Rebuilding Eden Ch. 02

"I am happy to do it. Let me get you my standard agreement. Back in a moment."

As soon as she stepped out of the room Beth turned to me and whispered, "I really like her. She is no nonsense." I nodded. "But, to be honest, I now have this burning desire to get her to loosen up a bit."

I laughed, "Cami wearing off on you?"

She laughed too, "apparently so!"

We signed and Jeanette began the process of combining the properties and getting on the agenda of the zoning board. The first task was going to be pretty simple. The second? Well that was more complex.

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According to the published rules for zoning decisions in that community, we needed to submit detailed plans of physical changes, address traffic impact on the community, discuss business plans (short term and long term), and present compelling arguments for why this proposed change would have a net positive impact on the community at large.

Should we pass initial review, we then would have a period of public review and comment in order to officially change over from residential to commercial for the Prescott property. This normally proved to be nothing more than a rubber stamp of an activity as apparently not much changed in Wilkes, and what did change did not cause many to notice.

Well except for when those changes involved an apparent naturist resort.

Barbara and Charlotte had seemingly made their scandalous report to the high priestesses of the septuagenarian club thus letting their network of nosy older women know what sorts of allegedly scandalous goings-on had been scandalously going on at Eden Woods, so when the paper provided the obligatory announcement and the sign was posted at the front of the property next to the long drive, announcing the public review at the next zoning board meeting, apparently many took note.

So many took note, in fact, that Jeanette, Beth and I found ourselves sitting in a room with about 100 people in the audience (sitting and standing around the perimeter of the room) awaiting our turn in front of the board. I wasn't sure if the crowds were interested because it was so unusual (like, "come on Ethel, we need to see what a nudist looks like!") or if they were genuinely opposed. I was really hoping for fascination.

I glanced at Jeanette. While she kept her professional mask on I imagined she didn't usually see this sort of public interest in her activities. I knew that 90% of law involved contractual agreements, legal documents and meetings. The engaging courtroom dramas usually were relegated to television and more high-profile legal work, of which this activity was definitively not a part.

I genuinely hoped that she did not experience a backlash, professional or personal, as a result of her assisting us. I really liked her.

Jeanette's attendance at the meeting mostly had to do with her filing the paperwork to rezone to commercial: recreational and then to handle the pending plan to combine the properties. Beth and I could speak to the business. Jeanette was our expert in maneuvering it all.

I therefore leaned over and whispered in her ear, "we can probably make our way through this part without you, Jeanette. I don't want this bit of a circus to hurt you professionally or publicly in any way."

She paused for a moment, "Tom, I really appreciate your concern for me. That is . . sweet. I will be fine. Plus I like you three and what you are doing so I really want to support it." She then forced a smile, "I will be fine regardless of the fall-out."

"Well you could always open up a legal practice focusing on helping naturists. You could relocate to the lodge and we could promote you with our clientele." I was actually only halfway joking. I really was concerned about how this would play out.

She almost laughed. I could see it. So close. "Maybe so. But then I probably would have to become one myself and I am not sure that is for me. Please understand I admire you and Beth for doing it, just not sure I can take that kind of a step."

"You will just have to come out one day and see the property. We will convert you."

She smiled almost sympathetically at me, "I doubt that you can convert me, but maybe I will come out," she paused again, "once this is over."

Beth leaned over me towards Jeanette, "What are you two whispering about?"

"Oh, just making plans for Jeanette to come out to Eden Woods."

Jeanette almost giggled (so close!) and shook her head good naturedly.

Beth just smiled, "you would love it Jeanette. We will set that up."

I saw a brief flash of concern on her face before she put the mask back on and nodded.

I glanced over to Beth, who had settled back to her seat. Considering the commotion behind us, she looked reasonably composed but I could detect a hint of concern. She saw me looking at her, her eyes meeting mine, and reached out and squeezed my hand this time. I leaned over, "we will make it through this."

She smiled back and continued to hold my hand, "I know Tom. I have no doubt."

