20 April 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3079: the big clash
“So you think you are going to take over the county – you're the big man running things now, huh?”
Mayor Donald Lee Garner Jr. had not turned his back on the president of the country board of supervisors since the mayor had to remind him to get the meeting started on time – the president's face had stayed red to different degrees through the meeting as the real reports had come out about the extensive damage Hurricane Mneme's glancing blow had done with its 14 inches of rain, 50-mile-an-hour sustained winds, and five embedded tornadoes, and as the real need for Big Loft to help out from its city budget became painfully clear while Virginia and the federal government worked on their packages of aid.
In other words, the board president's fate was in the mayor's hands, because all the mayor had to do was say no owing to Big Loft's own post-hurricane needs.
But Mayor Garner knew that would lead to the big clash the president wanted to hide his own incompetence behind – it would make big news and the president would play the drama better than he could because Mayor Garner had no patience for the game.
The mayor also knew that the board president was furious that he had been proven wrong; the “glorified bean counter” label had certainly not stuck no matter how many times he had assured his constituents that the appointed mayor could be controlled. The president was going to have to go back to his constituents and explain himself, and it was not going to be pretty.
But, the kicker – the mayor just opted, through doing good, to heap coals of fire on the president's already glowing head.
“Well, the city budget can't give you everything you want, but owing to being prepared, we do have sufficient reserve funds that we can loan to the county to handle the most pressing needs – on a zero interest basis, even.”
Seven of the eleven supervisors slumped from relief; two others smiled, knowing the mayor was going to come through for the people of Lofton County no matter how he felt about certain politicians. One supervisor, however, was looking over in horror at the expression on the face of the board president, whose influence over his own board had just vanished.
Mayor Garner saw that look too, but looked back calmly, and watched that face get even redder … and in the back of his mind, his cousin, Col. H.F. Lee, came to mind. “The Angel of Death” was polite and professional almost to a 19th-century Lee type of level to his colleagues, and don't let there be a woman or child anywhere around, because he could take that to a whole different angelic level. Mrs. Maggie Lee, when seen in town, was always just glowing and happy, and that was the general outcome for women and children. He also was a tremendous leader of men, and you could almost tell what his “unit” was by just watching, both in the military and on the police force in which he was a precinct captain. The Blue Ridge Precinct was a sleepy, sloppy working vacation for the members of the Big Loft Police Department before October 2019. By March 2020, they were winning every physical and professional award the department had to hand out – the Lee takeover was just that intense.
But also, the laziest man had died from just the look of disapproval on the new captain's face – hello and goodbye, just that quick, and Officer Tom White had not been the first – perhaps the fastest, but by no means the first -- for whom the terror of Henry Fitzhugh Lee had taken their soul out of their body.
Mayor Garner thought about what his cousin had said about the phenomenon: “If you recall our early lessons, the Angel of Death in Scripture arrived and ended the playing of God by powerful men and regimes, namely the Pharoah of Exodus, David, and Sennacherib of Assyria. All three of those men defied God's will from a position in which they felt no human being could challenge them, and they were right about the reality that no human being could challenge them.”
Col. Lee had paused, and sighed.
“When I show up, some men realize they are not even able to overcome another man, much less contend with God and angels. Some people live on their delusions, and without them, die.”
In the back of his mind, the mayor suddenly knew that the board president had just been stripped of his delusions, and was dying – blood pressure way too high for too long. So, he took the board president's attempt to confront him as the act of a man in a medical emergency – and gave the man's ego some oxygen.
“I couldn't even do your job, sir. The city is almost too big for me.”
Surprise … confusion … surprise … and the redness at last dialing down in the supervisor's face.
“I'm not your enemy,” the mayor said. “You came at me disrespectfully from the beginning, but there was never any need for you to have to learn from me today why you can't do that. I'm not your enemy. I'm the mayor of the city that is the county seat, and you're the board president for the county. Big Loft and Lofton County as whole need us both to get it together and work together. I'm willing to work with you, in spite of the bad start – we can do better.”
The mayor extended his hand … and saved a life. After a few moments, the board president reached back, and shook, and breathed, and remembered … .
“Oh my … I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine this morning.”
Mayor Garner pulled a bottle of water out of his suitcase and pulled a chair over.
“Listen, I just said Lofton County and Big Loft need both of us!”
So he sat the board president down, made sure he took his pills, and called for help … and thus the board president narrowly avoided a stroke and would return to his duties in two days a changed man – still humiliated, still unhappy, but with the recognition that Mayor Garner would make a better friend than an enemy.
“You are a kinder man than I am, cousin,” Col. Lee said about it to the mayor later on, “but that comes from you being a civilian, and more like our great-grandfather Horatio Lee and even my grandfather, your great uncle Horace, than I am. You took the knife out of the hand of one who would have gladly stabbed you in the back, by faith that he will not pick up another knife because you trust God to overcome evil with good. I admire you for that level of faith.”
“Yeah, I know I could have just told him off and been done with him, for good,” Mayor Garner said, “but I couldn't handle what you can handle in terms of laying folks down, Henry. You're gifted for that. I'm not. I'm a bean counter. I just want to do my job and go home.”
“Which is why God made both bean counters and bodyguards for them,” the colonel said. “You keep on with the beans, and I have your back in the city on everything else.”
“Henry, that's one of the reasons I don't have to worry about such things. Thank you for being one of God's bodyguards while I count these beans He has allotted me.”
“Thank you for being an honest glorified bean counter, Donald, for I have destroyed enough in this city and would like to go home in peace, too. I enjoy living half the week in Tinyville now, where Cousin Ironwood keeps things in order in his gentle but firm way.”
“Yeah, that's the other Army officer turned police officer that nobody in Lofton County is going to be messing with – how he took down all those rogue police officers with just you and your deputy's help is still a mystery to most, Henry.”
“As it should be. Ironwood's kill list was long enough before that, too, but there's a lot to be said for mystery. He projects the mystery, and people, not knowing what can happen to them, leave well enough alone. Like you, he inherits from the gentler Lee side in addition to the I-Line Hamiltons being humanitarian in outlook.”
“Isn't he right out of Robert E., unlike us being out of the general's brother?”
“He is, and thus is one of the most reluctantly but thoroughly belligerent individuals ever – heavy on the reluctance, and will tie you in knots with your bones notwithstanding in order not to kill you if he can.”
“Yikes – I mean, that's terrifying in its own way!”
“Ironwood doesn't do politics, but he understands very well.”
“Well, he should – his father as a county supervisor single-handedly dragged Lofton County into the civil rights era and lived 16 years more to tell about it!”
“Might be someone you can talk to for gentler but equally effective strategies than those I might share with you.”
“Henry, I will definitely call the heir of Isaiah Hamilton for tips! Wow – how many people know Ironwood is quietly operating at that level?”
“Remember, Donald, mystery.”
“Right, right.”