The Great Flood

"I thought of giving them to someone who just might be related to them, do you know of such a person?"

"This conversation is getting ridiculous, if you want to give it to me why don't you just say so, instead of all of this bullshit we've been carrying on with for the last couple of minutes?"

"Would you like it?"

"No, I couldn't stand them when they were alive, what makes you think I want them hanging around to remind me of them? Of course I'd like the painting."

"Then it's yours, and it also provides you with a reason for being here, in case some nosey neighbour notices and asks."

"There's one thing that you'll soon learn about me, and that is that I don't give a rat's arse about what people think. You and I are going to have a fight on our hands, because you are going against the might of the Woods clan and I'm going to support you. Are you up for the fight of your life?"

"That was going to be my question to you? Welcome to my war Tanya Burroughs."

"Our war James Parsons, although I still think that you haven't told me everything about this, I will support you. Now, all that we have to do is to convince the rest of the world that we are the good guys." She came over to me and put her arms around me, then she kissed me. "You're one of the good guys and if I'm not careful I just might get to like you."

"I want to get to like you, I do like you." I kissed her. "And I know that I'm going to enjoy working with you, often. Now let's get Gramps and Gramma out to your car and I'll see you back at the Library, we have a lot of work to do and I want to make use of the Library facilities as much as possible."

"So I'm just a facility am I?"

"I can see that working with you is going to be interesting to say the least."

"Not to mention after work, and our spare time, like weekends and public holidays."

"This sounds like it's going to turn into a lifetime project."

"A psychic now, is there anything that you can't do?"

"Walk on water, that's beyond me."

"But you've tried?"

"Yeah, but the holes in my feet let the water through."

"I think that, on that note of blasphemy we should get serious, for a while at least. I'll see you at the Library when you get there." She kissed me, and I detected that it was something other than platonic, but then maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part.

We spent the afternoon going over the history of Woods Ford, well I spent the afternoon going over it, while Tanya had a group of students from the local school to occupy her time.

Josiah Woods was one of a wave of Welsh immigrants into this country in the mid nineteenth century. They were of hard-working farming stock who took up that occupation on land under a 'Conditional Purchase', Crown land made available to farmers on the condition that they built a dwelling on it and farmed it. It was a way of increasing food production in the fledgling colony of New South Wales.

Having chosen his land Josiah acquired a woman to help him work the land between having children. They were industrious and the land fertile, and it wasn't long before he had acquired more land and joined with other farmers in setting up a co-operative store where they could all buy in bulk and distribute to the settlers. As the town grew two of the founding families expanded into other enterprises, the Woods formed the Woods Hardware and Building Supply Company to provide the building supplies that they couldn't produce themselves, while the Burroughs took over the co-operative store to provide food items and other essentials that also couldn't be produced locally. Both enterprises thrived in the expanding local town, and soon became the centre of local trade.

This was where the two enterprises diverged. The attitude of the Burroughs bordered on philanthropic, they were willing to extend credit in hard times and were rewarded when times were good when those that had received credit sought to repay the full amount plus the interest that should have been charged. The only people who took advantage of this largesse were the Woods who traded on the long standing friendship between families, like the person who slides out of the bar just before it was his turn to buy the round. The Woods extended no such credit. If you couldn't pay up front you didn't get what you needed. You were however encouraged to take out a loan, using your property as mortgage collateral, with the local bank that just happened to have been owned by the Woods family.

Generations of Woods saw the benefits to be had in local politics and the position of Shire President was continually filled by one of them. Burroughs however, left that to the Woods, preferring to operate on an informal basis and helping whenever they could, usually without being asked, and always without the expectation of recouping expenditure. The Woods were tolerated because of the power that they wielded while the Burroughs were loved by all.

