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The Great Flood

By: Cromagnonman



I drove into town to be met by a wall of hostility, not the usual hostility associated with a stranger taking up residence in a smallish country town, which I was, but the hostility towards a man taking the place of a beloved citizen, which I also was. I was because I was guilty of buying up the beloved citizen's property in a mortgagee sale.

What the hostile residents of Woods Ford didn't realise was that I had lived here before, albeit briefly, and that there was a certain amount of revenge involved in my return. I was born here but left when I was a few months old, because my mother, Barbara Lloyd, was hounded out of this righteous community because she had the temerity to fall pregnant while she was a single girl, girl being the operative word. She was just eighteen at the time. She refused to identify the father of her child and, although she had been going with Edward Woods at the time, he denied the possibility that he could be the father and, because of this denial she was branded a 'fallen woman' even before she became a woman.

Her father, Herbert Lloyd, who was the local parson, turned his back on her, so she packed up her meagre belongings and headed into the city to try to make a new life for herself and her newborn son, James Parsons, me. I was christened James after her father and she chose to change her name to Parsons by deed poll, in an ironic reference to the man who turned his back on her, and on his chance to fully and openly display his Christian love to her.

She went to live with her mother's sister who had agreed to help her in any way that she could, looking after me when she found work in an office as a typist, taking me to and from school until I went to high school when it was decided that I could get myself to and from school. The whole time my mother and I had been accepted into the family and both of us received an abundance of love and affection from Aunt Cecily and Uncle Ben and Cousins Pete and Rhonda. My Grand-mother visited from time to time to bring us all up to date about Woods Ford and its inhabitants. My mother cried herself to sleep on the night that she heard that Edward Woods had married Jane Thomas, and she smiled to herself when she heard that Jane was divorcing Edward because of his affair with Nancy Brewster.

I graduated high school with good grades, enough to get into Engineering, and I later graduated with an honours degree. This I followed with a post graduate doctorate in Civil Engineering with a focus on dam construction. In this country there is a demand for a regular and consistent water supply for both rural and city use, so my qualifications were very much in demand and I worked on several large catchment dams as well as smaller flood mitigation dams. It was a flood mitigation project that first got me interested in Woods Ford. 

The town was situated just downstream from the confluence of two streams, that every ten years or so, flooded, causing significant damage to Woods Ford. Most of the townspeople saw the need for this mitigation project but, first Henry Woods and then his son Edward when he took control of the family hardware and building supply store, resisted the move. Henry Woods was a long time Shire President and was able to convince enough council members to support him in his efforts to defer construction approval.

Those residents that were in favour of the proposal were hopeful when Henry retired that Edward would see the merits of the project and support it. They were to be disappointed when he decided that the financial benefits to the family business from the regular flood repairs far outweighed that of stopping the flooding.

It was when I mentioned to my mother that I was being sent by the State Water Authority to Woods Ford to research the feasibility of the project that she told me of my connection to the place. This got me interested in the history and politics of Woods Ford, in particular the Woods family.

Josiah Woods was the first to settle this district and because of this he chose the best land, it was highly productive alluvial soil, full of nutrients deposited on the flood plain during the occasional floods. As more settlers moved in a small village was built up around the river crossing. This was a ford because at most times there was very little water running over the road. At first the road was consolidated with gravel from a local quarry that Josiah Woods had established further up the side of the valley, but it was later decided to build a more permanent and flood-proof crossing. A substantial stone arch bridge was built using stone from the quarry and cement supplied by Josiah from his newly established store.

The store and the Woods family flourished on a base of being the sole supplier of building materials and hardware within a fifty mile radius and, in the days of horse and cart transport, this was a major undertaking. The Woods Ford population just accepted the fact that they had to pay a premium on supplies from Woods Hardware and Building Supplies.

The Woods family ruled the district with a form of benevolent despotism. As long as you didn't buck the status quo life was easy for you, but any opposition was met with force. Josiah Woods established a Methodist chapel so that the spiritual needs of the inhabitants could be met. While attendance at this church was not mandatory, those who missed the occasional Sunday service had to show cause and pay their usual financial contribution to the church, while those who chose not to attend found themselves 'sent to Coventry', that is shunned by Josiah, and ultimately the rest of the population. If they chose to return to the fold they were accepted, but only after serving a probationary period. Attendance at the church was always strong.

The men of the district were dour hard working folk, used to putting in a ten hour day tilling the soil or felling and milling timber. A co-operative abattoir and dairy was set up to process meat and dairy for those who didn't have the facility to process their own, so apart from those products such a plates and pots and pans that could not be made locally, the district was largely self-sufficient.

