{{Our episode title is also a great Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band song.—tmw.}}
"Mayor Twist?" said the voice over intercom on her desktop. "He doesn't have an appointment but Martin Stovall would like to know if you're available?"
"REALLY?" asked Samantha, looking up from her mountain of paperwork in disbelief. "Send him right in!" she ordered.
Samantha got up from her desk and rushed over to greet him as the former mayor of Moon Lake and now its were-mer representative on the Elders' Council walked in.
"Martin, it's great to see you again," Samantha said while vigorously shaking his hand. "It's been far too long."
"That it has," he agreed.
"How's Melissa?" asked Samantha.
"Doing well, under the circumstances. I can't believe that I'm not only soon going to be a father again, but to twins as well. How are you doing, your honor?" wondered Martin, while looking around his old office. Except for the desk chair and the picture of Frances and their son Ben on the desk, it looked pretty much the same as the last time he saw it. Samantha had even kept Suzy the secretary.
"Busy," she admitted, as they walked back to the desk. It seemed unusual to each of them to be sitting where they were. Samantha Twist behind it as Mayor (Pro-tem) of Moon Lake and he on the other side as just a visiting citizen instead of him behind the desk and she in front of it as the ex-Town Chancellor. "Apparently, since you stepped down, a lot of the rats around here thought I'd be a pushover and they'd all start getting bigger slices of cheese, but I've proven myself a more than capable werecat, if you know what I mean," she told him, despite the fact they both were in their human forms. "Yet I'll also be the first to admit that I've really got to stay on top of things. There hasn't been a night since you resigned that I wasn't taking at least some work home with me, and I haven't had a vacation since I became Mayor Pro-Tem."
"Well, I'll be the first to agree that being Mayor of any town is hard work. I was in the same boat you are now a lot of times myself, which is probably part of the reason why I originally started straying on Melissa. Under the belief of getting some relief and relaxation, even if it was just temporary and sexual in nature," confessed Martin.
"No worries on that front. Frances takes VERY good care of me," said Samantha happily, referring to her wife. "But something tells me this isn't just a social call, is it?" she asked.
"No," confessed Martin. "You do know that the filing deadline, concerning whether or not you're going to run for your first full term in office is this coming Tuesday at noon, right?"
"Frances and I were going to discuss that over the holiday weekend. We plan to just lock up the house, keep the phone off the hook and stay in together," explained Samantha.
"Sounds nice, but I'm afraid you don't have that luxury anymore. I have it on good authority that another candidate is going to announce their run for Mayor during the Labor Day Picnic Monday," revealed Martin.
"OH? Who?" wondered Samantha.
"The recently married Kenya Adaeze-Crawford, with the full support of her husband Jack Crawford and our opposing political party*," said Martin.
"I don't understand," admitted Samantha.
"It's simple, really. Apparently Jack Crawford and Benton Knight have been feuding for years, but until now it has always been just in their respective business arenas over business. Yet for some reason, Crawford is now spreading out and targeting Moon Lake too. Whether that's because the Knights live here or some other reason remains unknown," explained Martin.
"I suspect him in some of the more... questionable things that have happened around here lately, but have no proof. Yet why is his wife going to run and not Crawford himself?" wondered Samantha.
"Jack has maintained a penthouse in Seattle as his primary address for over a decade now. Despite living there with her husband since they came back from their honeymoon abroad a couple of months ago, Adaeze still owns the childhood home she grew up. Apparently she was an only child who inherited everything once her parents passed away," answered Martin.
"Meeting the residency requirement to campaign," realized Samantha. "Hmm... Adaeze. I remember meeting a Kenya Adaeze late last year, just before the holidays."
"Really?" asked Martin. "From what I hear, she's a werepanthress with a hint of leopard in her fursona because of some distant family history."
"Yes. She was dating Nate Anderson at the time. Everything was legal by Moon Lake laws, considering they are both active weres, despite there being over a decade between them age wise," answered Samantha. "But Nate dumped her when he found out that she not only worked secretly as a high priced escort to rich weres when she wasn't the head teller at the Moon Lake Savings and Loan, but that she was still on active duty—if you know what I mean—doing that job when she claimed to have given it up as part of the commitment to their relationship. Seriously horny, if not very needy sexually, from Frances' brief observation of her."
