by Leah Flowers
15 September 2024
Mr. Peel enters the Big Cherry city council meeting room, soaking wet and holding his briefcase. The rain falls heavily outside. The other members of the city council are filing in or milling about, many offering condolences to Peel. He had missed the previous meeting, the October 25th meeting, because his elderly mother had passed away, and he was out of town attending her funeral. He notices that Mr. Carp is not present and asks after him. No one will give him a straight answer except to say that Carp is no longer on the city council, “His tenure has ended.”
After taking attendance and saying an invocation, Mayor Superba asked if there were any announcements. Oldfield uses that time to assert his wish to take over Mr. Carp’s old parking spot. After Superba squashes that discussion, Ms. Innes says that she’d like to read a prepared statement. She is allowed, and what she reads affirms that ‘what they have done’ together is for the good of the city and that the most important function of the city council is to preserve the Big Cherry Heritage Festival. The minutes from the previous meeting are conspicuously not disseminated, and no one will tell Peel what happened at that meeting. They move to approve the minutes even though they are not available for reference. After much arguing, the group approves the minutes without review. Afterward, Mr. Hanratty presents his proposal for a wheelchair-accessible fountain featuring the town folk hero Otto Pym on horseback.
The discussion of Otto Pym leads to the discovery that newcomer Peel does not know of this historical figure. The city council members reenact for him the founding story of the town in which Otto Pym saves the daughter of a local farmer who had been kidnapped by Sioux warriors. Peel argues that the story sounds too similar to that of the 1956 movie The Searchers. Finally, a vote is taken, and the proposal does not pass. Next, Blake presents his proposal for a fixture called Lincoln Smackdown, where the city would hire a mixed martial arts expert to dress as Abraham Lincoln, and people could pay to fight him. Hanratty argues that Blake already presented the idea the week previous and that he shouldn’t be allowed to present again. The two come to fisticuffs and Superba calls for a break while Ms. Johnson searches for the answer to whether or not Blake actually presented the idea at the previous meeting.
During the break, Peel calls Carp to find out why he is no longer on the council and only reaches Carp’s voicemail box. The meeting was called to order once again, and Johnson said that she found that Blake had brought it up during a general meeting but had not presented a formal proposal. Peel questions how she found the information, and Johnson says she got it from the minutes from the previous week’s meeting. Peel moves to have the minutes read, and after a pause, Hanratty seconds it. A vote is taken, and the group agrees to the minutes being read in their entirety. Ms. Johnson recounts that attendance was taken, an invocation was waived, the Pledge of Allegiance was said, and there were discussions of a possible Big Cherry Savages Day, Eye Injury Prevention Month, and the upcoming Big Cherry Heritage Festival. Mr. Blake had brought up Lincoln Smackdown and Mr. Carp had opened a discussion in which he suggested the city would be better off without the Big Cherry Heritage Festival. In her notes, Ms. Johnson had written N.B. in reference to the transcript, meaning nota bene or “not well the transcript.” Peel asks for the transcript and is met with a lot of pushback from the council. Going from his first “joiner” demeanor, he suddenly finds his assertiveness and says, “you are going to sit there and… ‘nota bene.’”
We are taken into a flashback right as there is a heated argument between Carp, Breeding, and Assalone concerning the cost of renting a fire truck for the Big Cherry Heritage Festival. Finally, Innes asks Carp if he “simply does not hold our Heritage Festival in high esteem?” He says he does and then apologizes for bringing it up, saying he didn’t mean to but that he felt compelled to share the true story of the town’s founding. Through research, he came across the oral history of a Sioux woman named Makawee, who had told her granddaughter what had actually happened at the Battle of Mackie Creek. She recounts a tale of White colonists luring the men of her tribe away and then coming to disarm the elderly men who had stayed behind with the women and children. When one deaf elder did not understand why he was being disarmed, a struggle ensued, and the gun went off. This sparked a massacre where the White colonists began shooting indiscriminately, killing 122 people. She remembered running down to the riverbank to hide, and she watched as a White man took the ear off a little dead girl’s body to wear as a trophy around his neck. Finally, she said that the town was named for the racial slur used against Native Americans – cherry niggers.᛭
The council seem unmoved by the revelation. When Carp argues that they should tell the truth about their town’s history and possibly make reparations, he is met with staunch resistance. Eventually Carp says that he will find a way to make it known if they will not help him. Assalone in particular seems to be issuing vague threats. Carp says, “What’re you guys gonna do, make me disappear?”
Flash to the present. Superba says that the topic at hand will shift back to Blake’s Lincoln Smackdown proposal, but Blake says he doesn’t want to continue the discussion at this time. Superba moves on to resolution 8.1, which seeks to make the Otto Pym fairytale the official history that is recognized by the city and taught in schools. Peel, unable to move past the situation with Carp, demands, “What in God’s name have you done?” He looks to Ms. Johnson, but she says that she is merely a public servant and won’t help him further. However, she does find good points in Carp’s argument. Peel says he’s going to find Mr. Carp with or without their help.
Superba coolly tells Peel that all they want is what all parents want – what’s best for their children. He says that they shouldn’t focus on the past but instead look to future generations. He describes how we all make choices that we know are bad but we do it because we want to live in a “cocoon of comfort,” which was only made possible by those in the past that weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. He tells Peel to imagine two futures for his daughter – one in which she has a bright future and another where she is that little girl running down to hide in the riverbank, “her last moments lived in blind terror.”
Shaken by the implication, Peel leaves without a word. The members rise from their seats and, one by one, wordlessly affirm their commitment to their cause. “Peel re-enters, soaked. He is destroyed.” They welcome him back and then paint their faces with what looks like blood before offering Peel the bowl.
Source:
Letts, Tracy. (2023). The Minutes. Acting Edition. Samuel French.