Over the years the population of Woods Ford fluctuated for various reasons. There was a shortage of men following two World Wars and the Vietnam War when the men saw it as there patriotic duty to go off and fight. There were times of late when the young people looked over the fence and saw that the grass was greener on the other side, so for a time the population consisted of the very young and the very old. In the last couple of years there has been an upward trend in people of what could be called 'middle age' moving into the district in a wave of 'tree changers', leading to a new and vibrant population of people not wanting to make waves to upset the existing order of things. Woods Hardware and Building Supply did very nicely out of the trend to home improvement and restoration. It had been some time since the last flood and these people were blissfully unaware of the potential for the destruction of their chosen lifestyle.

I heard the school group leave and Tanya lock the front door. "How is it going?" She asked as she began turning off the lights in a none too subtle hint that it was time for me to leave. "I think I should return the favour and invite you to dinner this evening."

"Aren't you scared that someone will see us together?"

"No, but if you're afraid that I'll get into trouble with the locals you can always park in the top corner of the golf club car park and slip through my back gate. I'll move the welcome mat from the front door to the back, just for you."

"Okay, I'll come. Would you like me to bring something, a bottle of wine perhaps?"

"If you like, a red would go well with what I'm cooking."

"Great, what time do you want me?" She had a funny look on her face and I half expected her to jokingly reply, 'any time, all the time.' It was probably my wishful thinking again so I dismissed it.

"Around seven thirty would be fine." She ushered me to the door and gave me a quick kiss before shoving me out, and re-locking it after me.

My prospects for the evening took a major blow the second after she'd allowed me into her house. "Let me tell you right from the start, that any thoughts that you might have about getting me half cut (drunk) and applying your powers of seduction are not about to happen."

"You didn't think that was why I accepted your invitation did you? Let me tell you it was for the pleasure of your company and to taste the culinary delights of your kitchen."

"That's alright then. Would you like a drink before we have dinner?"

"Are you having one, I wouldn't like to think that you're intending to stay sober and ply me with the demon drink just so you can seduce me."

"The thought never entered my head."

"Yeah, right." I read somewhere that those two words were the only example in the English language where two positives make a negative.

She poured us both a white wine and then went into the kitchen to return moments later with a large dish of steaming hot lasagne. She proceeded to dole out a generous portion for both of us. She then poured us a glass of red wine. "Dig in, don't stand on ceremony, unless you need to say Grace or something."

"I didn't reply, choosing instead to take a mouthful of what I discovered to be a very tasty morsel indeed. "Mmm, this is nice."

"And all with my own two hands, no packaged food there, I even made my own lasagne sheets."

"And here I was just thinking to myself earlier that I could get to like you, I was wrong, I could get to love you."

"I bet you say that to any girl that feeds you."

"I can't remember the last time a girl actually fed me."

"Oh shit, I'm falling for someone with short term memory loss. I need to rethink my strategy, how am I going to get rid of you."

"Just you try it and I'll chain myself to you."

"Shut up and eat."

"Yes Ma'am." I took another mouthful, it was still brilliant. A sip of the red wine had me in culinary heaven. "Getting serious for a while, this really is good." A third forkful disappeared into my mouth.

"I'm glad you like it, it's one of my specialities because I love it myself."

"Do you mind if I talk work for a while?"

"No, I was hoping that you would, you interest me."

"I've been going through the weather records from the Met. Bureau, and Woods Ford is just about due for another flood, so I might have to move a bit quicker than I thought."

"What sort of lead time are we looking at now?"

"Two weeks tops. If we don't make a move soon it will be too late. Unless of course you delay it until after the flood and then use the flood to help sway public opinion."

"I couldn't do that, I don't want anyone to suffer un-necessarily."

"I knew you were going to say that. What do you want me to do?"

"Can you see if you can rustle up a suitable venue and book it for us, I'll pay for it. And then could you put together a flyer to go out around the place. I need to work on my presentation, it has to be a grabber to have any chance of swaying the masses."

"We can't do any of that tonight, can we?"

"No, and you've scuttled my plans to seduce you, so how are we going to amuse ourselves?"

