CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT – HELPING THE TOWNSFOLK

The Community Center was a blur of motion and tantalizing aromas the following crisp autumn evening — a delirious furor of clanking pots, sizzling pans, and at least six different varieties of pie cooling on every flat surface. At one prep station, Mildred held court over a veritable army of volunteers chopping, stirring, and ferrying industrial-sized mixing bowls to and fro. Kayla ducked to avoid a careening trayful of glazed donuts, surveying the cheerfully chaotic scene with unbridled satisfaction. "Well if this don't just warm my butter," Mildred crowed, wiping an arm across her perspiring brow as she joined Kayla in observing the proceedings. "Been too dang long since this old place got itself all whipped up for a worthwhile hootenanny!" "You're telling me." Kayla leaned over to accept a stack of napkins from a grinning Ethel Thompson, shoving them in the pocket of her apron. "Just look at this turnout! I had no idea half these folks could even operate an oven." "Shucks, there