Page 17 of Axel
“We’ll see. What time do you open?”
“Around three.” He glanced at his watch. “Speaking of which, paperwork is calling my name. Looking forward to seeing you later, Ellie.” With a wave, he was off and running.
Staring after him until he was out of sight, she decided to cut her exploration short. It was almost time to meet with the esteemed mayor anyway.
*****
Mayor Andrew Adelson was a rotund man with thinning hair that he tried to hide by a comb over. His smile was too charming and his voice too booming and forceful.
His handshake was dry as parchment and his blue eyes shifty, landing on her face and drifting quickly to her bosom as if wondering what was hiding under her clothing. Ellie disliked him on principle.
She was ushered into his ‘parlor’ as he referred to it as in the municipality of the official looking building that also housed the courthouse and police station if it could be called that. He ordered his mousy looking assistant to fetch them refreshments, even though Ellie assured him she was quite full.
His office was large and comfortable, with pictures of him posing with several particularly important people. There was an eight by ten glossy of him shaking hands with Axel Lakeside as he handed him the key to the city. The man was as phony as they come, and she could not wait to get out of there.
“Well, young lady,” he beamed at her as his assistant placed a tray of coffee and pastries on his desk. “What do you think of our lovely town?”
“Enchanting.”
She watched as the assistant poured coffee into two cups and handed her one. She smiled her thanks to the woman and noticed that the mayor did not even glance her way. The man was a toad.
“I am sure you will be touting all we have to offer in that article of yours.” He sipped coffee and eyed her over the rim of the cup, eyes greedily staring at her face.
There was a photo of what looked like his family on his desk and the poor woman looked very unhappy and tired. The children, a boy and a girl, were unsmiling as if they had been forced to sit for the photo.
“Of course.”
“You are here to write up about our hero,” he beamed at her, “Axel made us proud when he went off to seek his fortune.”
“You were born here.” She had the information at her fingertips and knew that he had lived here with his parents before going off to college in Boston.
“Born and raised.” He boasted. “Never wanted to live anywhere else. River Glades is my home.”
“You knew Axel when he was a child.”
She also knew he was five years, Axel’s senior.
He nodded. Putting the cup down, he reached for a sugared cake, something he should be avoiding at all costs. “That poor family – the father left when the children were little and did not return.”
“You knew him personally.” She already knew that too.
“I did,” he nodded again, “we here at River Glades try to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate.”
“Was that the case with Axel and his family?” She asked innocently.
He cleared his throat and picked up his coffee cup. “The family was very proud and did not welcome any outside interference.”
“I see.” Balancing the saucer on her denim clad knee, she stared at him. “So, it is safe to say that Axel made it without any help from anyone in River Glades?”
A flush stained the mayor’s face, and he spent a few seconds silently debating on how to answer the rhetorical question.
“He left…“
“When he was seventeen, right out of high school,” she nodded.
The mayor cleared his throat and drank more coffee. “He has made us very proud.”
With a smile curving her lips, she let the silence hang between them.