CHAPTER 15: Golden Years Presents

After last week’s intrusion, the Town Hall gets itself back together and pushes on with their agenda. This week, Doug and his friends finally find out what’s happening up Mount Costo with the new age retreat. It’s huge, there’ll be buckets of cash sloshing around 🤑🤑🤑 but it all feels a bit… unreal…

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DOUG HAD FOUND A SEAT AND WAS SITTING IN A DAZE. His head throbbed, the stuffy heat of the crowd made him dizzy. People were putting the chairs back into rows, their clatter ringing in Doug’s ears.

Local bylaws demanded that any dog which had become uncontrollable was to be put down immediately. So, July and Ramses had quickly cleared out of the town hall before Constable Sweetland could make it through the crowd and apprehend them.

“Hello, Doug,” Marcus smiled. Behind her stood Shining Wind, with the other man. Pale-skinned, his bald head ringed by well-groomed dark hair, a sharp nose and long neck, jutted out of a collarless navy blue workwear suit. He wore dark brown leather sandals with white socks underneath. Like the nerdy CEO of a trendy vegan fast-food company.

Doug squinted up at the trio.

“It’s good to see you here, Doug,” Marcus said. “I’m sorry to hear what happened to you. Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Doug shifted uncomfortably on his seat.

“If you need any kind of help, don’t hesitate to message me,” offered Shining Wind. “I’ve been working on an ASMR-based hypnosis therapy for head injuries. It could do wonders for you.”

“I had wanted to confirm your visit to the retreat tomorrow” Marcus continued. “But if you need to recover from your incident, I completely understand.”

“It’s in my calendar. I’ll be there, no problem,” replied Doug.

“That’s perfect,” said Marcus. “It’s appreciated…”

“Hello. Hi all.” Sharynne’s voice came through the speakers. “So, after all of that, let’s try and get this meeting back on schedule.”

Everyone slowly settled down, the room hushed and all attention went back to the front of the room.

“So. Our last item on the agenda tonight,” Sharynne tried to get the momentum going again. “A planning permission requested by Golden Years Body & Mind Development Group LLC. For the construction of a communications array, on their property on the north side of Mount Costo.”

An image blinked onto the large screen, bathing the crowd in green light. There was a collective gasp and then excited murmuring. There was a satellite view of Mount Costo with a large tract of terrain blocked out by a dotted white line. One-third of the property, cutting diagonally across the mountain’s summit was highlighted in yellow, showing the proposed area of development. Several clusters of a dozen or so large satellite dishes were pictured across the property. There was a network of electrical and communications wiring that would need to be installed, and a massive central hub to be excavated underground.

“Oh,” exclaimed Bear to no one in particular, “what’s that movie with the evil guy’s volcano base?”

“Dr. No,” answered Gus. “James Bond.”

“Dr. No, indeed” whispered Brandi.

Doug tried to comprehend the complex image in front of them. “They just asked me to come visit tomorrow to look at their internet. But… I mean, this is next level. It can’t be what they meant.”

“And you said yes?” Bear lifted an eyebrow at Doug. “You’re gonna go up there?”

“They offered me so much money,” Doug sighed. “It’ll pay off all my bills. I can’t say no.”

“Folks, please keep chattering to a minimum. There’ll be lots of time to discuss this later,” Sharynne corralled the crowd. “The Golden Years Group has submitted a one-year development and construction schedule. It is now available to the public on the municipal website. We’ll also upload minutes of this meeting as soon as possible.”

“One year?” Gus whispered. “This’ll take four, five years, at least. They’ll need to blast half of Costo. And build a new road up there, and God knows what else…”

Sharynne motioned toward Marcus, Shining Wind and the blue-suited man. “Representatives from the Golden Years Group will now present what they’d like to do. Then we’ll have a short question and answer session. And after that, there’ll be a public vote on whether we will consider this plan for further discussion. That, whether it’s an overall approval or a rejection, will most likely take several months. At very least.”

As Sharynne was speaking the trio had made their way to the front of the hall. Marcus stood next to Sharynne and nodded. Sharynne smiled and handed the microphone over.

