Town Meeting

 

A "Cape Summerland" story

 

By Thelma Mary Caroline

 

 

 

The first and second days went mostly the same, us trying to work out our jobs.  All the bulidings were cleaned, the meals cooked and animals fed.

 

On our team, Danielle and Danny were in charge of the horses, because they had their own horses at home.  Megan and Amanda took care of the goats and chickens, and me and Uncle Ham took care of the cows.

 

"I'll milk the cows," he had said.

 

"No, let me do it."

 

"What, Laken?  You've never milked a cow before!"

 

But I sat on the little stool and filled the bottom of the bucket without much effort to everyone's surprise.

 

"What?" I said when they stared.  "Ham has told me a million times about milking cows.  How hard could it be?"

 

So I was in charge of milking.  We milked once in the morning and once in the evening so the cooks we could have milk with dinner.  I helped their team out with making cheese and butter.  I'd read about it in books before and was really excited to do it.

 

But the third day, as the sun set, we had our first Town Meeting.  Everybody sat on wooden pews, while Elle Jae was in the front, talking.  She wasn't really talking to us, I could tell from her voice, she was talking to the audience at home.

 

"Okay, Cape Summerland," she said.  "How has the first couple of days been?  Does anyone want to leave?"

 

Immediatly, Wanda and Danny stood up.  Then, Ethan said, "Fuck this.  I'm going home, too."

 

And they left, no questions asked.  Casey and Chico left to, going to do finale interviews.

 

I'd kinda suspected they would leave, but I'd really thought more would have gone, too.

 

"Now we're going to do something a little different.  Who would like to take home an extra thousand dollars when this is over?"

 

Everyone cheered and clapped.

 

"We're going to have a vote.  Every person gets on piece of paper.  The only rule is, a name on the said paper only counts once.  Who do you think deserves the prize?  Whoever has the most votes, wins, and if there's a tie, they'll split the prize."

 

We all went one by one into a room with a camera mounted on the wall.  There was a little piece of tape on the floor directing us where to stand.

 

I was last, because I was the youngest.

 

"The only rule was you can't vote for a person more than once," I said, looking into the camera.  "So I guess you can vote for yourself, or you can vote for more than one person.  But you know what?  This game isn't really about money to me.  It's about creating a society, and so far, we've done a pretty good job working together.  There've been a few fights and stuff, but everyone is doing their jobs.  There's no person who deserves to win more than anyone else."

 

I held up my blank piece of paper, showing both sides.  "So I'm exercising my right not to vote.  It doesn't matter to me who wins."

 

I put it in the basket, and left.

 

A few minutes later, we were all seated again.  It seemed like everyone was wriggling in excitment, even if they tried not to show it.

 

Elle Jae pulled out names rapidly and called out the names.

 

"Olga! Zach! Sam! Sam! Sam! Arachana! Megan! Sam! Amanda! Jessica! Ham!  Ham! And two blank pieces of paper!"

 

A lot of people began cheering wildly, but I saw a few sulk.

 

"Samantha wins by a landslide!"

 

I looked around as I cheered, trying to figure out who had also turned in a blank piece of paper.