Dakota Born. Debbie Macomber

      It was only natural that the town pessimist and the town optimist would be in constant opposition. “You and Jacob have as much to gain or lose as the rest of us,” Hassie snapped. “A positive mental attitude would help.”

      “I’m positive,” Jacob said with a nod. “Positive that Buffalo Valley is as dead as Eloise Patten.”

      “If she was going to up and die unexpected like that, the least she could’ve done was tell someone she wasn’t well,” Marta said in her usual righteous manner.

      “That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said—which is really saying something.” Hassie’s face reddened, and Joshua could see she was having difficulty restraining her temper. The truth was, the Hansens exasperated him, too. How they’d managed to run the grocery during these hard times when they had such a negative outlook toward life was beyond him. Still, he was grateful their store had survived. Joshua didn’t know what would happen if they ever decided to leave Buffalo Valley.

      “All right, all right.” Joshua wiped his brow with a stained white handkerchief. “We’ll move on to new business.”

      With obvious reluctance, Hassie reclaimed her seat.

      “We all know why we’re here,” Jacob said. “The school needs a teacher.”

      “Does anyone mind if I sit in?” Buffalo Bob asked, pulling out a chair before anyone could object.

      Marta and Jacob glanced at each other and seemed to understand that if they raised a fuss, Hassie would make a point of asking Marta to leave, since she wasn’t officially a member of the town council. Joshua suspected the only reason she attended the meetings was to advise Jacob on how to vote.

      “We’d welcome your help,” Joshua assured Bob.

      Without a word Dennis Urlacher, who owned the Cenex Gas Station, shoved his chair aside to make room for him. Bob Carr was an ex-biker who’d settled in the town a couple of years earlier after winning the bar, grill and small hotel in a poker game. He’d immediately rechristened himself Buffalo Bob.

      Joshua looked down at his notes. “As you all know, Eloise Patten is gone.”

      “She’s more than gone,” Marta Hansen interrupted. “She’s dead!”

      “Marta!” Joshua had taken about all he could from her. “The point is we don’t have a teacher.”

      “Hire one.” Buffalo Bob leaned back on two legs of his chair, as if he figured they were all overreacting to this crisis.

      “No one’s going to want to teach in a town that’s dying,” Jacob grumbled, shaking his head. “Besides, I never did think much of dividing up the schools. Bussing our grade-schoolers over to Bellmont and then having them send their high-schoolers to us was a piss-poor idea, if you ask me.”

      “We already did ask you,” Joshua barked, no longer making any attempt to control his impatience. “It won’t do any good to rehash what’s already been decided and acted upon. Bussing the children has worked for the last four years, and would continue to do so if Eloise hadn’t passed on the way she did.”

      “Eloise should’ve retired years ago,” Marta complained under her breath.

      “Well, thank God she didn’t,” Joshua said. “We owe her a lot.” Eloise Patten had been a godsend to this community, and if no one else said it, he would. The schoolteacher had been the one to suggest splitting up the elementary and high-school students between the two towns. The Hansens’ attitude was typical of the thinking that was detrimental to such progressive ideas. The small farming communities, or what remained of them, needed to rely on each other. It was either that or lose everything. If Buffalo Valley was going to survive when so many towns on the prairie hadn’t, they had to learn to work together.

      “We’ve got to find us a new teacher, is all.” Dennis could be counted on to cut to the chase—to state the basic, unadorned facts. He owned and operated the only gas station left in town and wasn’t much of a talker. When he did speak, it was generally worth listening.

      Joshua knew that his daughter, Sarah, and Dennis had some kind of romance going between them, despite the decided efforts of his daughter to keep it a secret. Joshua didn’t understand why she felt it was so all-fired important nobody know about this relationship. After her disastrous marriage, Joshua would’ve welcomed Dennis into the family. He suspected that Sarah’s reluctance to marry Dennis had to do with her daughter, Calla, who was fourteen. A difficult age—as he remembered well.

      “We could throw in living quarters, couldn’t we?” Buffalo Bob was saying. “For the teacher?”

      “Good idea.” Joshua pointed the gavel at the hotel owner. “There’s two or three empty houses close to the school.”

      “Nobody’s going to want to live in those old places,” Marta insisted. “They’re full of mice and God knows what else.”

      “We can always clean one up.”

      The others nodded.

      “In case no one’s noticed, there’s a teacher shortage in this state.” This came from Jacob, and as if on cue, Marta nodded.

      “We could always advertise,” Hassie began tentatively.

      “Advertise? We don’t have that kind of money,” Marta said in a sharp voice.

      “If we don’t advertise, what exactly do you suggest?” Joshua asked.

      Jacob and Marta looked at each other. Jacob got heavily to his feet and leaned forward, bracing his hands on the edge of the table. “I think it’s time we all admitted the truth. Buffalo Valley is doomed and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.” Marta nodded again, a satisfied expression on her face.

      His announcement was met with an immediate outburst from both Hassie and Buffalo Bob.

      “Just a minute here!” Buffalo Bob shouted.

      “I raised two children in this town,” Hassie cried, “and buried one. I’m not going to let Buffalo Valley die if it’s the last thing I do. Any one of you who—”

      “… invested my entire inheritance in this bar and grill,” Buffalo Bob shouted in order to be heard above Hassie.

      Joshua slammed the gavel down. “No one said anything about giving up.”

      “No teacher’s gonna want to move here.” Marta apparently felt obliged to remind them of this.

      “We’ll find a teacher.” Joshua refused to let the Hansens’ pessimism influence the meeting any longer.

      “Look around you,” Jacob Hansen said, gesturing at the greasy window that faced the main street.

      Joshua didn’t need to look; he confronted the evidence every day when he opened his shop. The boarded-up businesses. The cracked sidewalks, with weeds sprouting up through the cracks. The litter on the streets. Whatever community pride there’d once been had long since died.

      “We aren’t going to let the school close,” Joshua stated emphatically.

      “I second that!” Hassie said. A deep sense of relief showed on her face, and the determination in her voice matched Joshua’s. He had lived his entire life in this place and he’d do whatever he could to save it. Come hell or high water, they’d find a teacher before school started up again at the end of August.

      “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Jacob Hansen said just loudly enough for them all to hear.

      “Well, then—prepare to believe,” Joshua said grandly.

      There was more life in Buffalo Valley than either of the Hansens suspected, and Joshua was going to prove it.

      Lindsay Snyder felt the anger churning in her stomach, anger at her own foolishness as much as anything. With her dogs sound asleep at her feet, she