Eric's day had been rather quiet, even with all the background noise that related to the City Council's vote on the were secret. There were some things where he was concerned and the part of him that remembered being bullied and only having his older brother and parents to defend him was generally against the idea. Revealing the were secret would be fine if the response was positive, but Eric had had enough negative attention in his life to know that that a positive response, while it may be hoped for, wasn't always likely. He was smart enough to accept some of the reasoning that Martin and Melissa Stovall had explained as to why the vote had gone the way it did, but that didn't necessarily mean he was enthusiastic about it.
However, it wasn't likely that either he or Julie could do much about it at the moment and would have to put faith that this Tom Herald's plan would work out well with the City Council and actually provide a framework for a peaceful reveal. But that was well above Eric's realm of responsibility and capability, and as such Eric turned to the things that he could work with. Talking with Julie and enjoying the delightful glow around her to his weremer eyes that told him that she was his one true love. It might be a fairy tale type romance, but by this point, Eric really didn't care about that. For the moment, the two of them were seated on opposite sides of the living room's coffee table in front of the couch as Eric tried to teach Julie chess.
"But why the rule to allow the pawns to move two spaces?" Julie asked, "and then only one space..."
"Some of that is just to move the pieces across the board," Eric tried to explain, "because of rules that would limit the piece's move after the initial move... it would take time to move a pawn across the board. Thus moving two spaces on the initial move makes for some of that to be easier... at least with regard to making that initial move."
Julie looked down to the impromptu chess board that had been set up with laminated cutouts to represent each piece. As Eric explained the rules for the pieces and how they moved he would often move a piece with his finger to demonstrate the move.
"But didn't you say that a pawn could be trapped in a position... that it could be stuck with a piece directly in front of it, but because it can only capture diagonally it can't advance?" Julie asked him.
Eric nodded and gave a small smile. He'd found that Julie did generally understand the rules of the game, and that actually helped, but it was still a very basic understanding of the game. And it was that lead to some of her questions and it was those questions that Eric was more than happy to answer.
"Yes... but that will be more the result of what your opponent does," Eric explained, "remember that chess is a game of strategy. It's not like a board game where you role die and whether you win, lose, or how far you move is determined purely by chance... it's something where you need to try to anticipate what your opponent wants to do..."
Eric paused as Julie gave him a rather knowing smile. He blushed and then gulped as he had some sense that at least part of what Julie might have in mind was applicable as to what was wanted, but that was more within the mindset of teenagers being teenagers. For the moment, at least, he was trying to stay away from that.
"With regard to the game," Eric then clarified.
Julie nodded with some acceptance to that, though she also noted his smile and that was what made her happy in the whole exchange. Chess wasn't exactly her thing, but Eric was. And if things like a chess club would get him more involved with social life in Moon Lake, then that was what it would be. Particularly at the moment when the real swimming season in the summer was over. More aquatic weres like weremers and wereotters might be able to handle cooler water temperatures enough to swim in. Weretigers and werebears might be able to with stand the temperatures for a time, but outside of the summer heat, swimming wasn't as much of an agenda issue for them. Expanding the book club that she and her friends had might also serve as a means to get Eric more involved and would help both of them share interests.
She was about to say more when her father came through the room on his way to the kitchen, likely looking for something to drink. For the moment he was on his phone and was saying something into it as he passed through.
"Look, sir," Martin Stovall spoke, "I understand your concerns, but I do not chair City Council Meetings. That is Deputy Mayor Chambers' responsibility and her only role is sit as a sort of referee should the debate be too contentious and provide a tie breaking vote, should there be a tie. Which is what happened."
Eric and Julie both looked up as he passed through, knowing that he was probably in some measure of "damage control" over what had happened. He didn't necessarily have to go into City Hall, but he was still having to address calls from donors and supporters in Moon Lake. It was something that Eric figured might be something more critical to a major city or a state government, not a small rural town of no more than six thousand people from what Julie had told him with regard to Moon Lake's population, but then given Moon Lake's secrets, there probably were some things that made that concern valid.
"I understand your concerns and worries, sir," they could hear Martin say from the kitchen, "and Katherine does share them. But based on the description of the debate and other events that didn't make it into that debate... we may well be reaching a point where the were secret is more a liability than an asset. Think on it... With Yvette Smith, we could have faced a public lawsuit for failing to provide protection. Yes... the Mandatory Were Law requires new residents to have at least one family member join, but its there to allow the choice of were species to join. We'd only have legal grounds to take action should the individual in question give a flat refusal to join were society... which with regard to Yvette Smith's actions wasn't the case. Thus we could have been sued as a result."
"Dad wouldn't though," Eric whispered to Julie, "he may not have chosen to be a werefox... but I think he likes it, and not just for the fact that it helped him and mom move past everything that had been between them in Minnesota."
"Yes, I know we escaped that, but that's not the end of the hurdles the town has faced of late," Martin continued as Julie looked up to see him pace past the doorway in the kitchen, but not leaving the kitchen to return to his home/office, "we had the whole issue with the Charleston family being chased by some lunatic. Giving them shelter was the right thing to do and I'm sure you agree that the family has the right to live without being hounded by mobsters. But in the course of protecting them... those mobsters found out that the Charlestons had come here and thus our police had to cooperate with the FBI in order to catch them, which they did do. But in both cases there was real risk and we likely only just escaped exposure. The mobsters I don't think would consent to our forms... and might even blackmail the city just to keep it secret if they had made it out of Moon Lake. And the FBI agents that were hunting them probably weren't the sort to just believe something made up on the spot. Meaning that anyone that got a bit too frisky while they were in town or the FBI or the mobsters getting too curious might lead to them going beyond the normal means to try and cover things up... In that, I'd think we were profoundly lucky that Moon Lake wasn't exposed because of all that."
Eric and Julie kept watching. This time Martin did come through the door and moved to head down an adjoining hallway that would lead back to his home office.
"Yes, and even THAT isn't the end," Martin continued, "remember Alice Decrux? Yes... her. While her suits for child support were handled locally, we do have to file the nature on those transactions with the state. Particularly when a few of the men that she fleeced decided to leave Moon Lake shortly after. Her first claim goes back at least fifty five years and her last was about twenty years ago. And that's still a thirty five year difference from the first. Assuming she was around twenty when the first case was filed, that would put her close to fifty five years old when she made her last court filing in that regard. In this, the assumption of a bureaucratic error might be the only thing that's kept someone from Olympia coming down here looking to file fraud charges against someone. Trying to protect the secret there would only mean more hoops to jump through and they can't easily be dodged. And in all of this, we may be reaching a point where secret isn't what it used to be..."
By that point, Martin had moved out of range for Eric or Julie to hear any more and when he shut the door to his home office, things were quiet again for Eric and Julie. The interruption was something of a reminder on what had happened the previous night and was something that was bigger than them. And even if it wasn't something they could influence, it would still be there.
"Things will get better," Julie assured Eric, getting the sensation that Eric wasn't comfortable with things as Eric continued to look to the point where they'd last seen Martin Stovall disappear from view.
"Yeah... I'm... what...?" Eric sort of murmured before shaking his head and then looking back to Julie.
"You were distracted," Julie answered, "and while it could be a big thing... it's something that will get better in the long run. At least we can hope it will."
"Hopefully," Eric nodded and took a deep breath to focus his attention pack on what he was trying to teach, "anyway... with the chess... do you want try a practice game with me or against a computer where the difficulty settings can be adjusted?"
"The computer... and you can help," Julie added, making Eric chuckle a bit.