"You bet they will," Wade said.

"There will be time for public comment," Joe said. "Everybody will have plenty of opportunity to say their piece."

"But it won't get accepted," Randy said. "So it doesn't really matter."

They'd know soon enough. Joe put the papers back in the envelope and handed it to Lyle. He might still call Raleigh, or he might just wait. There was nothing he could do to head off the fight they'd surely just started.

Roads were a mess, and this one would be like nothing any of them had ever seen. The reporter would stir it up even worse. That's what the man thrived on. He already had another page filled with his scrawls.

And it wasn't just that people here in the county could fight with each other. This would have people outside fighting, too. That made Wade worth watching.

Or maybe it wasn't worth anything, not anymore. Just let the lot of them have their way and do what they wanted.

He was still hating being here. Because now was time for the last item, and the hardest one. Not hard for the others—just for him, and maybe for Louise. "Final item. Proposal to put up a suitable monument in the flower bed outside the courthouse in honor of Morton Walker and his service to the county."

Silence. For this, not one of them dared to say anything. None of them had any right to say a word, even Louise. For thirty-two years Mort had been on this board, a better man than these two schoolchildren arguing over every blame thing.

Everyone in the county had known him, and not a one would have even run against him for respect of what an upright man he was. Not a one, but her.

Who knew how the idea had got into her head ten years ago. She'd run in every election she could since then, and never gotten more than a dozen votes. She'd run last November against Mort, an insult to the whole county, but nothing to even take notice of.

Then Mort had died three days before the election.

Joe forced himself to look to his left, past Wade, and there she was, sitting where Mort should have been sitting right now. She'd gotten her usual ten votes in the election, but there was no else who'd got any, because Mort, his friend, was dead.

He hated it.

"Go ahead, Patsy."

"Mrs. Brown?"

"Yes. Of course."

"Mr. Esterhouse?"

"Yes."

"Eliza?"

He didn't want to hear her even speak. What right did she, of all people, have to be here voting on this, of all things?

"I vote no."

Silence, again.

"Keep going," Joe said.

"Mr. Harris?"

"Yes."

"Mr. McCoy?"

"Yes."

"Four in favor, one opposed," Patsy said.

"Motion carries," Joe said. "Any other business?"

He waited just long enough for it to be a wait. "This meeting is adjourned." He stood and walked to his right, behind Randy and Louise.

"Joe?" That was Minnie Walker. The one other person in the audience. "Thank you.  Mort would appreciate it."

"The least we could do."

"I hope that letter doesn't cause any trouble. I'd have brought it before but I kept forgetting."

"It doesn't make a difference," he said.

He tried to leave the room before anyone would say anything else, but Wade Harris was talking to Louise. He tried not to hear it but he did.

"Mort would have voted for the road," Wade was saying. "Bad luck he died right when he did."

Excerpted from:  Road to Nowhere by Paul Robertson.  Copyright © 2008; ISBN 9780764203251 Published by Bethany House Publishers.  Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.