Shep adjusted Frederick Gruber"s nameplate for the third time before checking to make sure his wife had actually filled the water pitchers sitting between each of the seats. Closing the blinds on the windows to block out a late summer sun, Shep noticed storm clouds across the field and checked his watch, estimating how long it would be before the storm arrived. It was the first time in his twenty years as mayor of Cranston that he had ever moved a board of aldermen meeting from Town Hall and Shep wanted to make sure there was no room for complaints and no reason for anyone to claim they couldn"t get in.
He stepped down from the stage and took several steps back into the cafeteria, among the rows of tables where, during the school year, a hundred elementary kids gathered to eat lunch. In l
