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CHAPTER two

‘I’m going to be late,’ Rachel Wando said. She ran round her room at home. ‘Where’s my other shoe’ she said.

‘You’re always late, Mom,’ said Lauren, Rachel’s ten-year-old daughter. Rachel was thirty-five. ‘And your shoe is under the bed.’

‘What am I going to say’ Rachel said. ‘“I want to say thank you to Karen from the newspaper. She came here.’” Rachel stopped. ‘Is it Karen or Kathy from the newspaper’ she asked.

‘For the tenth time, Mom,’ said Lauren, ‘she’s Karen.’

‘Where’s my good jacket.’

‘You don’t have a good jacket.’

‘The blue jacket.’

‘It’s on the back of the chair down in the kitchen.’

Rachel ran down to the kitchen. She put on her jacket and then called through the door of her son’s bedroom: ‘Graham, let’s go!’

‘He’s not in,’ said Lauren. ‘He’ll meet us there. He told me. Come on!’

Harry stood quietly in a comer of the room. Most of the people from the town were there. Les Worrell, the most important businessman in the town, sat with Karen Narlington from the newspaper. He looked at the chair next to him. Where was that woman?

Rachel ran into the room and then slowed to a walk. Les stood up and said:’And here’s the mayor, Rachel Wando.’

Harry watched Rachel. ‘Wow’ he thought. ‘The mayor is a woman– and she’s beautiful!’

Rachel came up to the front of the room, smiled at Les and Karen, and sat down in her chair. First Karen spoke. Then Rachel stood up, and said: ‘I want to say thank you to Kathy from the newspaper.’

‘It’s Karen,’ Lauren called from the back of the room. Everybody laughed.

Rachel smiled. ‘We like our town. Now Karen’s newspaper likes it too. And people read her newspaper all round America. This is important for the town of Dante’s Peak. So we thank you, Karen. She thinks that Dante’s Peak is the second best town in America. We know better.

It’s the first, the best place to live. And next year, with the help of Elliot Blair, we’ll show America. Karen’s newspaper will say: “Dante’s Peak - the best town in all America.’”

She stopped talking and sat down. The people in the room jumped to their feet, with smiles on their faces. Harry turned to the man next to him. ‘Who’s Elliot Blair’ he asked.

‘He’s a big businessman,’ the man said. ‘He wants to bring a lot of money to Dante’s Peak. He wants to make the town a centre for people’s winter holidays. There’ll be a lot of work for people here.’