Part Twenty

The sky was already glowing orange when Peggy looked out of her kitchen window at 5 a.m. By 5:20, when her ferry eased away from the dock, the sun had created a sky of fire that backlit the treetops. "Look at the colors," Peggy said to Raoul, pointing out of the window of the ferry.

"Do you have your notes ready?" asked Raoul rummaging in his briefcase.

"We're not even at work yet," said Peggy. It so happened that she and Raoul were to attend a meeting together in downtown Seattle.

"Might I remind you our meeting starts at eight o'clock," he said.

"But look, the view!"

With a sigh Raoul turned his head and immediately raised his hand to shield his eyes from the brilliant orange sunlight that flooded the cabin once the ferry turned out of Eagle Harbor.

"Rainier looks nice," he said. "But the Cascades are hazy."

"You're so analytical."

"We have a big day ahead of us."

"Have you always been such a study in contradictions?"

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Take yesterday for example. We had a wonderful walk at Fort Ward park and you taught me so much about the killdeer; you know, that little bird we saw on the beach and how it falls down and pretends to have a broken wing in order to lead predators away from its nest. What noble behavior; I was fascinated. But this morning you show no interest in an amazing natural display of color and scenery."

"Just for the record, I think it's going to be a hazy day. But the real point is, I want to be prepared for our meeting today so we can get through this ordeal and get on to more productive things."

Peggy counted to ten to keep from getting angry. It had all started on Thursday. She had gone into work and found out that the Washington state governor had convened a Coastal Planning Task Force to study coastal development and its impact on the environment, especially with regard to flooding.

"Great," Peggy said to her boss, Milton Pacer.

"Glad you think so," he said. "We've been invited to participate and I'm assigning you and Dr. Forest to the Task Force. There's going to be a meeting at the Seattle Public Library with a telecon hookup to Olympia. I need you and Dr. Forest to be there."

At two 'clock that afternoon, Peggy and Dr. Forest, a renowned marine biologist, walked to the library.

"It's astonishing that we've been invited to attend," said Dr. Forest. "We're usually the ones they keep out of these things."

"That's because they normally don't want facts getting in the way of their conclusions," Peggy said.

The conference room at the library was crowded when they got there. Dr. Forest was greeted by several colleagues and pulled away. There were a few empty seats along a wall to the right. Peggy sat in one of them and looked around the room to see who else was there. Meanwhile, out of the corner of her eye she saw a man take the seat next to her. She turned. It was Raoul.

"What are you doing here?" Raoul asked.

"My organization has been invited to the Task Force. Somebody has to keep things honest."

Raoul groaned. "This is going to be a three-ring circus."

A woman brought the meeting to order and then a large screen came alive with the governor's image beamed from Olympia. The governor talked for several minutes about the mission of the Coastal Planning Task Force.

"She's really good, isn't she?" whispered Peggy to Raoul.

"She stole the election," said Raoul.

"You would have to bring that up."

After the presentation, the woman who had brought the meeting to order announced that attendees would be assigned to small committees. Each committee would be asked to nominate topics to be formally studied by the Task Force.

"We're deliberately mixing people up," said the organizer. "The governor wants interaction between government agencies, the private sector, special interests and academia. Any topic is fair game."

When the list was published, Peggy and Raoul discovered that they were assigned to the same committee.

"What fun. We'll work together," said Peggy.

"If this committee does anything resembling work I'll be amazed," he said.

Peggy quickly scanned a fact sheet describing their mission. "We get to look at property rights vs conservation. That's perfect."

"I already know what my recommendation's going to be," said Raoul as they were leaving the library. "Our whole society is based on private ownership of property and the rights that come with it."

"But with rights come responsibilities," said Peggy.

Now, on Monday morning, Peggy sipped her tea and compared a list of points she had written over the weekend with a list Raoul had prepared.

"Raoul, you aren't taking this seriously, are you? Your proposals are so obviously one-sided. It's as though you're simply dismissing this whole effort as not worth your time."

"These kinds of Task Forces are designed to do one thing: win points with the public. Nothing of consequence ever comes out of them," said Raoul.

"That's such a negative outlook," said Peggy. "If that's the way you feel, why bother?"

"Because I have a boss who wants me to do it and so I am."

"I also have a boss who wants me to do it and I'm going to see to it that our work has an impact."

"Good luck."

"I'm not letting you off that easy. I want you to put some real thought into this. Don't just treat it like a paper drill."

"If any of this ever sees the light of day it will be amazing."

"What about those birds you were so excited about? The killdeer. Are you willing to say that anyone who owns beachfront property can just bulldoze away the bird habitat and build a big ugly boathouse for their noisy motorboats?"

"Depends. Will they invite me to go water skiing?" chuckled Raoul.

Peggy looked away in frustration. She wanted to scream. Raoul placed a hand on her arm.

"Okay. I'll take it seriously. Our voices will be heard."

She handed him his list of ideas and a pen. "Good. Start revising."

He took the pen. "Me and my big mouth."