Dakota Born Read Free

romance going between them, despite the decided efforts of his daughter to keep it a secret. Joshua didn’t understand why she felt it was so all-fired important nobody know about this relationship. After her disastrous marriage, Joshua would’ve welcomed Dennis into the family. He suspected that Sarah’s reluctance to marry Dennis had to do with her daughter, Calla, who was fourteen. A difficult age—as he remembered well.
    â€œWe could throw in living quarters, couldn’t we?” Buffalo Bob was saying. “For the teacher?”
    â€œGood idea.” Joshua pointed the gavel at the hotel owner. “There’s two or three empty houses close to the school.”
    â€œNobody’s going to want to live in those old places,” Marta insisted. “They’re full of mice and God knows what else.”
    â€œWe can always clean one up.”
    The others nodded.
    â€œIn case no one’s noticed, there’s a teacher shortage in this state.” This came from Jacob, and as if on cue, Marta nodded.
    â€œWe could always advertise,” Hassie began tentatively.
    â€œAdvertise? We don’t have that kind of money,” Marta said in a sharp voice.
    â€œIf we don’t advertise, what exactly do you suggest?” Joshua asked.
    Jacob and Marta looked at each other. Jacob got heavily to his feet and leaned forward, bracing his hands on the edge of the table. “I think it’s time we all admitted the truth. Buffalo Valley is doomed and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.” Marta nodded again, a satisfied expression on her face.
    His announcement was met with an immediate outburst from both Hassie and Buffalo Bob.
    â€œJust a minute here!” Buffalo Bob shouted.
    â€œI raised two children in this town,” Hassie cried, “and buried one. I’m not going to let Buffalo Valley die if it’s the last thing I do. Any one of you who—”
    â€œâ€¦invested my entire inheritance in this bar and grill,” Buffalo Bob shouted in order to be heard above Hassie.
    Joshua slammed the gavel down. “No one said anything about giving up.”
    â€œNo teacher’s gonna want to move here.” Marta apparently felt obliged to remind them of this.
    â€œWe’ll find a teacher.” Joshua refused to let the Hansens’ pessimism influence the meeting any longer.
    â€œLook around you,” Jacob Hansen said, gesturing at the greasy window that faced the main street.
    Joshua didn’t need to look; he confronted the evidence every day when he opened his shop. The boarded-up businesses. The cracked sidewalks, with weeds sprouting up through the cracks. The litter on the streets. Whatever community pride there’d once been had long since died.
    â€œWe aren’t going to let the school close,” Joshua stated emphatically.
    â€œI second that!” Hassie said. A deep sense of relief showed on her face, and the determination in her voice matched Joshua’s. He had lived his entire life in this place and he’d do whatever he could to save it. Come hell or high water, they’d find a teacher before school started up again at the end of August.
    â€œI’ll believe it when I see it,” Jacob Hansen said just loudly enough for them all to hear.
    â€œWell, then—prepare to believe,” Joshua said grandly.
    There was more life in Buffalo Valley than either of the Hansens suspected, and Joshua was going to prove it.
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    Lindsay Snyder felt the anger churning in her stomach, anger at her own foolishness as much as anything. With her dogs sound asleep at her feet, she sat at her kitchen table and wrote in the pages of her journal. Whenever she was upset, she described her feelings; it helped her clarify them, helped her analyze what had happened and why. This time, though, she already knew the answers.
    When she finished, she set the leather-bound book aside and stared sightlessly out her