"Interesting," said Martin, thinking over everything Samantha had just told him. "I wonder if that's how she and Crawford met? Given time, I suppose there's got to be ways to verify all of that."
"I'm sure there is, but why tell me all of this?" asked Samantha.
"Because we want you to run for Mayor of Moon Lake."
"Who's we?" she wanted to know.
"Myself, the Skulk, Tachibana no Akane, Tachibana Enterprises, Lance Knight, and Knight Media, who will all endorse and support your campaign," revealed Martin.
"WOW!" said Samantha, taken aback in genuine surprise. "But why me?"
"Because, despite whatever concerns you might have on the subject, you've been doing a great job since taking over from me. The town budget is still in the black and despite whatever back room deals are going on with the elementary school construction to slow that down, everything else is running smoothly. Moon Lake didn't go to hell in a hand basket since you took over. If anything, things might be a little bit better than I left them, and people notice such things. Besides, if not you, who else is there?" asked Martin in return.
"But how do you know all of this about Crawford and his wife?" Samantha wanted to know.
"Being on the Elders' Council does have some advantages from time to time. For example, ex-District 1 representative Arnold Stewart Stevenson came to visit the were-donkey rep to find out where he stood on the issue, hoping to get his endorsement, because Stevenson will be Kenya's campaign manager!"
"WHAT?" exclaimed the mayor. "When you guys found him guilty on corruption charges, I thought Stevenson was exiled from politics for 10 years."
"That's true," confirmed Stovall, recalling the Council's verdict on the case, "but that only prevents him from running or holding office himself. He found out from were-donkey rep Anthony Severin Simpson that didn't stop him from working with a campaign. Thankfully one of the Council's lupine guards over heard the two talking and let Tachibana know, because even when they try to whisper, were-donkeys still bray too loudly."
Samantha couldn't help but smile at that, but then said, "Stevenson blames me for getting him removed as the District 1 rep, despite the fact that it was actually his own stupidity and greed that did it, so I can see his stake and goal in all of this. Crawford's is obvious too. I know I've done Moon Lake some good during my short time in office, and I have seriously thought about running," admitted Samantha. "Yet I can't make a decision like this without at least consulting Frances first, because this will affect her and Ben as well."
"That's understandable," agreed Martin, as he got up and walked to the outer office door.
Before Samantha could say anything, he opened it and said, "You can come in now."
A moment later Samantha's wife, Doctor Frances Twist, walked into the Mayor's Office, followed closely by Melissa Stovall.
"Hi Honey. Melissa explained everything to me on the way over here," revealed Frances, giving her wife a quick peck on the cheek.
"You planned all of this?" Samantha asked Martin.
"Only out of necessity. If you do decide to run, it would be best to announce that this afternoon and put Crawford on the offensive,since they're planning his wife's announcement for Monday," he explained. "Okay, we'll leave you two alone to discuss the matter now," said Martin, while taking Melissa's hand and leading his very pregnant wife out of the office to give the Twists some privacy.
As Melissa Stovall enjoyed being held and cuddled by her husband as they stood together in the mayor's outer office, she couldn't help wondering how the discussion was going between Samantha and Frances.
Being the wife of the previous mayor, she knew what the political situation was like.
Just because Moon Lake was a relatively small town of just over 6000 didn't make it any different that any other small town.
Greed, graft, corruption and other vices were just as present here as they were elsewhere; and considering most of those involved were also weres only meant that their physical skills and needs were stronger. The rest was just the same as anywhere else.
It seemed like they were in there talking for a good hour, but in reality it was more along the lines of 15 minutes before Samantha Twist came back out with her arm lovingly around her wife Frances' waist.
"Okay. Let's call a press conference. I've got a campaign to announce!" said Samantha, before asking her secretary to secure the filing forms for her.
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*Being part of the "real" world, there really are only 2 political parties in Moon Lake, but I'm trying not to get on any soap boxes here, and the donkeys are just donkeys. NOT satire of the Democrats.—tmw.