"I think that if you asked me nicely you'll find that I don't need seducing."

I stood up and moved to her side of the table and, bending over her and kissing her neck, I placed my hands under her arms and lifted her to her feet. Once on her feet she turned to me and literally threw herself at me, driving me against the wall and almost knocking the wind right out of me. We scrambled out of our clothes and I got my first glimpse of her naked body. It was stunning.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallway to her bedroom where I found a scented candle burning on her dressing table providing only a small amount of light, just enough to see that her bedclothes were pulled back in readiness, and I was ready. So, it turned out was she, she fell back onto the bed dragging me with her. Her arms were around my neck and her legs were wrapped around my hips. I positioned myself over her and guided him into her waiting body. "Oh that feels so good, I can't remember it ever being this good. Don't say anything, just make love to me."

"Yes . . "

"Ssh"

The room was filled with the slight squishing noise as my cock reached as far as he could go into her pussy accompanied by a soft slapping sound as my scrotum slapped into her thighs, and these were accompanied by her grunting noise that changed as her passion increased into a moan until, when I lunged into her she came on an ecstatic sob.

"Permission to speak, Ma'am."

"You may speak." I couldn't for a while because her mouth was covering mine.

"Tanya Burroughs, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that I have fallen under your spell and I am madly in love with you."

"You've only just worked that out, I've known for ages, since before you came into the Library. I overheard a couple of people talking about you and how you were planning to take on the Woods dynasty so I just had to find out more about you. My parents told me a bit about you but when I asked them how they knew so much about you they shut up and refused to say more. But, they like you and if they had told me that they thought that there was something shady about you, I would have shunned you just like everyone else in Woods Ford."

A week and a half later we had our venue and the PA system was set up and there were as many chairs as we could find set up in rows. It had been a rocky time believe me. We had a couple of venues lined up but the owners suddenly discovered a subsequent booking, so they cancelled. Edward Woods came to me and told me in no uncertain terms that if I went ahead with my meeting I'd better have my bags already packed, because I would not want to stay in town after the residents were finished with me.

"Are you threatening me?" I asked.

"No, I am making a promise to you. I own this town and no-one but no-one does anything around here unless I say so."

"I'll consider myself warned, but the meeting will go ahead."

I half expected that he would threaten everyone in town that if they showed up to the meeting he'd punish them, but then I under-estimated his arrogance. He wanted everyone there to witness my humiliation.

The hall was buzzing, I had invited Edward Woods to address the meeting after I'd put forward my proposal, and with a smile, he agreed. Tanya came with me but decided to sit at the back of the hall so that she could judge the mood of the crowd.

I stood and walked to the lectern. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here on such short notice. Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is James Parsons, and you all know that I have recently moved into the Burroughs old house." There was a swell of antipathy towards me for that. I held up my hand. "What you may not know is that I am a Civil Engineer and I work as a Project Manager and Design Engineer for the State Water Authority. We have been looking for some time at the feasibility of building a Water Storage and Flood Mitigation dam at Woods Ford. We have a site chosen and all we need is for planning approval. The reason that the Authority has decided that a dam here was an essential project is that our research has revealed that, because of climate change, the floods that you have here from time to time will not only occur more frequently but will be of greater magnitude." I switched on my projector and a graph appeared on the screen that I'd placed on the stage. "As you can see from this graph that over the past one hundred years the floods have become more frequent and the levels are increasing each time. Using the cyclical nature of weather patterns as a guide we have predicted that the next flood will be in about eighteen months time. The time to act on this is now. We cannot afford to wait for the Council to act because thay are in no hurry to do anything about this, unless the people of Woods Ford tell them that they want this project to go ahead. I have invited Mr Edward Woods to address this meeting to explain why the Council objects to this project. Mr Woods."

