The Midland Mutiny

By Jay Royston

Midland's Mayor, Chief of Police, newspaper editor and radio station director are deposed indefinitely after a typo in Midland's Community Leader For A Day contest rules allows the winners to do what they wish. Each chapter details the reaction of each individual to the news and the restraining order. And this is just the first day...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay Royston
• Release date: Feb 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310278044

Jay Royston

40+ years old. 3 kids 2 dogs 1 wife 1 mortgage 1 blog 30 jobs 3 books 1 unreleased movie 5 yr volunteer firefighter 1 cancer scare 750K+ 'views' on various Internet articles

Book preview

The Midland Mutiny/jay royston

The Midland Mutiny

by jay royston

©2015

Smashwords Edition

Other stories by jay royston;

Enter A Fistful of Marijuana

Stoner, Unincorporated

Tuesdays at Three

License Notes; All rights reserved. Any names or similarities between anyone living or dead are entirely coincidental except for Midland itself, which I realized after the fact was influenced by Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, (not the breakfast cereal). Any reproduction of this book for the purposes of making a profit without sending me a royalty is widely frowned upon. Books make great presents, friends and help you look smarter in public. Special thanks to the critics at Reddit who helped provide feedback as I was writing this.

This book is also available in print at most online retailers.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The Editor in Chief

Chapter 2 - Police Chief For a Day

Chapter 3 - The New Mayor

Chapter 4 - The Radio Station Guy

Epilogue

Foreword;

Hi and thanks for checking out The Midland Mutiny and hopefully you will also check out my other, larger novels available on Smashwords and in hard cover on Amazon and other online retailers. The Midland Mutiny is influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams and a few other authors that like to examine the absurdity of life.

You can also keep abreast of my other writings at jayroyston.blogspot.com

Chapter 1

The Editor In Chief

Ironically, the end of contemporary journalism and the fall of a local government came about because of a typo. When the Midland Times Sentinel ran their vanity-induced 'Local Leadership' contest for the townspeople of Midland, USA it was to be in good fun, an attempt to invoke more civil spirit into a city that was becoming more fractured along lines of race, income and neighbourhood.

It sounded like a good idea at the time. The newspaper was to hold an 'Editor for a Day' contest in the spirit of community goodwill which was in tandem with Midland City Council's 'Be the Mayor for a Day' and the local fire department's 'Be a Fire Chief for a Day'. That needed to be changed when the Fire Chief’s role was determined, in the name of public safety, to be too important to be raffled off. Instead, after much searching, the local radio station (92.3 The Squid!) offered up the role of Station Director to fill in for the Fire Chief. Last on board was the Police Chief who objected on purely a 'gut feeling' but upon orders from the Mayor acquiesced to having his position be raffled off with the understanding that a portion of the ticket proceeds going to the Policeman's Widow's Fund. This was particularly important as the Chief would occasionally tap into the Fund when paying for hotel rooms the next town over which he shared with the Mayor’s wife.

The four winners were announced with great fanfare on Community Spirit Day in front of a crowd of about two dozen seniors gathered for a free breakfast at the Midland Community Center. Nobody knew the winners, which wasn't unusual, there was little in the way of public celebrities in Midland once you discounted real estate agents. The winners came to the podium as they were announced. They smiled and shook hands with the Mayor before going to stand beside their allotted Career for a Day mentors. Once all were introduced, the photographer of the Midland Times Sentinel took a group picture then hurried off to the buffet table to grab some sausages to stuff in his pockets for his 3 children at home. He took them to supplement his food budget; breakfast meats being a casualty of his low pay and artistic ambition as the newspaper only paid per published picture.

There was little to distinguish the winners from any other typical winner of a community raffle. They smiled uncomfortably to the room of bored, hungry and impatient seniors before they were allowed to leave, each given a manila envelope explaining their roles and expectations the following week on Community Leaders Day. Everyone went back to their usual routines, unaware that in seven days everything was to change.

It was a Tuesday morning when Ray Blazer entered the Midland Times Sentinel building. He was greeted with a friendly hello from Alice, the all-purpose receptionist who told him to take a seat; the Sentinel's editor, Stephen Caliente, would be out to greet him shortly. Ray sat down in an uncomfortable school chair. Alice glanced over occasionally to him as Mr. Caliente delayed his entrance. Ray wasn't unexpected but it was Mr. Caliente's way with people to make them wait, even if he was doing nothing. He felt it established the appropriate power dynamic before he even met anyone.

Alice felt a bit bad for the contest winner. There wasn't much he was going to be doing today other than read a lot and watch as everyone went about their business of making the daily paper. Mr. Caliente's job consisted mostly of email conversations, phoning people he wanted to talk to and avoiding those he didn't. Most of the real work was done by Wilfred Hall, his long-time associate editor he inherited with the job. There would be a few photos taken of the winner 'behind the scenes' but tomorrow it would be business as usual in the world of Midland journalism.

My apologies, he should be right out, she said, as she often did whenever someone was to meet Mr. Caliente.

You like your job? asked the man. For some reason, the question made Alice guarded. She couldn't place why, it was an expected question. Maybe it was because if she were to take a real look at him and not just see him as an accompaniment to the furniture she would have noticed he didn't look anxious at all for a man in his position. He was in an unfamiliar environment and about to be 'Editor In Chief' of the Times Sentinel. He was dressed as someone she might expect to serve her at the locally-owned hardware store. He even wore work boots, the kind that were worn for practicality and not fashion.

Before she answered, Stephen Caliente emerged from