The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County: A Novel

35. Problem Solved

142 Problem Solved 35 Alazy summer sun slowly climbed above the horizon, making the waters of Link Lake sparkle. The sun awakened Karl Adams from a deep sleep. When Karl worried about something he didn’t sleep well—and when he started on a new job by a mining company, sleeping was especially difficult. The first couple weeks he was in Link Lake the pro and con factions about the new sand mine coming to town had declared war on each other. He had to figure out how to smooth things over and so far he was making progress. Karl had years of experience working with divided communities when a new mine came to town. As he sat on his patio, looking out over the lake, he felt good. He knew that with some of Alstage Sand Mining Company’s monetary help, he had come a long way in taking people’s minds off the sand mine through the various community activities held over the past couple months. People were smiling again, even laughing. He climbed in his car and drove to Increase Joseph Community Park. Emerson Evans had informed him that morning that one of their new, highly sophisticated drilling machines (“It cost us more than a million dollars”) had been delivered to the site yesterday. “They had a little trouble bringing the machine through the narrow entrance, where that old oak stands in the way,” Evans told him, “but they made it okay. Next week we’ll begin some test drilling so we know exactly what kind of sand we’ve got, and how difficult it will be to get at it.” Evans had also asked if any problems were brewing, protests, that sort of thing. Karl had replied, “Everything is cool here. Nice bunch of folks. I anticipate no difficulties.” 143 Problem Solved Karl had a bad feeling, though, when he drove by the park’s entrance and saw not a half-dozen protesters marching, which had been the earlier case, but at least twice that many, maybe more, walking back and forth carrying Stop the Sand Mine signs. He didn’t stop to confront them, but he guessed they were out-of-town agitators who enjoyed getting in the way of a community’s progress. He drove past the village hall, where the big sign showing the exact location of the sand mine had been posted for several weeks. This morning he noticed a big red circle around the mine site with a line through it and the words “No Mine” scrawled on the bottom of the map. Karl stopped at the Eat Well Café for breakfast and noticed the place was all abuzz. Others had seen the protestors as well and wondered what it meant. Someone said, “I saw a huge semi delivering a fancy machine at the park yesterday.” “Must be they’re gonna start mining any day now,” someone else said. “Nope, they’re not supposed to start until October.” “Wonder who them protestors are? Where they came from?” the first person asked. Beyond talking about the protestors at the park, he also overhead a couple of fellows who were quite livid that someone had “messed up” the mining map, as people referred to it. “Police ought to arrest whoever did that and throw the book at ’em. We don’t do things this way in Link Lake. We don’t run around spray paintin’ things we don’t like.” Karl Adams smiled to himself when he heard all of this, but he was concerned that people’s minds once more had begun focusing on the sand mine, exactly what he did not want to happen. He did notice a few people watching the Eat Well’s eagle cam feed. The two baby eaglets appeared nearly big enough to leave the nest. Karl caught himself watching the eagles as well. A mature bald eagle is surely an impressive creature, he thought. ...