The Woods men had the pick of the crop when it came to women to marry, usually the daughter of a family in favour with the patriarch. The chosen one had to have certain qualities, good looks and poise, a compliant manner and a genetically superior bloodline. This is where my mother failed the test. She was certainly pretty enough having been taught grace and deportment from an early age, her bloodline was considered by the Woods to be, while not considered 'superior', good enough. Where she failed to pass muster was that she was less than compliant, there was a rebellious streak in her make-up that just wasn't acceptable. She suffered fools lightly and considered most of the Woods Ford boys to fit into that category. Except for Edward that is, it was he of all the local boys who she found to be of a similar disposition to herself. Henry Woods forbade Edward from seeing young Barbara because of her rebellious streak that saw her spending more time with boys than she did with the girls of the town. While people didn't actually come out and accuse her of having loose morals, it was rumoured that she was free and easy with her affections. These rumours were only partly true for, while she was no longer a virgin before the end of her eighteenth year, she had made love to only one boy. Edward considered himself to be privileged that she had allowed him to move beyond first base and had visions of an interesting life with the tempestuous young Parson's daughter, but that was until the night that she told him the she had fallen pregnant and that he was the father.

Edward was at first devastated with this news, he was not prepared for the change in his circumstances that parenthood would bring. He decided that denial was the best course of action and circulated a rumour that, while she was pregnant, he was not the child's father. He even went as far as coercing some of his friends into accusing Barbara of having sex with them. From being a well thought of young lady to slut was a short ride, she was shunned by the other girls who would look and talk openly behind their hands about which boy she had been seen having sex with. That none of these rumours were true mattered little to the gossip-mongers. Barbara added fuel to the rumours by openly displaying her pregnancy for all to see. Her father tried to get her to display some remorse in her condition but she refused. "It takes two people to make a baby, I am proud of this achievement, and if the father does not share that pride then he is not the man I thought him to be."

In the month that followed my birth my mother would openly walk down Main Street with me in a pram. No-one stopped to coo over the cute little baby, choosing instead to ignore 'the hussy and her bastard' as they passed, nose held high. My Grand-mother, Rebecca, spoke to her sister Cecily, and it was decided that Barbara and I should go and live with her and her family. The childhood I had was by far better than I would have had in Wood Ford, even if my mother and Edward Woods had married. The marriage would not have survived Edward's philandering ways, loyalty was one of her strongest character traits and one of his weakest.

The house that I had bought had belonged to Robert Burroughs whose Grand-father had settled not long after Josiah Woods and while Woods branched out into business, Burroughs remained firmly entrenched in farming the rich alluvial soils. Each year crops were planted and harvested and sold within the district. As the years went by the Burroughs expanded their operations and introduced new and improved crops and methods until they were shipping produce to markets far afield. The Burroughs family were philanthropic, giving produce to the needy and following the floods would open their storerooms and provide for those who had lost all.

Unfortunately times change, crops that fetched good prices in years past no longer showed a profit as the supermarket chains screwed the producers. This combined with cheaper imports from other districts where economies of scale and mechanical harvesting technology resulted in much lower production costs, led to the downfall of the Burroughs dynasty. Those people who had been helped in years gone by did not find it in their hearts to help support the Burroughs in their time of need. The current Robert Burroughs had borrowed heavily from the banks who considered their loyalty to their shareholders to be far greater than their loyalty to their customer. They foreclosed on the mortgage and placed the property on the market. It was sold it to me at a fraction of its worth, because the banks were interested only in recouping their loss, not in selling at a market price that would have resulted in a return to the Burroughs.

This contributed to the feeling of hatred that confronted my arrival to Woods Ford. I had expected some animosity, but was un-prepared for the level that was directed at me. I soon found myself labelled a 'trouble-maker' because I had approached the Shire Council about my plans to survey the valley above Woods Ford with the view to the construction of a flood mitigation dam. Because there had not been a flood for some years the Council stated that one was not needed. Of course Edward Woods being the current Shire President had nothing to do with that decision!

I was still able to carry out survey work on a proposed site for a dam because I now owned the land, something that hadn't escaped the notice of Edward Woods, a fact that he pointed out to me when he threatened me. I spent much of my time at the local library going over old newspaper records of previous floods. These records brought to light some interesting facts, like Burroughs donated food to families affected by the floods and extended interest free loans to those who needed a financial leg up to get back on their feet. The beneficiaries of this generosity showed their thanks by actually voluntarily paying standard bank interest on the loans. Meanwhile Woods Hardware and Building Supplies not only did not give essential materials to effect temporary repairs to make homes liveable, but charged higher than normal interest on loans that people had to take out to buy these materials. Woods Hardware and Building Supplies did very nicely out of the floods.