"The meeting will come to order!" A rather gruff looking round little bald man energetically banged his gavel. I was guessing that the gavel banging was never needed before this moment as probably no one ever showed up at these things. Maybe he now enthusiastically banged his gavel as he finally had found a reason to bang it. You are welcome dorky zoning guy. Plus dudes usually love banging their gavels (and that is not a perverted euphemism at all).

The first twenty minutes of the meeting involved a review of old business, a vote on the last meeting minutes, a few seconding of such actions, some random totally unnecessary seconding of the seconding, a few announcements about the room change for the next month meeting due to some anticipated work being done on this one, and a few other sundry items, like thanking a woman for providing refreshments and recognizing an outgoing board member. Sadly, that older dude's last night on the board involved my circus causing crazy request. Hopefully he will make it through the night.

I all casual-like glanced around the room, trying to gauge who would come out to such an activity. The room seemed to be a healthy mix of soccer mom types, some middle-aged dudes, and a rather large-ish contingent of older women. I briefly caught sight of my visitors from the previous week likely responsible for the public awareness of our efforts, Charlotte and Barbara. I briefly locked eyes with Charlotte and waved and smiled. She lifted one side of her mouth in a sort of almost attempt at a smile back, waved and immediately looked down. No hard feelings, Charlotte. I get it.

And then finally the new business portion began. Apparently they wisely decided to put us at the end so that the few others (like Carrie the flower shop lady and a dude named Edward, who wanted to put an outbuilding for work in his front yard) wouldn't have to stay for our turn. Well except that Carrie and Edward did stay. Maybe the whole town was there. Likely so.

"So now we come to a zoning change request for a zoning change to commercial for a property located at 3902 Jasper Meadows Run. Are representatives for this request present?"

"Yes sir, I am Beth Prescott and am primarily representing our interests today." Beth stood up immediately, even before Jeanette could. Jeanette glanced at me showing a hint of confusion and I nodded at her reassuringly. I knew that Beth wanted to protect Jeanette as long as we could.

"Excellent. Thank you Ms. Prescott." The gentlemen shuffled a bunch of papers while Beth stood silently.

"I see that you wish to take the residential property and re-zone it as commercial so as to be combined with the adjacent commercially zoned property um . . . an Eden Woods located at 401 Heathers Rd. Correct?"

"Yes sir. Correct."

"And you have outlined several key benefits to the community, including financial and recreational." He paused as he continued to shuffle through the paperwork. "I must admit, Ms. Prescott, this is one of the most thoroughly filled out documentations of proposed work I have ever seen in my twenty three years of chairing this board. I personally very much appreciate your efforts." Here he paused and looked at the crowd, "many would do well to examine the formatting and details contained in this submission." His finger vigorously tapped on the stack of papers to emphasize his point. "Most of my time and effort is unfortunately tied up in correcting shoddily compiled documentation!"

He seemed to be quite impassioned with documentation. I didn't care. If that dude was getting aroused at Jeanette's extremely detailed organizational skills and thoroughness, so much the better for us.

"Our pleasure, sir. We wanted to remove any ambiguity about what we are doing and hope to do."

With that, some whispering started behind us.

The chairman banged his gavel again, possibly enjoying it waaay too much, "Now quiet down here. We run an orderly meeting in this body! This isn't the Water Authority!" he then mumbled to himself as he restacked the paper that had shifted on his desk due to his spirited banging (again, not a euphemism), "those people let any chaos happen . . ."

He then turned back to us, "well the paperwork CERTAINLY seems to be in order." He glanced at the crowd, "I am assuming the large attendance here is likely related to this request. If anyone in the public interest has anything to say, please step forward and form a line behind the . . .well . . . wait . . . where . . . Danny?!! Danny??!?!! Where is the mic Danny?" The chairman immediately began looking around with a very irritated look on his face.

A pimply-faced obviously embarrassed young man immediately jumped out of his seat and ran to the back, bringing back a mic and a mic stand.