“Good afternoon. My name is Marcus DeVray.” The room went silent again. “I’m the lead public relations member of the Golden Years Group for Sternum Island. I understand that you’ll likely have many questions about this project.” Marcus looked up at the projection behind her. “I must say that when I see it all up on the screen like this, it looks very ambitious. Maybe too ambitious.” Marcus turned back to the audience, smiling out at them. “But, I promise that I’ll do my best to make sense of it to everyone. We’re very interested in making sure that you have a voice in any changes, so that you feel comfortable about this plan. In fact, we want you to love the idea and I want you to see how it can greatly benefit the island. While causing very little impact during and after the construction phase.”

The remained silent.

“Marcus?” Brandi whispered at Doug.

“Yeah,” Doug whispered back, “She’s a she. She told me she inherited the name from a founder of her group when they died.”

“Right. Well, I can totally see why you were in such a rush to find her this morning. She’s a hottie.”

Doug scoffed uncomfortably, and would have worried about blushing if he hadn’t already been sweltering.

“What you see up here,” Marcus continued, “are plans for the development of our media hub. It’s where we want to run multiple, parallel productions. We will be able to consolidate all of our courses, seminars, tutorials and everything else into one place. Then we’ll be able to provide livestreams and access to our archives.” Marcus looked back into the crowd, “We have very robust financial backing that will allow us, if approved by you, to complete all construction inside of one year. We will also provide preferentially weighed salaries to all islanders who want to work with us on the project, whether as laborers, engineers, administration, or other available tasks. Plus, we’ve set out a payment structure and legacy employment packages for local citizens who might be interested in employment with the Golden Years Group after the construction is complete.” The entire hall’s attention was now focused on Marcus. She handed the microphone back to Sharynne.

“Thank you Ms DeVray,” said Sharynne, “Now, before the vote, I’d like to open up the floor to a Q&A. As always, please keep your questions as short as possible. And remember, if this does pass a vote, there’ll be lots more opportunities to discuss the plans.” Dozens of hands shot up across the hall. Gus waved his hand up in the air frantically. “Let’s start with Mr Vaynerchuck in the back. Gus?”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks, Sharynne. I’ve just been looking at the application online, and the remuneration looks generous but pretty vague on the details,” Gus was shouting clearly across the hall. “Now, I know as a community, we tend to suffer from a form of repressed memory syndrome. That’s to say, we’d all rather forget our failures and look into the future. Which is fair. I’m all for the future. But we can’t just cover up the past and pretend things we didn’t like never happened. I mean,  we’ve had a lot of people come out here over the years, trying to build resorts, golf courses and whatever. They’ll always dangle that carrot of good paying jobs at us. To be fair, and kinda blunt, sorry, some of those businesses have operated for a bit, but then just petered out after a lot of hope and effort by the local community,” Gus was tugging at his braided beard nervously, his voice ratcheting up speed. “I might recall for everyone how the fish cannery ended up being used by drug smugglers, and for money laundering. Or when Marko Strombolous aka ‘Big Pops’, got himself elected mayor with his concept-farm Ponzi scheme. That one left our council in debt and an endemic llama population that’s only just been gotten under control… I mean, we’re still dealing with the fallout from that trauma.”

Mayor Mike Dobson, who hitherto seemed to be dozing off, squirmed then coughed.

“Gus,” Sharynne’s amplified voice interjected. “I’m sorry to interrupt but we need to get through a lot. If you have a specific question for Ms DeVray about the Golden Years project, please do ask it.”

Gus frowned. “I guess my question is, that you’re saying you’ll employ almost four times as many people as the largest local employer. And then pay them all double the average wage around here? I mean, I imagine that you’ve done your homework on our little community, and know that many islanders have to hold down two or three jobs, a lot of seasonal or part-time work, just to get by. So, what you’re putting on the table is a big deal. But how’re you going to afford all of this? Where does your money come from? Where will it come from in the future when the building blitz is over?” Gus swiveled from left to right, trying to involve the audience, “We don’t want another Llamagate. We want to keep healing.”

Marcus took the microphone. “Thank you for that very important question. It’s essential to the Golden Years group that the residents of Sternum fully understand just how serious we are. That we intend to become an integral part of this community.”

