The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival Read Online Free Page B

chaotic fistfight. At
first they pretended the footage would never be shown. He ran the
audio almost every day for a week, steadily building audience
interest. Then, they leaked the footage onto YouTube through a fake
account, and pretended to fire his engineer for the crime of
leaking it.
     
    One still frame from the video, an image of
Jerry’s dazed expression, bloody nose, and bloody dress shirt
became a popular meme. After the incident, he and Danny made the
circuit of conservative or liberal mainstream media shows.
     
    The whole incident was scripted and the blood
was fake. They had rehearsed the fight with a stunt coordinator
from LA that flew in for the week.
     
    After the stunt, he spent a lot of time
traveling and glad handing at fund raisers and rallies for
red-meat, red state “conservatives”. He used the events to conduct
business for the Brotherhood.

Chapter
Eleven
    Geauga County’s thorough allegiance to the
GOP went all the way back to the Civil War. Though factions and
squabbles inevitably arose from time to time, the ugliness of
politics, the struggle for dumb animal domination, hadn’t appeared
until recently. After the 2008 financial crisis, the county
establishment’s generic country club conservatism started to yield
to more radical strands of thought. New, angry, insistent faces
started showing up at fund raisers and party events.
     
    Judge Ralph was one of those faces. Contrary
to the wishes of the local party establishment, Columbus installed
him after Marcus Rice died. The local party apparatchicks spent
months frozen in a state of disbelief and indignation. In the
meanwhile, Ralph hired friends and cronies for every patronage job
he could find or create.
     
    He showed up Patty’s with his long time
friend, Skip, who was now employed as his aide. He shadowed the
Judge with his gun holstered under his arm and with his cell phone
camera rolling.
     
    Wilma Barstow was one of the County’s Country
Club Republicans stalwarts. She clashed with the judge at every
opportunity. She saw him enter the building, downed her drink, then
sidled up to him and Skip.
     
    “Hi Ralph, I see you trained your dog to work
a camera. Good boy!” She patted Skip’s head. He stepped back from
her to film, but made sure to let his jacket fall open to reveal a
holstered gun.
     
    “That’s Judge Ralph to you, Wilma.”
Ralph said firmly.
     
    She laughed hysterically. “Oh my god, you two
are such freaks.”
     
    Skip filmed her picking up another drink from
a waiter’s tray. She toasted him and took a drink.
     
    She asked, “Is this going on your YouTube
channel? Think it’ll go viral. Maybe reach number one .” She
held up her middle finger and shoved it toward the phone.
     
    Jerry motioned to Ralph from across the room.
Ralph was relieved for an excuse to step away from her. “Stay
classy Wilma. Pardon me, but I have some business to attend to.
Stop filming Skip.” Skip put the phone in his jacket pocket and
just watched the room, looking for any security breaches.
     
    “Jerry, good to see you. I was just
entertaining my biggest fan over there.” Ralph pointed at
Wilma.
     
    “Well, if you get another one, you’ll double
the size of that club.” Jerry sneered. “But hey, I don’t have time
to shoot the shit. I’m here on business: You need to speed up the
progress on this farm job. Get it done ASAP.”
     
    Ralph blanched, “Jesus Jerry. I was doing
exactly what they wanted, taking it really slow, getting ready to
turn the place into a museum. It would just take a few more
months.”
     
    “Well, things changed. I don’t know why, but
they just did. Get it done.”
     
    Ralph put his hand on his chin. “OK. Of
course, but it’s too big for the team out here. I need some
help.”
     
    Jerry sighed. “Alright. I’ll call you later
and we’ll work something out.”

Chapter
Twelve
    The next morning, Judge Ralph jogged up the
courthouse steps and went past the clerk’s office. He