In his office in a two-story cottage a block inland from Andrea’s new shop, Avalon City Councilman Edgar Ruiz also paced.
Edgar was up for re-election to the city council. A dwindling pile of yard signs lay on a table, green on cream, heavy recycled paper, not the plastic signs suddenly so ubiquitous across the country. Four years ago he had been amazed when he won, an upstart newcomer whose wife had inherited the family home on the island. As a builder who had worked his way up from roofing jobs in high school, he’d captured the islanders’ respect and their imaginations with his environmental-design certification and his vision for development. Now he was challenged by a long-time islander who, his friends told Edgar, didn’t have a ghost of a chance. He looked at the pile of signs withou