Bear crossed his arms and exhaled impatiently. Sharynne was looking at Marcus with a pleased but slightly vacant expression.

“So. Part of the funding for this project is dedicated to ensuring sustainable employment. Wages will be kept in a trust, pooling donations made by our many thousands of members worldwide. On top of that, we have investment committed by the InnovoSol Fund in Seattle,” the crowd started murmuring again. Marcus continued over the chatter, “As many of you might know, InnovoSol is a global investor in green tech solutions. What I can make public today, is that their charitable wing has earmarked 400 million dollars for construction, plus another 200 million on completion. All will be placed in the trust, with the Sternum Island Mayor’s office and local council’s oversight. So Sternum will be equal partners with Golden Years and InnovoSol. But without any risk.”

At that, the crowd went quiet. Doug could feel all that money rushing through everyone’s imaginations.

“We think of Golden Years as a tribe. A network of like-minded individuals, working together on shared goals. Long-term sustainable ones. That means spiritual, as well as technological, economical and ecological. We see these as interdependent. Or more poetically, these are all energies that run through our shared experiences.”

Over the hushed crowd a dog barked. Outside, Doug could see the light changing toward evening.

“This media hub and its infrastructure are the first step for the Golden Years tribe to a new phase. It’ll hopefully be the first of many such hubs around the world. Where we can start amplifying the most positive aspects of what we do…”

“Yeah. But what the hell do you actually do?” Bear muttered under his breath, making Brandi and Gus chortle. “No, really. This is so fuckin vague, I’m gonna fall asleep.”

“I’ve talked a lot with InnovoSol’s founder, Tiberius Organ. And we’ve likened it to a diaspora – a worldview that overlaps borders and geography.”

At the mention of Tiberius Organ, there was more murmuring from the crowd. Organ was a well-known public figure and had founded InnovoSol – a global tech giant that started in Seattle as an online dating network, but soon expanded into retail, real estate, and now telecommunications. Organ was also well-known as a body-hacking and experimental health enthusiast. A passion about which he shared regularly with his 400 million Twitter followers.

“Guess we’ll all be doing boutique enemas and immersive kale farming experiences,” Bear quipped.

“Especially, as we now share so much information, and cultures have become so intertwined,” Marcus continued, “This diasporic identity and cosmos becomes ever more relevant and, we think, a positive force for change. Not only will we be helping to build a global satellite network, but we will be able to expand our principles of collaboration and community. This is why it’s so important to us to make sure the community we want to work with – you – feels excited, as well as secure, about the future.”

Doug glanced around the audience. The rush of promised money sent hopes rising above the room. It wasn’t that InnovoSol and Organ were much-loved. Indeed, they had both recently been pilloried in local news after they had set up some homeless shelters, but had used the charities as a way of donating their own properties to, essentially, themselves. The excitement was purely about the money. The seemingly endless amounts that InnovoSol had.

“But, before we get our wallets out,” Marcus continued, “I want us to start small. Where it really matters. I know many of you might be wondering what we’re doing up at our place in the clouds. To that end, on behalf of everyone at Golden Years retreat, I want to invite you all to a community open day this coming Saturday. It’ll kick off around noon with guided tours, refreshments and other fun and games. Later, there’ll be food served, music performances, and more fun and dancing into the evening. It’ll be a full day for the entire family where you’ll all get an opportunity to understand us more, ask us questions, find out about employment opportunities. And just get a chance to enjoy yourselves. Thanks so much for your time!” Marcus bowed sharply with her head and handed the mic back to Sharynne.

Hands in the crowd shot up and Sharynne started fielding more questions.

“Isn’t the weather supposed to be terrible this Saturday?” Gus muttered. “They really ought to warn folks about that.”

Doug saw blue and red lights faintly flashing against the trees outside the town hall window. He checked the time, “I gotta go pick up the kids,” he whispered. “If it needs a counted vote, then message me. Maybe I can come back down quickly.”

“Sure thing,” replied Brandi, “Say hi to Siobhan for me. Can’t wait to see her on the big screen.”

Doug smiled. “Small screen. It’s gonna be streaming-only. At least for now.”

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