I also took core samples from either side of the valley at its narrowest point and these showed me that this was the optimal site for a dam.

Another point that came of my research was the fact that the insurance companies did not do the right thing by these families that were hit by the floods. For years they hid behind what was known as the 'Act of God Clause'. This allowed them to refuse payment on claims as the floods were deemed to be an Act of God, not that the good folk of Woods Ford did anything that bad it could bring down the wrath of the Almighty. Then, following a landmark court decision that effectively wiped out this clause, the insurance companies responded by hiking up the flood cover premiums to the point that most of the affected residents could not afford such cover.

I had gathered a pile of clippings that I needed copied so I took them over to the information desk. "Excuse me, do you have a photocopier?" I asked the young lady who was sorting through file records on her computer.

"Yes we do."

"May I use it to copy these clippings?"

"Sure, I'll just fire it up for you, it'll take a little while to warm up, we don't use it often enough to keep it running all the time. You're the man that bought the Burroughs place aren't you?"

"Yes, I hope that you're not going to heap a load of abuse onto me for doing that, are you?"

"No, in fact I want to say thank you for buying it."

"Why would you want to do that? Everyone else hates me for it."

"They don't know the full story."

"Which is?" I was curious, here was someone who didn't hate me on sight.

"Woods wanted that land, but had offered the banks a price lower than what the banks needed to cover the mortgages and then you came along and offered a higher price. You still managed to get it at a price considerably lower than what it was worth. I can't blame you for doing that, I blame the banks, they could have placed a more realistic valuation on it."

"That would be the case if I intended to farm all of the property, but I'm not, so I won't be able to get the full value from the land that I would if I farmed it."

"If you're not going to farm it, what will you do?"

"I intend to have a flood mitigation dam built on my land. I will provide the site and the Government has indicated that it will cover the construction costs. I will find myself with a lake that I can stock with fish and people will be able to fish there."

"And I suppose that you will charge them for the privilege?"

"No, there will be no charge, access will be free, and the initial stocking of the dam will be at my expense. I would hope that subsequent fish stocks will be financed by the users." 

"That seems fair enough. Woods won't like that one little bit, he bought Burroughs store and has already started to raise his prices, you providing free fish will cut into that part of his market. You really do know how to make enemies, don't you?"

"I haven't even tried yet, wait until I do."

"Do you want an ally, someone to lend a hand from time to time?"

"Are you volunteering?"

"Yes. I'm Tanya Burroughs."

"I'm pleased to meet you Tanya Burroughs. I'm James Parsons and I'm new in town."

"You don't say, I'd never have guessed it seeing as how I know just about everyone in this place. Okay, let's get these copies for you." She picked them clippings and carried them to the copier. "Why are you interested in the insurance companies and the floods?"

"It's part of an argument that I will put forward to the State Water Authority when I apply to them to over-rule the Council's refusal to grant me permission to build, which I know they will, this dam on my own property."

"Edward Woods will be out rallying support as soon as he hears about this."

"That's why I'm gathering all the ammunition I can find."

"I'm going to offer my support as a Research Assistant if you need me."

"I need you, this will cut my preparation time down quite significantly, thank you."

"I think that I'm going to enjoy this, the current young Edward Woods has been a pain in the arse these past couple of years because I won't go out with him. This will help me because he won't dare ask me now because Daddy will tell him no to, and he always does what Daddy tells him to."

"The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree then."

"Why would you say that?"

"I understand that Edward Senior is now enjoying his third wife, a newer model than the older discarded model. I understand that there was a bit of a scandal involved in that divorce."

"You could say that, he was having it off with the new and improved model and the old model threatened to divorce him, so he spread rumours around that she had been free and easy with her affections and he launched a pre-emptive strike and with his legal team going at it full on, simply blew her out of the water. Poor woman never stood a chance."

"Not a lot has changed then."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'll tell you some time, but not just yet, I want it to be a surprise when I drop it on him from a great height. I've just had a thought, have you had your lunch yet?"

"No, but I've brought a sandwich with me."

"I can do better than a sandwich, join me, please?" I put on my very best pleading look.

"Very well, but not at any of the eateries around town, the people aren't ready to see the two of us together just yet. Having discounted local hotels and snack bars, do you have any bright ideas?"

