13

No matter what anyone else says, you can't believe that these developments are the only hope this town has at the moment. You can't believe that the only option is one which will hurt the forest, and maybe the town as well. As long as there's still time, you're going to do everything you can to stop these developments from happening.

You don't really know what else you can do, but you're not going to give up trying. Your only fear is that, no matter what you say in this meeting, there's a chance the Town Council just won't listen. After all, holding a meeting is easy. Maybe it's nothing more than a last-ditch effort to win back public approval.

That doesn't mean you're not planning on saying anything. But if the only chance you have to save the forest depends on hoping that the Town Council pays attention to what you say—that just doesn't seem like enough.

As you hear Dina start to explain for the tenth time that she is an impartial judge in all of this, you find yourself gazing about the room, taking in the other audience members. Some seem satisfied with what they're hearing; others murmur quietly with their neighbors, shaking their heads with what looks like disdain. Strangely, though, you think that if you had walked in off the street with no idea what was going on, you wouldn't believe that today was the day of a vote that could decide so much about the town's future. Everything just seems so…calm.

It's only as you look around that you spot one major difference between today's meeting and last week's.

You can't see Mr. Clarence anywhere.

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