Chapter 107: Everybody Wants

I felt like a feudal lord granting boons that night.

There was a line of people waiting to see me and I decided I wasn’t going to go through this alone. I had the table cleared and called the entire council up to join in; we would all suffer together.

Sonya was kept very busy for the rest of the evening. We needed an accurate record, which even meant writing down the absurd requests. I would greet each individual as they came up, then have a brief chat with them ... brief was almost always a challenge. For the most part, I tried to hand people off to the appropriate councilor whenever possible, but that proved to be difficult with some individuals. Some people just like to hear the sound of their voice, I guess. I’d politely wait them out and then point them to the correct councilor. If it was a rules issue, then I handled it; the rules were mine for the most part and they’d have to deal with me.

A lot of this was pointless. The requests were often based on ‘what if’ situations, which simply frustrated me to no end. I reached the point where I wanted to respond, “What if you got tossed into a time glitch?” Michelle seemed to recognize my frustration and took over the helm for a while. During that brief respite, I managed to walk my frustration off by myself. I went out into the darkness for a bit before returning to the fray. I had dearly wanted to escape management shit when I bought my dream ranch; now I was neck deep in it again. We even had minor squabbles between neighbors going on already. It seemed some people couldn’t live happily without having a complaint.

Rules questions were firmly postponed until the next day and I reminded everyone that we were having a party, not a town hall meeting. I let each of them know that I would be down at the stream tomorrow. Michelle was going to try and teach me how to fish. I also reminded them to bring a translator with them, if it was going to be needed

We managed to wrap it up in less than two hours. My patience was growing thin and the smart ones noticed. By 10 p.m., we had managed our way through the line and shut the process down. It was still ridiculous by any standard. You would think adults in any era could understand simple ideas. I guess that was just the eternal optimist in me speaking.

Now it was time to have fun. I discovered that we had a couple of decent musicians in the village and they sorted themselves into an enthusiastic, if uncoordinated, band. The dancing was fun to watch. Each group seemed to have a different style and only a couple of songs brought everyone out at once. It was fun and there was even a hope the musicians would organize themselves in the future. Right now, it was a little more like a jam session than a dance.

We shut the taps off early and the booze was locked away in the trailer again. We were still in hostile territory and couldn’t afford for everyone to get drunk and sloppy. We’d make better plans for the future. For tonight, most people were only lightly buzzed at best. We’d fortify them with coffee or yaupon tea. Amos volunteered to man the drone; he wasn’t allowed to drink yet and had the youthful ability to withstand the late hours. He also thrived on the responsibility.