The public meeting was like every public meeting. Soon it had degraded into an unorganized mob, venting their heated frustrations into an already unbearably hot room. The officer stammered answers to fear induced questions and tried to quell the growing competition of machismo by the men. Stuck on slide six, he still had ten minutes of canned presentation to give before his superior would allow him to leave.

"Yes, you in the back." He waited apprehensively for the short old man with a suspicious grin on his face to stand up.

"Yes, uh. I have a technical question if you please." The old man said, in a mid-west accent tainted by a nasal tone that stood the officer's neck hairs on end, then glanced from side to side to see if everyone was listening. "What is the smallest caliber gun I can get that would take down a 200 pound man." His grin widened as the man next to him patted him on the shoulder and there were nods of agreement around the room.

Good ol' George, who'd been trying for over a year to fit into our small community since he moved in, suddenly had the most points in the game today. The two officers stood stoically at the front of the room to try and pick out someone a little more seriouse from the sea of raised palms and anxiouse faces. They settled on Sue, a short little fireball in her 60's from the heart of Texas. I wondered what she would say. She could go either way, but whichever way she went, I knew it would be her way and no one else's. I admired her for that.

"Sir, I believe you told us in the beginning of your little speech here that you'd like to give the whole presentation and then we could all ask questions in the end, am I correct?" For only 5'4" she stood impressively tall.

"Yes, maam, that's correct." The officer seemed a little worn and wiped nervously at the moisture collecting on his top lip.

"Then, are you done?" Sue stood even straighter and crossed her arms before lowering her eyes majestically over the rest of the seated crowd.

"No. There's still a bit to go."

"Well then," she sized up each man individually, and even yanked the macho points right out from under George, "I suggest we shut up and let the man continue. The quicker he gets done, the more time we'll have to ask what we need to ask." She gave a final 'harumph' before sitting back down. Rightfully so, I thought as the women behind me sneered something about 'knowing she never liked her'. I wanted to reach back and smack her.

Dianne was always the horsefly in the ointment: large, swift and biting. As the presentation continued, she stewed and figited. She murmered cutting remarks amongst her friends who sat beside her in a row of four, neatly lined up and dressed very similar from their hairstyles to the color they chose to wear that day..."hang-em-high red". They reminded me of someone's collection of bobble-head devils, all grinning wickedly from behind the display case glass.

Finally, the officer concluded his presentation with a sentence very common in conclusions; but, none the less, very painfull to the officer.

"Are there any questions?"

A dozen or so hands shot into the air with such machined precision it inspired a few "oohs" and "ahs" from the others with no questions at all...yet.

---to be cont.---

Want to comment on this Short Stories? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Short Stories and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...