I was living in St. Cloud. Anne has just taken a job with St. Paul. It was temporary work, but she didn't exactly sound like she wanted to come back. I couldn't blame her. Who would want to live in St. Cloud?

For a while I worked at the local branch of MN Forward. We were doing what I felt to be good work, promoting local businesses and pro-business candidates in local elections. We worked out of an office on 3rd, next to a place that used to be a hotel but now had become a bar with a lot of empty space up top. That is to say, the floors above the bar were not empty, but had become a haven for homeless people looking to get away from the cold. It was an issue that came up on the local news one night. The owner of the bar told everyone that he was fine with those people living up there as long as they didn't try to break into his establishment. Of course that did happen from time to time. But he was an extremely tolerant person, when you get right down to it.

For a while they had me teamed up with Blake and we used to spend half our time downtown at a place called the False Moon Cafe, even though we were supposed to be going door-to-door canvassing for new donors. Don't get me wrong. I believed in the work that MN Forward was doing at the time. It's just that at that time of year in St. Cloud you don't exactly feel like running around outside all that much.

"Let's imagine a new city, " Blake said to me during one of our daily reposes.

"Where are we setting it?" I said.

"Plains, with foothills in the distance, " he told me. "A clean environment. Nothing that would call for a radical design."

"What about water supply?" I said.

"We're fine with that, " he said. "This is an inland town on a river. A new settlement."

"So we build the market along the riverfront, " I said.

"Not so fast, " Blake told me. "You'll need a quay. And you don't want your marketplace right up near where the boats are loading and unloading. It's a messy place."

"We have a building by the water, " I said. "It looks like a house. It's there where the association that deals with the imports coming in off the quay is located."

"And exports as well, " Blake said. "There are products coming in off of the land."

"The group is part of the municipal government, " I said. "They don't inspect every piece of cargo coming in or out. There are random inspections."

"There was a riot years ago, " Blake said. "When a ship came in and the crew tried to smuggle their cargo past the inspectors."

"Not a riot, " I said. "An incident. The police were called in. There was pushing and shoving and someone got stabbed and bled to death, right there by the water."

"A big scandal that people talked about for years, " Blake said.

"They added security personnel to the quay after that, " I said. "The councillors had to do something. There was an election coming up and people were outraged."

Blake took a moment before responding. The cafe was crowded that morning. There was a construction crew crowded into one corner. A new condominium complex was going up down the street. This was back when people were still buying real estate. There was a lot of talk going around in those days that St. Cloud would become a boomtown again. As if it ever was a boomtown.

Finally, Blake spoke. "So we have a wide street leading away from the quay to an open-air marketplace, " he then said.

"And a church looming up overhead, " I told him. "With the town hall off to the side."

"That sounds about right, " Blake told me.

We would play these games, you know, because we were bored, and because Blake was trying to get me to stop thinking about Anne. I would call her in St. Paul from time to time, acting as if I was just casually checking in. She told me that the work she was doing was good. That she was developing campaigns that would help raise money for irrigation projects in various countries in East Africa. I would let her go on and on about this stuff, not saying a word. I pretended as if this talk was drawing us closer together again.

And then I remember once when Blake and I were doing out job the way we were supposed to do it, knocking on doors and such. We were on the outskirts of town, and there was this old house in the middle of an industrial district. That it to say, there were three houses in a row, but only one was occupied. The winds were whipping up the snow in great sheets, and we happened to drive by this isolated spot and were bored enough to get out and have a look around.

Anyway, when we got to this place an old man opened the door as we approached. He was dressed in a ratty blue robe and his white hair flapped wildly in the wind. "I'm not interested, whatever it is you're selling, " he said to us.

Blake and I stood at the bottom the stairs leading up to his porch. He leaned against the doorway. "We're not selling anything, " I said.

The old man laughed. "Of course, " he said.

"We're selling something, " Blake said. "There's no point in avoiding the obvious."

The old man looked out over us. "I don't even know why you came out this far anyway, " he said.

"We've never been to this part of town, " I said. "Either of us. We talked about it on the way."

"I worked at a place down the street, " he said. "Years ago. Carpentry. But it's all gone now."

"They say this town might be booming again, " I offered.

"I don't know what you're talking about, " the old man said.

"What's your name, sir?" Blake asked.

"Thomas, " the old man said. "You don't need to know my last name."

"Thomas, we're from MN Forward, " Blake said. "Maybe you've heard of us."

Thomas shook his head. I decided to cut in. "We want to make it so that people want to do business in Minnesota, " I told him.

"Minnesota's doing fine, " Thomas said. "Didn't you hear? This town is booming."

"We want to keep it that way, " I said. "We want to support candidates that are going to promote a pro-business agenda both at the state and federal levels."

"So this is a political thing, " Thomas said. "I can't contribute."

"You don't even need to contribute, " Blake interjected. "That's the best part. We're not looking for your money. What we need is your support."

"You talk about us to other people, " I said. "Say you're with your friends. We'll give you some literature. I forgot to mention that. But say that you're with your friends. And the issue of politics comes up. It always does, right? Well, we want you to be educated. Being educated about the issues can pay off a lot more than a bit of money, right? We want it so that when you talk, your friends will be impressed about how up you are on the latest issues."

Thomas took a while to answer. He looked back and forth between the two of us. "What kind of nonsense is that?" he then said.

"We know how it sounds, " Blake said. "But we all need to be aware of what's going on. You know, there are forces shaping the future of our state that we don't even know about. That's how complicated things have become. You don't even know who's in control anymore."

"Why would I care who's in control?" Thomas said. "They're all a bunch of crooks, anyway."

"That's what we all think, " I said. "But there are some good people. People out there who really want to make a difference."

"And you've come all the way out here to tell me that?" Thomas said.

"Why not?" Blake said. "We want to get the word out to everyone."

Thomas shook his head angrily. "You can just give me whatever you want to give me and go on, " he said.

Blake turned towards me, obviously not pleased with how this encounter was going. I handed over our standard package. Thomas reached down and took it and tucked in under his shoulder.

"Be sure to read that now, " Blake said. "It's important."

"Right, right, " Thomas said, already turning around to go back inside his house.

"You're not thinking clearly, " Blake said to me when we got back to the car.

"He took the materials, " I told him.

"You talked to him like he was a child, " Blake said. "You took the wrong tone."

"He didn't like us from the start, " I told him. "There was no point in even trying to reason with him."

"You're off your game, " Blake repeated.

"I'm doing fine, " I said.

"You're not doing fine, " Blake said. "You have to get out of here. Out of this town."