I took a pen and piece of paper from her desk and wrote my address on it. "Be there in half an hour, and that will give me time to fix something special and to think of a justification for you to call in to my place."

She screwed up the paper and threw it into the bin. "I don't need your address, don't forget I used to live there."

"Sorry about that, my bad, I sort of forgot about that."

"That's okay, I'll see you."

I left to prepare a feast for us. Not really, I just threw together a platter with sliced meats and salad type things to stuff into a half battard (a cross between a small baguette and a Vienna loaf) along with a range of dressings.

"This is nice." Tanya said as she wiped the blob of honey mustard dressing from the corners of her mouth. "It sure as hell beats my humble egg and lettuce sandwich."

"Thank you. Now what would you like, tea, coffee or something else?" I said as I gathered up the plates and headed for the kitchen.

"Coffee sounds good," she said as she followed me into the kitchen, "I'll give you a hand." She looked around the room. "I notice that you've hung onto the slow combustion stove."

"Yeah, I did think about buying one of those new-fangled electric jobs, but decided against it. Firewood is free and plentiful and it also heats up the water for my shower. I'm pretty domesticated, I even do my own laundry right down to the ironing."

"My, you will be a great catch for some lucky young woman. I might have tried for you myself but I can't see myself living with a pariah that no-one will talk to." It was then that she noticed the portrait that I'd taken from the living room wall and was now leaning against the kitchen wall. "Now there's a fine looking couple."

"I thought so, but I just couldn't live with them looking down on me for stealing their home from them. So you know them do you?"

"Of course I do," She addressed the painting, "Hi Gramps, Gramma. What do you plan to do with them?"


The Great Flood



"I thought of giving them to someone who just might be related to them, do you know of such a person?"

"This conversation is getting ridiculous, if you want to give it to me why don't you just say so, instead of all of this bullshit we've been carrying on with for the last couple of minutes?"

"Would you like it?"

"No, I couldn't stand them when they were alive, what makes you think I want them hanging around to remind me of them? Of course I'd like the painting."

"Then it's yours, and it also provides you with a reason for being here, in case some nosey neighbour notices and asks."

"There's one thing that you'll soon learn about me, and that is that I don't give a rat's arse about what people think. You and I are going to have a fight on our hands, because you are going against the might of the Woods clan and I'm going to support you. Are you up for the fight of your life?"

"That was going to be my question to you? Welcome to my war Tanya Burroughs."

"Our war James Parsons, although I still think that you haven't told me everything about this, I will support you. Now, all that we have to do is to convince the rest of the world that we are the good guys." She came over to me and put her arms around me, then she kissed me. "You're one of the good guys and if I'm not careful I just might get to like you."

"I want to get to like you, I do like you." I kissed her. "And I know that I'm going to enjoy working with you, often. Now let's get Gramps and Gramma out to your car and I'll see you back at the Library, we have a lot of work to do and I want to make use of the Library facilities as much as possible."

"So I'm just a facility am I?"

"I can see that working with you is going to be interesting to say the least."

"Not to mention after work, and our spare time, like weekends and public holidays."

"This sounds like it's going to turn into a lifetime project."

"A psychic now, is there anything that you can't do?"

"Walk on water, that's beyond me."

"But you've tried?"

"Yeah, but the holes in my feet let the water through."

"I think that, on that note of blasphemy we should get serious, for a while at least. I'll see you at the Library when you get there." She kissed me, and I detected that it was something other than platonic, but then maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part.

We spent the afternoon going over the history of Woods Ford, well I spent the afternoon going over it, while Tanya had a group of students from the local school to occupy her time.

Josiah Woods was one of a wave of Welsh immigrants into this country in the mid nineteenth century. They were of hard-working farming stock who took up that occupation on land under a 'Conditional Purchase', Crown land made available to farmers on the condition that they built a dwelling on it and farmed it. It was a way of increasing food production in the fledgling colony of New South Wales.

Having chosen his land Josiah acquired a woman to help him work the land between having children. They were industrious and the land fertile, and it wasn't long before he had acquired more land and joined with other farmers in setting up a co-operative store where they could all buy in bulk and distribute to the settlers. As the town grew two of the founding families expanded into other enterprises, the Woods formed the Woods Hardware and Building Supply Company to provide the building supplies that they couldn't produce themselves, while the Burroughs took over the co-operative store to provide food items and other essentials that also couldn't be produced locally. Both enterprises thrived in the expanding local town, and soon became the centre of local trade.