"Right. Should have been done before so that we do not waste time. Wasting time is in bad form. Bad form indeed." He then glanced back at the crowd, "If you have any comments on this rezoning, form a line." But then he leaned forward, "but I WILL have order here. So wait your turn and keep your comments to less than two minutes each. The totality of comments will be limited to 20 minutes."

He stared down the crowd daring them to defy his system of order, and then seeing no dissenters, he nodded.

Then the crowd began their voicing of concerns. Turns out my hopes that people were just fascinated ended up being wrong. Most expressed concerns, in very vague terms, about the nature of our resort and its location in the Wilkes community. It took until the fifth speaker before anyone dared to actually use the word "nudists."

Speaker number six, a handsome immaculately dressed man in his mid-to-upper twenties, walked up to the mic, and all eyes turned towards him. I had no idea who he was, but he seemed well known and maybe even important. And then he began, rather eloquently.

"Wilkes has a proud tradition of being focused on families and values since its founding in 1857. We have built this community from the ground up through our families and forefathers for the past one hundred and fifty plus years. When new ways of thinking are introduced, it is important for us to return to where we came from and look at the newly introduced through the lens of our traditions . . ." His voice was smooth and his words were executed precisely. He obviously felt comfortable in a public speaking context.

He only momentarily glanced at Beth, Jeanette and I before turning and speaking to everyone in the audience.

"We want to be sure we do not deviate from the safe and family-friendly environment that has been established here." Many nods and mutterings of approval filled his pause.

"I am concerned that just such an establishment will not only initially introduce undesirable behavior into our lovely community here, but that it also, maybe even inadvertently, would encourage the very types of visitors that we do not generally welcome here, for very good reasons."

"Respectfully, perhaps the owners of this establishment would find a better matching environment elsewhere, one more welcoming of the types of people who would attend this type of establishment?"

More louder mutterings and hear hears could be heard, bringing a series of gavel bangings from the chairman, as the gentleman returned to his seat and sat next to a pretty young conservatively dressed woman.

The chairman looked around for any other takers, and with no further speakers raised his gavel to move onto the next portion. It seemed that no one else needed to follow number six, so no one else stepped up to the mic. After about fifteen minutes of the public comment portion, the community seemed to have expressed itself.

"Mr. Chairman?" Beth carefully stood up before the gavel fell. "Please forgive my ignorance of the process, but could I be allowed to speak here or would you prefer that I wait until later?"

"Well we have . . ." here he checked his watch, "four minutes left for comment. If you would like you may take the remaining time."

"Thank you Mr. Chairman. I promise to be brief and respectful of the board's time."

He nodded his gruff approval. Beth knew how to play the board. I was hopeful that she could play the room as well as it seemed to me that while we technically did well to meet the paperwork standard, the public comment portion had decidedly not moved in our favor. But, while I have grown both impressed with and very fond of Beth, I couldn't see how she could turn the mob around.

"I very much appreciate hearing from the community on this and, having grown up in a small community myself, I understand the concerns and the sentiment here."

She paused, glanced at the chairman and nodded towards the area in front of her table as if asking if it was ok for her to move there. He nodded. She then moved around the table so that she could more easily address the audience.

"You want to protect your families. You want to make sure your community is safe, not only for your children but for your neighbors and the community at large. The people you care for. You want to know that the people in your community share your vision and your values. I understand that. And in fact I very much agree with you and support that."

She glanced at me briefly before continuing.

"I honestly would have been in your seats sharing your very concerns several months back. I stepped into this world purely by chance and I must admit it has upended the way I look at things. I never would have believed you if you told me just a few months back that I would be standing her speaking to you about this."

She glanced back at the chairman. He nodded for her to continue.

"You see, I spent the last several decades working in business with my husband, who died this past year. In those years, I learned that I had to wear masks, to hide behind walls to be sure we got what we wanted out of any given transaction - business, social, personal, community-related, whatever it may have been. I learned to pretend. To act like all was one thing, when it really was something else. This was important to meet our goals. To fit in. To work situations to our favor. To meet expectations."

