Act I
Fair weather
A cloud appears mid-meeting. The committee votes not to make a thing of it.
Public notice · Municipality of Sainte-Clémence
Du bon monde
Around here, we’re good people.
In Sainte-Clémence, nobody has a gift.
Well, there’s Ginette, whose green thumb nobody can quite explain. Patrick, who can eyeball anything to the millimetre. Little Léo, whose ball rolls back up the hill. But around here, we call that luck, and we don’t make a thing of it.
Then one evening at the town council, a cloud the size of a dish towel forms above the notepad of Monique Bergeron, assistant town clerk, fifty-one, the most ordinary person in town. It rains on the agenda. The councillors pass each other towels without a word.
You laugh at good people for a long time. Until you understand what they could have been.
Forecast for Sainte-Clémence
The novel in four bulletins.
Act II
Oh please, after you
A bouquet calls for a pie, a pie calls for a miracle. Out of politeness, everything snowballs.
Act III
Variable
A courteous crisis unit, a charter, workshops in measured expression. And a visitor who sees everything.
Act IV
Storm
A hundred and forty skies in a church basement. And nobody wants to be the first to leave.
From the minutes
Regular council meeting · Sainte-Clémence Town Hall
Item 1 · Call to order
The mayor welcomes everyone and reminds them that around here, we’re good people.
Item 7 · Other business
The mayor thanks “the smile of our town hall.”
A localized weather event is observed above the assistant clerk’s notepad. Towels are passed around. The mayor notes that it is mild out tonight.
It is moved not to make a thing of it.
Carried unanimouslyBeing written
A Québec comedy of manners, written by four hands. The first chapters will appear here.
The novel is being written in French. English and Spanish editions are planned.
See the other Worldnest worlds