Life Goes On by Philip Gulley

daylight by a town councilman.
    What kind of example did this set for the children in town? Bob wanted to know.
    There are three members on the town council—Harvey, Owen Stout, and Clevis Nagle. Clevis was out of town that week with his wife on their annual trip to visit her brother in Des Moines, so he was ruled out, which left Harvey and Owen. Owen is an attorney, and an honest one, but because people like to believe the worst about lawyers, they assumed he was the culprit and letters to the editor began rolling in demanding his ouster from the council.
    Owen was going to let it pass, but his wife wouldn’t and wrote a letter to the Herald defending her husband. Unfortunately, by insisting on Owen’s innocence, she inadvertently implicated Harvey. This annoyed people to no end. In all their lives, they had never seen such a malicious and blatant political attack. Harvey couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping him to voice their support.
    Harvey refrained from any public comment, which was seen as yet another example of his sterling character. People began sending him money for his reelection campaign. The Odd Fellows convened a special meeting, a first in their long and noble history, and named Harvey the recipient of their first annual Civic Leader of the Year Award.
    Harvey began to panic. At this rate, the townspeople would not only vote Owen off the council, they’d carry Harvey through town on their shoulders and install him as council president for life. He thought of publicly confessing, but was growing accustomed to theadulation and even starting to enjoy its privileges. The day before, he’d eaten at the Coffee Cup and Ned Kivett had insisted on buying his lunch. Vinny Toricelli had mowed his yard, and his name had been added to the prayer lists at all the churches so everyone would remember to pray for him and Eunice as they came under Satanic attack.
    Judy Iverson wrote a letter to the Herald pointing out Harvey had served for sixteen years without a dime of compensation and suggested it was time for a tax hike so council members could be paid.
    It was about this time that the idea of being president for life began appealing to Harvey.
    Unfortunately, the only one able to set the record straight was Bob Miles, who was faced with having to chose between journalistic integrity and money. It did not take Bob long to decide. Harvey was Bob’s largest advertiser—a twenty-dollar back-page ad every week for his car dealership. Though Bob felt sorry for Owen, Owen hadn’t advertised in the paper for years.
    Bob toyed with the idea of blackmailing Harvey. But, then, blackmail was such a harsh word. Actually, he thought of it as laissez-faire capitalism, which he explained to Harvey when he came in the Herald office to pay his advertising bill.
    Bob was seated at his desk by the front window.
    â€œQuite a view you got there,” Harvey commented as he laid a twenty on Bob’s desk for that week’s ad.
    â€œIt sure is,” Bob said. “I can see everything on the town square from here. Anybody does anything, and I can see it.”
    â€œEverything?” Harvey asked.
    â€œYep. Everything.”
    â€œSo how’s business?” Harvey asked, changing the subject.
    â€œBeen pretty good. Got a phone call the other day from someone wanting to buy the entire back page for the next year.”
    â€œThe back page?” Harvey said. “But that’s my page. You’ve always put me on the back page.”
    â€œWell, they’ve offered me fifty dollars for it. But don’t worry, we can always run your ad on the classifieds page.”
    â€œThe classifieds page!” Harvey was indignant. “No one ever reads the classifieds. You can’t do that to me.”
    â€œNothin’ personal, Harvey. Just business. Course if you wanted to buy the back page, I could let you have it for the same price as the other fella.” Then Bob leaned