always wore in the field. As they walked toward the building, Will noticed a lot of people had come in the same–jeans with dirty knees, old ball caps discolored by sweat, shirts rolled up to the elbows from work.

Will wondered if it was on purpose. Five Springs wasn’t much–the city couldn’t even be found on most maps, but it was still a place filled with people that cared about it. Hardworking folks that tended crops and cattle and didn’t take shit from men in ties who didn’t know fuck all.

They followed the crowd in the front doors of the building, then down the hallway and into a large auditorium room. Rows of old metal chairs had been set out in front of a stage with a microphone. The room wasn’t air conditioned, but there were several large fans at the back, blowing in.

The room was full of chatter as people streamed in and took their seats. Raymond led the way and found them a pair of unoccupied chairs.

Will scanned the crowd subtly as he sat. He didn’t look at faces–there was too much risk he might see disgust or disapproval staring back at him–so much as he counted bodies. He tried only to get a sense for how much of the town was here.

It took another twenty minutes for everyone to get in and get seated. Toward the end the chairs all filled and there was some shuffling around in which the younger, sturdier men gave up seats to some of the women and children coming in.

It had to be nearly the whole town.

When it was all settled, the Mayor came up to the mic.

“Evenin’,” Mayor Alan Smithson greeted. He was in a suit that looked like it had attempted to match the other business men, except the fabric was markedly cheaper and the cut was ill-fitting. Even his shoes weren’t the shiny black leather the other men had, but a well-worn brown leather that didn’t quite qualify as dress shoes. He whistled, looking over the crowd. “A packed house. Kinda surprising all you folks care so much about a development project,” he chuckled.

There was murmuring among the crowd.

“But I’m here today to put ya’ll at ease!” Mayor Smithson smiled, all white teeth and false confidence. He motioned to someone on the side of the stage. It was a woman with a stack of papers. Will recognized her, she was some kind of aid or secretary.

“Jenny will be passing out the plans for the development measures. It’s an exciting opportunity for Five Springs! Once ya’ll take a look at the plans, you’ll understand the growth we are trying to do here.”

Mayor Smithson started talking about the development in more detail. Will had never seen the Mayor before, but was unsurprised to learn he had a politician's tongue. Smithson made quick work of stacking fancy sounding sentences, but never really saying or committing to anything as far as the community’s concerns. He was clearly more excited for what the development was going to do for the town’s ‘growth’.

Because it wasn’t just Mercale where they were looking at development. The suits were planning on building a mall, and at least two large corporate warehouses on the land they’d bought or were soon to purchase. These businesses, Smithson told them, would be funding the development of the land themselves, and therefore taxes would not be going up for this expansion.

A low murmur of discontent spread through the room.

When the papers got to Will, he took one and glanced it over.