Edward Woods rose to address the meeting. "Fellow citizens of Woods Ford, friends, I stand before you this evening because of this man. James Parsons has been in this town for five minutes and has the temerity to attempt to tell us, the people who have lived here for decades, how we should run our town, my town, your town. This is the man who bought the Burroughs property at a price considerably less than its true worth, a property that has been in the Burroughs family for almost as long as this town has existed, and in so doing he has forced the Burroughs from their home." This brought a reaction from the crowd, I could feel the animosity growing and looked at Tanya, she smiled at me, she knew what was happening and was prepared to support me. "This man has decided that we need a dam because every now and then we have a flood. Friends, let us look closely at what he is proposing and why. He wants the dam built on his land, land that he got for a song, land that he will want to sell to the council, your council that we will have to purchase with your money, money that we need to maintain the services that you enjoy." He had that smug look on his face that said that he knew he had the crowd in the palm of his hands. "And who is going to pay for the construction of this dam, not him, Mr Parsons will not contribute one cent to the cost of this white elephant that he proposes! So friends just who will benefit from this proposal, will you benefit knowing that you have to bear the cost burden? No, the only person who will benefit from this proposal will be this Johnny-come-lately James Parsons. Let me tell you friends that I am here tonight to stop this proposal from ever getting off the ground and I want you to stand with me in this fight. ARE YOU WITH ME!" He sat down and smiled that smug smile of his that told me that he had won.

The crowd reacted as I knew they would, they were caught up in his rhetoric.

I stood and looked over the crowd until they quietened down. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am impressed by Mr Woods' rhetoric and have to admit that even I was beginning to think like him, but then I told myself that what he told you was cleverly thought out. I have to admit that, while he didn't lie to you, he didn't actually tell you the whole truth. For instance he told you that I bought the Burroughs property at a price considerably lower than its true worth. That is true, but, let me tell you that my tender on this property was not the lowest, that honour goes to Mr Edward Woods. His tender would have left the Burroughs family still owing a considerable amount of money on a property that they no longer owned! My tender allowed them the funds to clear their debt to the bank, a bank by the way owned by Mr Woods' family and which had foreclosed on the Burroughs mortgage. On top of that, I made them a very generous offer on the fixtures and fittings. Mr Woods was right when he said that I wanted the dam built on my land, I want it on my land because that is the best place for it, and I should know that because that is my job, I am a Civil Engineer who has been in charge of the design and construction of several large Water Catchment and Flood Mitigation Dams around this country. Yes, this was one of the reasons that I bought this property. But not for personal profit, I have entered into negotiations with the State government that will result in me signing over title to the land for this dam to the State, it will cost you nothing. I have also negotiated with the State government to carry the cost burden for this dam, it will cost you nothing. So you can see, ladies and gentlemen, friends, I am not the money grubbing ogre that Mr Woods has portrayed me to be."

I was winning them over and the expression on Edward's face said it all, he had the feeling that he might lose this battle. I wasn't about to let victory slip from my grasp. "Ladies and gentlemen, there are other factors that you should take into consideration when you make your decision and one of those is insurance. Several years ago there was a landmark judgement handed down in a court that saw the removal of the infamous 'Act of God Clause' from insurance contracts. How many of you good citizens really believe that a merciful God would think you so bad that He would punish you with destructive floods? What the insurance companies then did was to hike up the insurance premiums for flood cover on what they deemed to be flood prone areas and Woods Ford is considered to be flood prone. How many of you can afford to have flood cover?" A couple of hands went up. "I have bad news for you as well. I have spoken to an Insurance Loss Assessor and he has informed me that, according to a memo circulated between them, the Insurance companies have found a loop-hole that means that in the event of another flood they will not have to pay out one red cent. Your premiums are a total waste of money, but you wouldn't have found that out until your next claim. Do you know why they won't pay out? Because they have deemed that any future flood at Woods Ford is preventable. If the Council had not blocked the construction of a Flood Mitigation Dam your houses would, if not fully protected from flood, suffer only minimal damage."