This was where the two enterprises diverged. The attitude of the Burroughs bordered on philanthropic, they were willing to extend credit in hard times and were rewarded when times were good when those that had received credit sought to repay the full amount plus the interest that should have been charged. The only people who took advantage of this largesse were the Woods who traded on the long standing friendship between families, like the person who slides out of the bar just before it was his turn to buy the round. The Woods extended no such credit. If you couldn't pay up front you didn't get what you needed. You were however encouraged to take out a loan, using your property as mortgage collateral, with the local bank that just happened to have been owned by the Woods family.

Generations of Woods saw the benefits to be had in local politics and the position of Shire President was continually filled by one of them. Burroughs however, left that to the Woods, preferring to operate on an informal basis and helping whenever they could, usually without being asked, and always without the expectation of recouping expenditure. The Woods were tolerated because of the power that they wielded while the Burroughs were loved by all.

Over the years the population of Woods Ford fluctuated for various reasons. There was a shortage of men following two World Wars and the Vietnam War when the men saw it as there patriotic duty to go off and fight. There were times of late when the young people looked over the fence and saw that the grass was greener on the other side, so for a time the population consisted of the very young and the very old. In the last couple of years there has been an upward trend in people of what could be called 'middle age' moving into the district in a wave of 'tree changers', leading to a new and vibrant population of people not wanting to make waves to upset the existing order of things. Woods Hardware and Building Supply did very nicely out of the trend to home improvement and restoration. It had been some time since the last flood and these people were blissfully unaware of the potential for the destruction of their chosen lifestyle.

I heard the school group leave and Tanya lock the front door. "How is it going?" She asked as she began turning off the lights in a none too subtle hint that it was time for me to leave. "I think I should return the favour and invite you to dinner this evening."

"Aren't you scared that someone will see us together?"

"No, but if you're afraid that I'll get into trouble with the locals you can always park in the top corner of the golf club car park and slip through my back gate. I'll move the welcome mat from the front door to the back, just for you."

"Okay, I'll come. Would you like me to bring something, a bottle of wine perhaps?"

"If you like, a red would go well with what I'm cooking."

"Great, what time do you want me?" She had a funny look on her face and I half expected her to jokingly reply, 'any time, all the time.' It was probably my wishful thinking again so I dismissed it.

"Around seven thirty would be fine." She ushered me to the door and gave me a quick kiss before shoving me out, and re-locking it after me.

My prospects for the evening took a major blow the second after she'd allowed me into her house. "Let me tell you right from the start, that any thoughts that you might have about getting me half cut (drunk) and applying your powers of seduction are not about to happen."

"You didn't think that was why I accepted your invitation did you? Let me tell you it was for the pleasure of your company and to taste the culinary delights of your kitchen."

"That's alright then. Would you like a drink before we have dinner?"

"Are you having one, I wouldn't like to think that you're intending to stay sober and ply me with the demon drink just so you can seduce me."

"The thought never entered my head."

"Yeah, right." I read somewhere that those two words were the only example in the English language where two positives make a negative. 

She poured us both a white wine and then went into the kitchen to return moments later with a large dish of steaming hot lasagne. She proceeded to dole out a generous portion for both of us. She then poured us a glass of red wine. "Dig in, don't stand on ceremony, unless you need to say Grace or something."

"I didn't reply, choosing instead to take a mouthful of what I discovered to be a very tasty morsel indeed. "Mmm, this is nice."

"And all with my own two hands, no packaged food there, I even made my own lasagne sheets."

"And here I was just thinking to myself earlier that I could get to like you, I was wrong, I could get to love you."

"I bet you say that to any girl that feeds you."

"I can't remember the last time a girl actually fed me." 

"Oh shit, I'm falling for someone with short term memory loss. I need to rethink my strategy, how am I going to get rid of you."

"Just you try it and I'll chain myself to you."

"Shut up and eat."

"Yes Ma'am." I took another mouthful, it was still brilliant. A sip of the red wine had me in culinary heaven. "Getting serious for a while, this really is good." A third forkful disappeared into my mouth.

"I'm glad you like it, it's one of my specialities because I love it myself."

"Do you mind if I talk work for a while?"

"No, I was hoping that you would, you interest me."

"I've been going through the weather records from the Met. Bureau, and Woods Ford is just about due for another flood, so I might have to move a bit quicker than I thought."

"What sort of lead time are we looking at now?"

"Two weeks tops. If we don't make a move soon it will be too late. Unless of course you delay it until after the flood and then use the flood to help sway public opinion."

