Read Online Montana Standoff by Nadia Nichols - Free Book Online Page B

with logging a burned forest?”
    â€œIt was in a designated wilderness area, and they wanted to build major logging roads to access the standing timber. A lot of the trees weren’t dead, and even if they were, fire is all part of the natural process. Big permanent logging roads aren’t.”
    â€œSo you risked getting shot just to protect a bunch of scorched trees?”
    â€œIt’s the principle of the thing. You have to pick your fights. I thought we might win that one.”
    Molly took a small bite of her sandwich and chewed, frowning. “So what happened?”
    â€œMoney and politics happened. The logging industry won the vote, and the big roads went in. The trees are all gone now, and soil erosion is silting up the spawning grounds in the river. The same old story is being played out in other places, too. It’s hard to stand up to big industry.”
    â€œPeople need jobs.”
    â€œWhat kind of jobs will the loggers have when the last tree has been cut?”
    Molly saw the rift widening between them again. “You think the mining industry is a greedy monster, don’t you?”
    â€œI think we need to start treating this planet with greater respect, as if the future mattered.”
    â€œDo you have any children?”
    He drained the last of his soda and lowered the can. “Is this a loaded question?”
    â€œNot at all. I’m just curious.”
    â€œNo children, never been married. You?”
    Molly shook her head. “But I understand how people feel about bringing jobs into a community. I understand the importance of putting food on the table when you have children to feed. A mine on Madison Mountain will bring a lot of good paying jobs into that depressed area. It will make life better.”
    â€œBetter for whom? The people who live there now, who love the place just the way it is, or the people who would move there to get the good jobs? And how do you tell the people who live there now that their depressed lives are about to change for the better, when their lives are already just the way they want them to be?” He reached for the picnic basket and peered into it. “Did you bring anything for dessert?”
    Molly sighed. “No, sorry. We can stop for an ice cream on the way back. I know a great place just outside of Helena that has the best double-fudge chocolate-chip ice-cream cones on the planet.”
    S TEVEN DROVE DOWN THE HIGHWAY toward Helena wondering how accurate his gas gauge was. He’d never redlined it before. He’d always paid attention to things like how much gas was in his vehicle before taking a long trip, but for some reason this time he’d spaced it out completely. The last thing he needed right now was to run out of fuel.
    â€œI’m sorry, Steven.” Molly was tucked beneath hissheepskin jacket, gazing out the side window. “It seems like I have to say that an awful lot when I’m around you.”
    â€œFor what?” Steven said. She’d just finished telling him all about her family. Her mother and father. Her brothers. Her aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers, the place in Scotland where her ancestors were buried near the ruins of a crumbled castle, and the old Roman sword her great-great-grandfather had plowed up in his Irish potato field that her father still had. It was a colorful history, and he couldn’t imagine why she would be apologizing for it.
    â€œFor being so argumentative. I practically forced you to take me to see that mine, show me something relevant to the New Millennium project, tell me important things, teach me what I need to know so I won’t make a fool out of myself again, and all I wanted to do was defend the mining industry because I happen to represent it. I’m sorry.”
    â€œMy intention wasn’t to put you on the spot.”
    â€œI know that. And I really do want to go back and visit the reservation when we have more