Power Games

Yellow Peak is a town located 300km away from Grantham, once a booming rural town sitting on the Francis Highway, the 1960s bypass quickly killed the town that is now home to just 900-odd people where everybody knows everybody and outsiders are looked on suspiciously. Most people work at the Yellow Peak Mines which employ the vast majority of people in the town.

Unloading grocery bags out of the car, I take them inside looking around realising how dwindling Yellow Peak has gotten over the past few years. My life has always been centred around Yellow Peak, my mother worked in the Yellow Peak branch of the National Bank before they closed it last year and my father still works at the Yellow Peak mines in an administration role after 40 years of physical work.

Unpacking the groceries I hear my front door open “You home man” I hear call out “Yeah man, in the kitchen” I say as the voice comes closer and into the kitchen “Sup man” the voice says behind me “Hey Danny boy, what are you doing here?” 

“Just stopping in on my way home with Tash and the boys down visiting her folks, needed somewhere to grab a beer,” he says as he gets one out of my fridge and chucks me one too “Yeah, Kyle was so excited by his trip for the weekend couldn’t get him to shut up about it in class”, Danny shakes his head about his son “Of course he did,” he says between drinks of beer.

“Did you hear the big news of the town though?” he says leaning up against my kitchen bench “Something happen with the mine again?” I ask not sure what’s going on having been teaching all day, I’m usually the last one to know what is going on anyways keeping a focus on work and everything.

Danny laughs “You really haven’t heard the news? You’re getting a new neighbour because somebody bought the old Thompson place, came as a massive shock considering that it’s barely liveable there”. I stand back shocked that somebody has actually bought it 2 years after Mr. Thompson passed away, the house was a run-down hovel then but now it’s worse, and surprised somebody bought it given that Yellow Peak is not exactly the booming suburbs of Grantham. “Any word on who actually bought it because I mean who would actually want to buy here in Yellow Peak because we aren’t exactly on the tourist hotspot.”

Danny shakes his head “Apparently it was bought with cash this morning by someone from Grantham, I absolutely have no idea who it was but hopefully it’s not some developer that is wanting to turn Yellow Peak into the new Sapphire Ridge because that would kill everyone in town”.

I finish putting the groceries away and turn to Danny “Nobody would turn Yellow Peak into Sapphire Ridge, there’s absolutely no reason to do it because we’re nowhere near the highway and with all due respect we don’t exactly have any landmarks nearby that would draw developers in like Sapphire Ridge”. Danny heads into the living room and sitting on the couch “Kieran, Do you want me to order Pizza and see if Mitch wants to come round for Pizza and beers because we haven’t all caught up for a while and with him being the Lawyer in town, he’d probably know who it is”.

I stand there and nod “Yeah absolutely, do you want me to text him or should I just go and pick him up considering you know what state he gets in on a Friday afternoon?” Danny looks at me and shrugs “You can go and get him, that way you can pick up the Pizza from Frankie’s and make sure he puts the right stuff on it this week because you know it’s not the same since Enrico left” I nod and grab my keys and head into town.

Yellow Peak has essentially two main shopping streets, Underwood Street and Yellow Peak Drive which doubles as the main road with Station Street connecting it named after the fact it used to be the road to the old train station. I head out and park the car outside of Frankie’s and go in and order a Large Meatlovers Pizza with extra chillies for Danny and my usual Supreme Pizza without Olives. I wander past the shops and say hello to everyone with just about everybody knowing everybody and for me, it’s more difficult seeing as I’m one of just 4 teachers at the local school.

I listen to the conversations which all seem to be about the mystery buyer of the house next door which is intriguing given quickly the news has spread. I wander down Underwood Lane and knock on Mitch’s door, knowing that he’s probably doing something that he shouldn’t in his office, I slowly open the door and see the mess of paperwork he calls his filing system. “Mitch bro, you here?” I call out not seeing him “Under the desk” he calls out as he climbs from back underneath. “What the fuck happened here, it’s like a bomb went off,” I say to him as he sits at his desk “Lorna is away for 2 weeks and had to deal with a few things and I didn’t understand the filing system”.

I turn back to him “Is that about Mr. Thompson’s old house and who bought it?” Mitch looks at me “Yeah, I mean I had to help sign off the paperwork and send it through because it was a pretty rapid sale and I wanted to know who bought it”. I look at him “You mean, you signed off on the paperwork on it being sold but had no idea who it was buying it?”. He just nods “I only have to sign off that everything is legal and above board but I didn’t recognise the company name that bought it”.

“A company bought it, fuck it was a developer wasn’t it to try and make Yellow Peak the new Sapphire Ridge wasn’t it,” I say getting frustrated with Mitch just shrugging his shoulders “No idea bro but I put a call into Amy, you remember Amy the blonde hottest babe that I hung out with in college?”. I look at him “Amy? You mean the slut who broke up with you 8 times, got you high more than you studied?”. He smiles and nods “Yeah that’s the one, she works for the Department of Commerce and I got her to look into the name of the company who bought it.

“Well… who was it?” I say to him looking impatient “Don’t know, she couldn’t find anything on it, they weren’t registered with them because it was a single person who was buying it after all” he says smirking pouring a glass of Vodka he keeps in his desk drawer “Are you going to tell me who it is or what?” I ask him frustrated “Nope… but I do know that they’ll be here over the next few days so we’ll all find out then” I just roll my eyes at Mitch “Alright, at least do you want to come over for Pizza and Beers… or if you want it Wine with me and Danny tonight, just like old times”.

Mitch looks across at me “Yeah alright but can you drive, I’ve had more than a couple of these good boys today” he says shaking his glass of vodka at me. “Fuck sake alright bro, but Danny will drop you home alright”. Mitch shrugs “Yes mother,” he says with an annoying laugh. I wander back down and get the Pizza’s and make sure that Mitch gets in the car. We drive back to my place where I notice a car parked outside the house next door.

“Is that somebody inside there?” I say looking through the car window as I carry the Pizzas, Mitch looks “Probably yeah, unless it’s old man Thompson’s ghost come back to get the bodies” he says laughing, “Just get inside bro, that wasn’t a funny joke then and it isn’t funny now” he walks in and I follow in dropping the pizzas. Danny has made himself comfortable on the couch now in his work pants and his shirtless smooth tattooed body on show.

“Make yourself comfortable bro… go ahead,” I say sarcastically as he has his feet up on my coffee table drinking another beer, Danny laughs “Thanks bro I will”. I put the Pizza’s down and get out a beer as I make sure that Mitch doesn’t have anything else too strong

“How many do you reckon he had?” Danny asks me “No idea, probably at least 3 or 4 glasses today” I shake my head “He needs Lorna back in the office because it was a mess and he’s off the rails totally” Danny looks at me “Do you think she’ll go back there?” he says as I shake my head “No fucking way she would, like I get she was used to Mal but Mitch thinks he’s the king shit because he’s the lawyer of the town when really he should have been working at a top-class office in the city somewhere not out here”.

“Also bro, did you know if there was someone next door?” I say looking at him “Nah, there wasn’t when I went out to the truck to see if I had a change of clothes in the back, they must have only just got there then”. As we start to tuck into the Pizza there’s one of the first election campaign ads for the National Democratic Party with Brian Keppel “God that lot gives me the shits, he’s got no fucking clue what life is like for everyday people, I’d love to see one of those Keppel’s even set foot out here in Yellow Peak because it’d wipe their smiles off their face” Danny says angrily at the TV with Yellow Peak being true People’s Alliance territory come election time.