"I couldn't do that, I don't want anyone to suffer un-necessarily."

"I knew you were going to say that. What do you want me to do?"

"Can you see if you can rustle up a suitable venue and book it for us, I'll pay for it. And then could you put together a flyer to go out around the place. I need to work on my presentation, it has to be a grabber to have any chance of swaying the masses."

"We can't do any of that tonight, can we?"

"No, and you've scuttled my plans to seduce you, so how are we going to amuse ourselves?"

"I think that if you asked me nicely you'll find that I don't need seducing."

I stood up and moved to her side of the table and, bending over her and kissing her neck, I placed my hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet. Once on her feet she turned to me and literally threw herself at me, driving me against the wall and almost knocking the wind right out of me. We scrambled out of our clothes and I got my first glimpse of her naked body. It was stunning.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallway to her bedroom where I found a scented candle burning on her dressing table providing only a small amount of light, just enough to see that her bedclothes were pulled back in readiness, and I was ready. So, it turned out was she, she fell back onto the bed dragging me with her. Her arms were around my neck and her legs were wrapped around my hips. I positioned myself over her and guided him into her waiting body. "Oh that feels so good, I can't remember it ever being this good. Don't say anything, just make love to me."

"Yes . . "

"Ssh"

The room was filled with the slight squishing noise as my cock reached as far as he could go into her pussy accompanied by a soft slapping sound as my scrotum slapped into her thighs, and these were accompanied by her grunting noise that changed as her passion increased into a moan until, when I lunged into her she came on an ecstatic sob.

"Permission to speak, Ma'am."

"You may speak." I couldn't for a while because her mouth was covering mine.

"Tanya Burroughs, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that I have fallen under your spell and I am madly in love with you."

"You've only just worked that out, I've known for ages, since before you came into the Library. I overheard a couple of people talking about you and how you were planning to take on the Woods dynasty so I just had to find out more about you. My parents told me a bit about you but when I asked them how they knew so much about you they shut up and refused to say more. But, they like you and if they had told me that they thought that there was something shady about you, I would have shunned you just like everyone else in Woods Ford."

A week and a half later we had our venue and the PA system was set up and there were as many chairs as we could find set up in rows. It had been a rocky time believe me. We had a couple of venues lined up but the owners suddenly discovered a subsequent booking, so they cancelled. Edward Woods came to me and told me in no uncertain terms that if I went ahead with my meeting I'd better have my bags already packed, because I would not want to stay in town after the residents were finished with me.

"Are you threatening me?" I asked.

"No, I am making a promise to you. I own this town and no-one but no-one does anything around here unless I say so."

"I'll consider myself warned, but the meeting will go ahead." 

I half expected that he would threaten everyone in town that if they showed up to the meeting he'd punish them, but then I under-estimated his arrogance. He wanted everyone there to witness my humiliation.

The hall was buzzing, I had invited Edward Woods to address the meeting after I'd put forward my proposal, and with a smile, he agreed. Tanya came with me but decided to sit at the back of the hall so that she could judge the mood of the crowd.

I stood and walked to the lectern. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here on such short notice. Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is James Parsons, and you all know that I have recently moved into the Burroughs old house." There was a swell of antipathy towards me for that. I held up my hand. "What you may not know is that I am a Civil Engineer and I work as a Project Manager and Design Engineer for the State Water Authority. We have been looking for some time at the feasibility of building a Water Storage and Flood Mitigation dam at Woods Ford. We have a site chosen and all we need is for planning approval. The reason that the Authority has decided that a dam here was an essential project is that our research has revealed that, because of climate change, the floods that you have here from time to time will not only occur more frequently but will be of greater magnitude." I switched on my projector and a graph appeared on the screen that I'd placed on the stage. "As you can see from this graph that over the past one hundred years the floods have become more frequent and the levels are increasing each time. Using the cyclical nature of weather patterns as a guide we have predicted that the next flood will be in about eighteen months time. The time to act on this is now. We cannot afford to wait for the Council to act because thay are in no hurry to do anything about this, unless the people of Woods Ford tell them that they want this project to go ahead. I have invited Mr Edward Woods to address this meeting to explain why the Council objects to this project. Mr Woods."

