When the Road Went Silent novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Vote
On Friday at eight, church was full.
Every patched brother sat at the long table, and the walls were lined with prospects.
I sat at the head with my father's ring on my thumb and the old man at my right.
Ward sat at my left, with his arm in a sling.
Nobody had told him what I meant to do.
"Nominations," the old man said. "For president of the Black Hollow Saints."
"Maxine," someone said at once.
A dozen voices agreed.
"She's the one who held the road," said a man near the end. "She called the vote on Cade. She gave Boone to the sheriff."
"She did all that," the old man said. "She's also thirty and a woman and a Pellham, and we've never had a Pellham who wasn't the founder."
"Never needed one," someone muttered.
"Anyone else?"
Silence.
I stood.
The room went quiet.
"I'm going to say something," I said. "Listen to all of it before you vote."
I took my father's second letter out of my vest and unfolded it on the wood.
"My father wrote me a line. I'll read it once. Don't hand the chair to the man who asks for it. Hand it to the one who stands behind you and never asks."
Nobody breathed.
"I've held this club's vote for only a few days," I said. "I held it with a ring that's too big for my hand. I'm going to keep that vote for the rest of my life, because it's mine, and it was my father's, and it stays Pellham."
"Then take the chair," the old man said.
"No."
A murmur ran down the table.
"The chair isn't mine," I said. "I run the books. I run the bar. I'm the vote that stands behind whoever sits in it."
"Then who?" said the man at the far end.
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