She then glanced again at me and smiled as she spoke, "but then quite unexpectedly I found myself at Eden Woods. There is a bit of a philosophy there - complete honesty. Complete honesty. I am not talking about not telling lies here. It goes much further. It is one that doesn't allow masks. No walls. And while removing clothing may feel like the most difficult step, really the hardest step for me was to let people in to see the real me - to be emotionally naked, as it were. Not just the unclothed me but the one who feels vulnerable or sad or in pain. Not in control. And needing others. That was a very difficult step indeed. And since I took it, it has been a daily choice."

Then her eyes scanned the room as she continued. It was as if she was talking to each person individually.

"Have you ever gone to church and pretended all was ok? Have you ever sat down with a friend over coffee and answered the 'how are you doing' with a mild not-completely-honest answer? Meanwhile you may be going through a serious time of self-doubt or anxiety or hardship? Maybe you are doubting your marriage or feel like a failure of a parent. Maybe you don't feel like you are good at your job. Hardship. Pain. And yet you keep it hidden. We don't tend to let people in, do we? It feels safer when we do not." The audience was captivated, silently waiting for her to continue. "But it really isn't very safe is it? We cut ourselves off and try to deal with it by ourselves when there are those who not only understand what we might be going through, maybe even having went through the same things themselves, but they actually care and want to help us come out the other end ok."

"I took a step at Eden Woods that day that took me out of the world of hiding who I was. I found lovely people, inside and out, that see the real me. And accept the real me for just who I am, faults, doubts and all. No hiding needed. And I am very happy. I feel safer there, to be the real me. Unashamedly so.." I saw her eyes getting a little misty, but her voice maintained composure.

"I am emotionally naked when I walk through those gorgeous hills among those beautiful swaying trees, along the shore where the quiet rippling water of the lake laps each morning. I am among friends. Loved ones. I can be me, safely me. Wouldn't you like for the real you to be seen?"

She then scanned the crowd, "this naturist resort provides a warm home for people to come to. A safe place. A place where they can shed inhibitions of all types and be appreciated for who they are. It is not a sexual environment, I assure you. It is not a party environment. I wouldn't be involved if it was. In many ways, it is exactly what Wilkes wants in its community, and what the previous speaker has so eloquently called for."

She took a quick breath and smiled, "and to show you this, I would like to invite the community out for an open house." I did a bit of a double take. I glanced at Jeannette who seemed to be wiping her eye at the moment. I didn't have time for her as my mind was racing trying to figure out Beth's play here.

"On Saturday afternoon, at 2:00 pm, we would love for anyone who would like to join us for some finger food and a tour of our property to feel welcome."

Some mutterings could be heard as the crowd digested the invitation, followed by the gavel banging to maintain order. The chairman nodded for Beth to finish her speech.

"We only have one stipulation. For every fifteen minutes that you stay, you remove one item of clothing. We want you to see what Eden Woods is like, and we invite you to experience it with us. I am very confident that this will put to rest any and all of your concerns and would allow us to more comfortably move forward through the re-zoning process."

Gasps. More mutterings. More banging of gavels. And Beth sitting back down with a grin on her face. I am not sure if she is a genius or if we just sunk the ship. No one could come. Or a bunch and they refuse to 'experience Eden Woods.' I guess if no one came then we were no worse off than now. Maybe it could work.

I felt the reassuring grasp of Beth's fingers on my hand. She smiled at me. She seemed confident and so far she had been right. Maybe this would work.

The chairman decided to approve our application, conditional on the Saturday event and a brief emergency meeting to voice any final concerns the next week. It seemed that if there still was a significant expression of reservations by the community at large then the application would ultimately be denied.

As the final proceedings closed down and the chairman called adjournment, I noticed that Jeanette had sat quietly. She seemed more serious than normal, and definitely a bit distracted. Or at least not engaged.