Edward Woods rose to address the meeting. "Fellow citizens of Woods Ford, friends, I stand before you this evening because of this man. James Parsons has been in this town for five minutes and has the temerity to attempt to tell us, the people who have lived here for decades, how we should run our town, my town, your town. This is the man who bought the Burroughs property at a price considerably less than its true worth, a property that has been in the Burroughs family for almost as long as this town has existed, and in so doing he has forced the Burroughs from their home." This brought a reaction from the crowd, I could feel the animosity growing and looked at Tanya, she smiled at me, she knew what was happening and was prepared to support me. "This man has decided that we need a dam because every now and then we have a flood. Friends, let us look closely at what he is proposing and why. He wants the dam built on his land, land that he got for a song, land that he will want to sell to the council, your council that we will have to purchase with your money, money that we need to maintain the services that you enjoy." He had that smug look on his face that said that he knew he had the crowd in the palm of his hands. "And who is going to pay for the construction of this dam, not him, Mr Parsons will not contribute one cent to the cost of this white elephant that he proposes! So friends just who will benefit from this proposal, will you benefit knowing that you have to bear the cost burden? No, the only person who will benefit from this proposal will be this Johnny-come-lately James Parsons. Let me tell you friends that I am here tonight to stop this proposal from ever getting off the ground and I want you to stand with me in this fight. ARE YOU WITH ME!" He sat down and smiled that smug smile of his that told me that he had won.

The crowd reacted as I knew they would, they were caught up in his rhetoric.

I stood and looked over the crowd until they quietened down. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am impressed by Mr Woods' rhetoric and have to admit that even I was beginning to think like him, but then I told myself that what he told you was cleverly thought out. I have to admit that, while he didn't lie to you, he didn't actually tell you the whole truth. For instance he told you that I bought the Burroughs property at a price considerably lower than its true worth. That is true, but, let me tell you that my tender on this property was not the lowest, that honour goes to Mr Edward Woods. His tender would have left the Burroughs family still owing a considerable amount of money on a property that they no longer owned! My tender allowed them the funds to clear their debt to the bank, a bank by the way owned by Mr Woods' family and which had foreclosed on the Burroughs mortgage. On top of that, I made them a very generous offer on the fixtures and fittings. Mr Woods was right when he said that I wanted the dam built on my land, I want it on my land because that is the best place for it, and I should know that because that is my job, I am a Civil Engineer who has been in charge of the design and construction of several large Water Catchment and Flood Mitigation Dams around this country. Yes, this was one of the reasons that I bought this property. But not for personal profit, I have entered into negotiations with the State government that will result in me signing over title to the land for this dam to the State, it will cost you nothing. I have also negotiated with the State government to carry the cost burden for this dam, it will cost you nothing. So you can see, ladies and gentlemen, friends, I am not the money grubbing ogre that Mr Woods has portrayed me to be."

I was winning them over and the expression on Edward's face said it all, he had the feeling that he might lose this battle. I wasn't about to let victory slip from my grasp. "Ladies and gentlemen, there are other factors that you should take into consideration when you make your decision and one of those is insurance. Several years ago there was a landmark judgement handed down in a court that saw the removal of the infamous 'Act of God Clause' from insurance contracts. How many of you good citizens really believe that a merciful God would think you so bad that He would punish you with destructive floods? What the insurance companies then did was to hike up the insurance premiums for flood cover on what they deemed to be flood prone areas and Woods Ford is considered to be flood prone. How many of you can afford to have flood cover?" A couple of hands went up. "I have bad news for you as well. I have spoken to an Insurance Loss Assessor and he has informed me that, according to a memo circulated between them, the Insurance companies have found a loop-hole that means that in the event of another flood they will not have to pay out one red cent. Your premiums are a total waste of money, but you wouldn't have found that out until your next claim. Do you know why they won't pay out? Because they have deemed that any future flood at Woods Ford is preventable. If the Council had not blocked the construction of a Flood Mitigation Dam your houses would, if not fully protected from flood, suffer only minimal damage."




The Great Flood



The sounds of disbelief washed over the crowd. "I do offer one ray of hope and that is for those affected by future flooding can enter into a Class Action against the Council and, my legal advice is, they will succeed. But this could be a long and drawn out process and one that will be costly, the only people to gain any benefit from such an action will be the lawyers and I don't know about you, but I'd resent that. The other problem there is that any cost to Council is a cost to you, that is unless you are able to sue individual Councillors. The problem there is that all voting on this subject in the past has been 'in camera', that is that there is no way of knowing which of the Councillors voted for the ban and who voted against it. What I can tell you is that the votes went against the advice of the Shire Engineers who have consistently put forward proposals for a dam." 

