Off-Grid
Pacazahno
The square was more than usually busy when Arbour arrived at Pacazahno, and she paused to evaluate the crowd.
The ambient brought her a potent emotional mix of distress, anger, fear, and disbelief, which was not at all Pacazahno’s usual atmosphere. And now that her eye had found the pattern, it seemed that most of the busyness was concentrated down-square, near the school.
If there was a problem at the school, Arbour thought, with a little shiver, that was where Konsit would be.
Taking a deep breath, Arbour walked down the square, toward the center of the disturbance.
* * *
“But why would anyone smash up our art garden?” a child was asking as Arbour reached the edge of the crowd.
“And the library!” called out a man Arbour recognized as a science teacher.
Arbour hesitated. The emotional soup became thicker with proximity, and it was beginning to act on her. She felt tears rise, and adjusted her shields until the feelings of others faded into the background.
“We don’t know why or who, yet,” said a firm and very familiar voice. As Arbour had suspected, Konsit joiMore was at the center of the action. “We’re going to do our best to find the answers to those questions. I will call the Citizens Coalition, and see what assistance they can give us. Also, I will ask Ribbon Dance Village to send us appropriately Talented Haosa.”
“In the meantime,” said the woman standing next to Konsit, who Arbour knew for one of the school’s three administrators. “In the meantime, we’re asking teachers and students to go to the community building and collaborate on a system to hold classes in that space until the necessary investigations have been made. There will be a whole-school assembly immediately after lunch, to discuss these events.”
There was a ripple through the crowd as students and teachers sorted themselves together. Konsit looked around at those who were neither.
“There’s nothing to be done right now, except to make sure that the garden and the library aren’t tampered with until the investigators arrive.”
She turned to the grey-haired woman standing on her other side.
“Constable fuJang will need volunteers to make sure that nothing is disturbed until the investigation is made. Anyone who wants to help, please see her.”
There was another ripple as prospective volunteers moved toward the constable. Konsit looked out over the greatly reduced crowd, and said, “The rest of you, please continue with your usual business. As soon as we have any information to share, there will be a village meeting.”
A third ripple as those dismissed moved back to their interrupted days.
Konsit turned to Arbour.
“I apologize—” she began, and Arbour held up a hand.
“You have a village to administer and an emergency. No apologies necessary. What happened here? Knowing that will help me decide who to call in for assistance.”
Konsit sighed, and threw her hands out, showing Arbour an enclosed area full of broken-off posts and smashed objects.
“It started with an ecology project about durable and weatherproof materials. The children decided that just because they were doing useful research, it didn’t have to be utilitarian or dull. So, they made a garden full of weatherproofed art. I have pictures. It really was something to see.”
She lowered her hands.
“The other loss is the library. They were thorough—ruined books and broken readers, overturned shelves and furniture.”
She sighed again.
“It’s just senseless.”
“Mischief often is,” Arbour told her. “Is there a comm I can use, while you’re calling the Citizens Coalition?”
Konsit blinked.
“Yes, of course. You can use Nattie’s comm.”
* * *
Arbour had made her call, and was standing by the window, looking out over the garden. Mischief against the school was unsettling in the extreme, though she would not have been Haosa if she had not seen the opportunity this mischance offered.
The door to Konsit’s office opened, and the village administrator came to stand beside her, looking out over the garden with a sigh. Her pattern was showing flashes of tension and dismay, which was expectable, but the strain of those emotions would weary her even before the investigations had begun.
Arbour dared to whisper a small wish of calm Healing into the ambient, and had the satisfaction of Seeing Konsit’s tension ease.
“Councilor ziaGorn is not at the Coalition’s office this morning. I am promised that my message will be sent to him, and that I should expect a call.”
She turned to face Arbour.
“I know we had our usual meeting scheduled for today—”
“Much of which can be put aside until this other matter is solved,” Arbour said. With her eye on opportunity, she added, “I do bring one topic that may serve us both, if you have the patience to hear me out.”
“Of course I’ll hear you out!” Konsit said. “Let me call for a meal to be brought to us out in the garden, so we can be comfortable while we talk.”
* * *
Konsit heard the tale of Vaiza and Torin out in perfect silence. When Arbour was done, she sat back in her chair and sighed.
“This commuting class seems to solve two problems very neatly,” she said. “I don’t hide from you that I am very unsettled about this mischief against the school. To attack businesses is one thing—wrong, of course, but not on the same level, if you see what I mean?”
“I understand,” Arbour assured her. “The art garden and the library—it’s too close to the children.”
“Yes! And we don’t know whether it was merely opportunity—the school was empty—or a warning of worse to come.”
Arbour shivered.
“Of course,” Konsit continued, “we cannot relocate the entire village, or even the entire school, to Ribbon Dance Village, but a—a commuter class, that would meet your children’s needs for companionship and challenge.” Her eyes lit. “We would present the opportunity as a challenge to our students—yes, I like this! In addition, developing a method to choose the students who will commute, and designing a curriculum, will distract the teachers and the board from the recent ill acts.”
She tapped her finger on her knee, frowning briefly, before looking up and meeting Arbour’s eyes.
“I will bring it to them.”
“Thank you. Maradel—the village medic—has undertaken to test our two, to gain an idea of their strengths and weaknesses.”
“Good, good. I assume she’s using the standardized tests. The results will be useful for our planning. I will take this to the board—tomorrow, I think. One of the first things I will suggest is that someone be chosen as a liaison with Medic Maradel. She should expect a call soon.”
“Thank you,” Arbour said, simply.
Konsit smiled again.
“You and I have been looking for ways to strengthen the ties between our two villages. This may be something that we will wish to continue, even when there are no children at Ribbon Dance.”
“In order to get to know our neighbors better?” Arbour suggested, and this time Konsit outright laughed.
“Exactly.”