Chapter 2
“Everything all right, Kira? You look a little stressed.”
Kira glanced up at Sylvie Taylor, her friendly local dispenser of baked goods, with a wry smile. “It’s that obvious, is it?”
Sylvie laughed lightly as she packaged up the lunch she’d prepared – a salad roll, tuna on the side, an apple, and a chocolate cupcake – all baked right here in her very own bakery, using ingredients she’d grown herself. Kira wasn’t sure what it was, but anything Sylvie grew and baked just tasted that much more delicious than anything else she’d ever eaten in her life. But then, Sylvie’s husband Gale was a gardener and nurseryman, who ran the garden center down the road. So maybe he had some secret method of growing food that the rest of the world didn’t know about yet. But then, that would be like implying Sylvie’s baking wasn’t amazing by itself, which it definitely was.
All Kira knew was that whatever they were doing, it worked: Sylvie’s bakery was always overflowing with customers trying to get a bite of her famous sweets and pies, and all the plants in Gale’s nursery were always lush and verdant.
“Just a little,” Sylvie said, as she passed Kira her lunch. Kira always got her packed lunches here – it was a bit of an indulgence, but working as a park ranger was a tiring job, and knowing she’d have a delicious lunch she didn’t have to shop for and make herself was worth its weight in gold. Especially recently.
Kira grimaced. “I don’t know where that development company – Tongle & Heit, or whatever it is they call themselves – get the nerve. They’re already tramping through the forest like they own it, even though they don’t. Well. Not yet, anyway.”
Depression welled up inside her, and Kira forced herself to swallow it back down. I have to remember it’s true, and they don’t own it just yet. There’s still hope.
But she knew with every passing day that that hope was getting dimmer and dimmer. The protective trust on the pristine mountains and unspoiled forest around Girdwood Springs was up at the end of the month, after having been in place for so many years. And when it was over, the land would be up for grabs, to whoever could pay the highest price for it – and right now, that whoever was Tongle & Heit Property Developments, who had designs of building a massive ski lodge and hotel complex on it. It’d mean clearing acres of forest, and turning the sleepy town of Girdwood Springs into a massive tourist hub.
Girdwood Springs already got its fair share of tourists, but they were mainly passing through on their way to the skiing cabins farther up the mountain. Everyone in town knew that changing the town so much would have huge repercussions for the people who lived here, worked here, and loved the town just the way it was. A massive hotel and everything that entailed… well. It’d change things, that was for sure, and not everyone was agreed it would be for the better.
Sylvie sighed, nodding. “Yeah. I get it – honestly, it kind of has me worried too. I rely on tourists coming through, just like all the businesses around here. But if the new place has everything it says it’s going to have – its own mini-mall, restaurants, all the bells and whistles… well, I don’t know how many customers I’ll be seeing. That’s what all of us who run local shops are worried about. And that’s even before we start thinking about all the trees that’ll need to be cleared, all the animals that’ll have no home…”
“I know, and believe me, if I had any way of stopping this, I’d be doing it,” Kira said grimly. “But without proof that the trust was supposed to continue in perpetuity, the county ruled that it would end this month. And no one knows where old Mason Girdwood’s will, gifting the land to the people of Girdwood Springs, is now. The clerks at the office say it burned up in a fire at one of their storage buildings, and no one’s ever seen a copy. And without that, we have to accept the ruling.”
“That’s… a little suspicious, isn’t it?” Sylvie said, arching an eyebrow. “I don’t like to be cynical, but…”
Kira threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “No, be as cynical as you like – it’s just sooooo convenient, don’t you think? Acres and acres of valuable land, and now – whoops! – the county has just magically lost the paperwork that designates no one’s allowed to make a profit off it? Oh no, it burned in a fire! No, we’re not going to look for a copy! Actually, I’d say that’s a little more than convenient.”
“Well, despite all that, I just can’t believe all hope is lost just yet,” Sylvie said, sighing. “I don’t want to let go of the idea that we can still hold on to the place we live.”
“I wish I had your faith, Sylvie,” Kira said, shaking her head. She’d always been a bit of a pessimist – she had to own up to that. She just didn’t believe in things like luck. Luck didn’t exist – it was just a matter of who had the most power. “I just don’t see any way out of this, though. Unless we can magically find that will before the end of the month, the trust is going to lapse, and then it’s anyone’s game. And by anyone, I guess I mean fat cat property developers. Since I can’t see anyone beating them for deep pockets.”
“Well, I’m going to try to keep my chin up,” Sylvie said. “Stranger things have happened – I promise you, I know what I’m talking about!”
As Kira left the bakery to get into her Range Rover to drive out to her office – which was actually more like a cabin in the woods – Kira couldn’t help but admire Sylvie’s spirit, and the twinkle in her eye when she’d talked about stranger things happening.
Despite her pessimistic nature, it made Kira want to be just a little more hopeful that things weren’t as bleak as they seemed.
She wasn’t sure just at this exact second how that was possible, but… well, maybe Sylvie was right, and stranger things had happened.
Stranger than a will that had been missing for years and was last seen in an office building that had burned down some time ago magically turning up out of thin air.
Stranger than Tongle & Heit Developments suddenly losing interest in their absolute goldmine of a site.
Stranger than –
Oh, stop it!Kira told herself, giving herself a mental shake. This wasn’t helping anything! All it was doing was making her depressed before her workday had even begun – and Kira had to admit that, despite everything, she absolutely loved her job.
Spending her days out and about in nature had always been her wildest ambition, ever since she was a little kid. She’d never been a fan of large crowds of people, and hadn’t been able to stand the thought of working in an office or leaving Girdwood Springs for the big city, like so many of the people she’d grown up with had. Maybe there were better jobs and more money to be made in other places, but there was nowhere else that Kira would rather be than out in the woods she’d spent her childhood exploring, the fresh mountain air all around her, the leaves under her feet, the branches of the trees creaking overhead.
And the forests around Girdwood Springs were just especially magical. Kira couldn’t explain it – she just felt it in her bones. There was something special about the land here.
But I can’t really put that in a submission to the county about why the land shouldn’t be sold,she thought as she bit her lip, guiding her Range Rover through the curving mountain roads, before turning down the dirt track that led to her office. Unfortunately, special feelings in my bones don’t count for much, and cold hard cash does.
Pulling up in her parking spot, Kira cut the engine and got out of the car, making sure to grab the packed lunch Sylvie had made. She shivered a little as she got out of the car – it always got chilly early up here on the mountain, and she could already tell this fall was going to be a cold one. Not that she minded – she liked the snow!
Her office/cabin wasn’t much to look at – a rustic little two-room log cabin with a heater that banged as it warmed up, a map of the area on the wall, an electric kettle, a rotary phone and a computer that took about twenty minutes to boot up on a good day – but Kira loved it. There was literally no other place she’d rather be than here. It might’ve been nice if they’d had the funding for more bells and whistles, but it just wasn’t going to happen.
Switching on the computer and leaving it to do its thing, Kira made herself a cup of tea and sipped it while gazing out of the window at the fall leaves trickling through the air, the movement of the branches, and the unspoiled beauty of everything around her.