Edward was looking less and less confident, and for good reason, there was more to come. "I have done a great deal of research into this town and its floods and I have discovered something very interesting. Who has benefited most from the floods? Was it the Burroughs who opened up their storerooms to provide, at their expense, emergency rations for those affected by floods? Was it the Burroughs who also provided interest free credit to those who could not afford to buy food after the floods? They benefitted in a small way from the goodwill generated by their generosity, but not to any great financial extent. That honour goes to the Woods Hardware and Building Supplies. When a flood was imminent they brought in large quantities of sand, but did they say to the residents, 'come, and help yourselves to the sand for your sand-bags? All that we ask is that you bring it back after the flood'. No, they charged full price for that sand, and when the flood was over they generously allowed you to dump that sand back at their supply yard. Did they say to you, 'come and help yourselves to the plywood sheeting so that you can protect your property from the rushing floodwaters? No, if you wanted sheeting you were charged top dollar for it, and you weren't getting construction grade plywood that could withstand the waters and be re-used, you were getting factory second grade ply that was rendered useless because of the water damage. But, you still had to pay for construction grade because you were desperate. This is the reason why Edward Woods, as Shire President, made sure that council never approved the dam project."

Edward was now angry. "Why are you doing this, are you that desperate to see this project go ahead?"

"That is one reason, yes. But I have another reason, you stated at the beginning of your speech that I was new to this town, your words were that I'd been here five minutes. Let me tell you that, this is my town, I was born here and, in what could only be described as the ultimate irony, you are my father." After the initial shocked gasps from the crowd you could have heard a pin drop. "My mother was Barbara Lloyd, the daughter of the Methodist Minister in this town. She was still a teenager when she fell pregnant to the only boy that she had allowed to make love to her, you, Edward Woods. She would not reveal the name of the boy who got her pregnant, but you knew that it was you and what did you do? Did you offer to stand by her and admit that you were the father? No, you spread rumours around town that she was promiscuous and had been having sex with a number of boys. She was a strong girl and thought that she could have the child and raise him in this town, but no, that was never going to happen because pressure was brought to bear on her father, who was told that if he supported her he would lose his job. He turned his back on her, his own daughter. She had no alternative but to take me and leave this town, this town where she had been popular, but was now branded a slut. I was lucky, she went to live with her mother's sister and their family and I was raised in a loving environment. I am proud of my mother and the sacrifice that she made for me." I turned to Edward. "In case you decide to challenge my claim to be your son, your oldest son, DNA profiling will back up my claim. She had another reason not to name you, if she had, she thought that you would be pressured into marrying her, but she could not see a future in a marriage to you because of your philandering ways, and history has vindicated that decision."

The crowd was very obviously turning against Edward, it was now time for the coup de gras. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think that it is now time that we should put this matter to a vote. I call for a show of hands; who wants this meeting to request the Shire Council reverse its decision to block the construction of the Flood Mitigation Dam?" I looked over the crowd. "I don't think a head count will be necessary, it looks pretty unanimous from up here."

A voice at the back of the hall began to chant; "We want the dam, we want the dam." And this was taken up by the crowd.

Tanya came up onto the stage. She stood there until the crowd lapsed into a curious silence. "Ladies and gentlemen, I came here this evening to support James Parsons who I believed to be a good man, no, a great man, the man I even had hopes of marrying." This was greeted with loud applause from the crowd but I was curious at her use of the past tense 'had'. "But now I find that he has kept one tit-bit of information from me, he is one of them, he is a fucking Woods, and I don't know whether I want to marry him now. So what I need from you is some advice as to whether I should forget him and walk away from the man I love, or should I forget who his father is and marry him anyway. What should I do?"

"MARRY HIM, MARRY HIM." A new chant rose and flooded over the crowd. This flood of emotion was the great flood of Woods Ford, and went on for several minutes until three people walked through the crowd and mounted the stage. My Mother took the microphone and waited until the chant ceased. 

"Too many years ago I left this town and declared that I would never come back, I was hurt badly by people I thought to be my friends. That was until Tom and Brenda here," she indicated Tanya's parents, "rang me and told me what was going to happen here tonight and how proud they were of James and Tanya for their decision to stand up to the might of the Woods clan. I just had to be here to support them, I had no doubt that James would prevail, and when I heard that he had the support of the Burroughs family, in particular Tanya, I just had to be here. I am glad to be here, I am glad to be home!" she raised her hand with the microphone in a triumphant salute to the cheering crowd. Tanya moved to her side and hugged her and she and Mother kissed. 

"Come, Mother," Tanya said to her in a whisper, "Let's go home."