Page 32 of Snow Going Back

‘I think you’ll enjoy it. This is a really special place.’ Jenna grinned again, her brown eyes twinkling with the quiet confidence of someone about to share something they clearly loved. ‘Take a seat – he won’t be long. I have to get back, but if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to call.’

‘Great, thanks. It was nice to meet you,’ Kate replied.

‘You, too!’

Jenna disappeared down the hall behind the desk, and Kate stared thoughtfully after her.

The door beside her swung open a second later, and she turned to see an older man in faded blue overalls poke his head in with an expectant expression on his weathered face.

‘You Kate?’ he asked.

‘That’s me,’ she replied, following him through to the building beyond.

The various clunks and whirrs of heavy machinery grew louder as they walked through the production area, and the man raised his voice to be heard above it.

‘I’m Matthew,’ he shouted. ‘I’m one of the senior site managers. Ain’t nothing I don’t know about this place, so feel free to ask away. I joined back when it was still pretty small. I’ll have been here fifty years next month.’

‘Wow!’ Kate exclaimed.

‘Came here right outta school. Started at the bottom and worked alongside Will and Cora and the others to grow this place to what it is today.’ He looked around, and Kate could see the pride in his eyes. ‘It’s been a real journey.’

‘That’s amazing,’ Kate said. They reached one of the machines, and she squinted at it. ‘What does this do?’

‘OK, so we make three different products here, all of them from wood.’ Matthew led her to a bench along the back wall. ‘Come sit. My legs ain’t what they used to be.’ He eased himself down, and Kate sat beside him. ‘That’s better. Will and Coracame here when this town was nothing. And I meannothing. There was probably a hundred people or so, a church, few houses and one general store. And that store was nothing like the ones you see today, let me tell you.’

‘Did you grow up here?’ Kate asked.

‘I did,’ he confirmed. ‘This place had nothing going for it at all, but Will saw things differently. He saw the forest as wood that could be turned into something useful. And they were practically giving land away back then, so Will saved up and bought a whole lot of it. Moved over here with his new wife, knocked up a little cabin to live in and got to work.’

‘A cabin?’ Kate asked. ‘So they didn’t build the big house straight away?’

‘No, that came a few years later. They didn’t have much at all when they started out. Built up everything they had with their bare hands.’

Kate frowned. In Cora’s diary, she’d made it clear William had come from money. His family must have lost that money or cut him off. She resolved to continue reading and find out.

‘Will started out making furniture. Decent stuff. Sturdy. Back then plastic was all the rage, but Will stuck to wood, saying that eventually quality would win out over flimsy fashion. And of course he was right. It was a slow start, but that’s what got them on the map.’ Matthew scratched his head. ‘It was Cora’s idea to branch out into making wood charcoal with the cutoffs, few years on.’

‘I was wondering about that. Surely with so much wood around here people just burn that?’

‘Some do,’ he told her. ‘But charcoal made from untreated wood burns hotter and for longer. It’s a flameless burn, too, so no smoke.’

‘Huh.’ Kate raised her eyebrows. ‘I never knew that.’

‘Third product is cellulose film. Fake plastic. Started production a couple of years back. It’s still small, but it’s catching on now, and we’re getting some bigger orders in.’

‘And that’s made from wood, too?’ Kate asked, intrigued.

‘Yep. We break down the wood fibres with a chemical compound and then put it through a process that turns it into a clear single-use film. It can be made into bags, food wrap.’ Matthew grinned. ‘Anything plastic can do, it can do better. And after it’s done with, it can be thrown on the compost heap, and it’ll break down in just three weeks.’

‘That’s incredible,’ Kate said, impressed. ‘That’s the kind of product that will change the world.’

‘That’s the plan,’ he told her. ‘That’s kinda been at the soul of this place from the start. Everything Will and Cora ever did helped others in some way. They created jobs, opportunities for people like me, who didn’t have any. They plugged money into the town. They actuallybuiltmore than half of it, renting out the shops cheap to people who were just getting started, then selling them the premises when they were doing well enough to buy them.’

‘Seriously?’ Kate’s eyebrows shot up.

‘Yep. They were the best people I’ve ever known.’ He looked away sadly. ‘The world is a better place for them being in it.’

He fell silent, and Kate gave him some space to ride out his thoughts. The more she learned about this place, the more she could understand why its people loved it so much. What they did heremattered. And the sense of community was deep and strong. She could see now why the contract had so clearly specified that she had to spend time here. This place wasn’t something that could be described. It had to be seen to be understood. It had to be felt.

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