The Old Whaling Church seemed packed to me. Turns out, though, they were 20 people short of a quorum.

Imagine, 20 people in an entire town. Probably the number of folks who were having dinner at The Newes. Or those who had huddled into the library for the Tuesday night movie. (Last night it was “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”)

I was ready though…along with about a dozen others who sat in the back, in the designated “Non-Voter” pews. I was eager for the proceedings to get underway. I wanted to see local government at work, to see if it really was as feisty and combative as I’d written in a scene in my PLACES BY THE SEA. (Can’t recall if Ben ever did get that variance for his museum. He really should have! He was one of my favorite guys, er, characters!)

But back to reality. Like I said, they were 20 folks short.  I considered asking my non-voting neighbors if we should register right then and there. Heck, then we could dash to The Newes and pull out a few others. It’s not as if anyone there would be watching the World Series.

Too late.

Someone banged a gavel. The Town Meeting was postponed until next week.

So my question is this: who the heck is going to climb up onto the banner across Main Street and change the date?

P.S. You’ll be glad to know I raced to the library and snuck in the back, only ten minutes late for the movie.