"We have to invest all our money in the bar," Jordan said as she looked into the eyes of her mother, father, and sister.
They had met at the local diner for breakfast. Now they all looked back at Jordan as if she had lost her mind. "It is a dump," Sherry shook her head, "Five regulars come every night, they drink the same three beers then they leave. Everyone else comes because there is nothing else to do around here."
"Exactly!" Jordan nodded. "There is nothing out here, the movie theater is always three weeks behind in the latest movies, the internet connection our here is slower than molasses, and the teenagers do everything they can so that they can get caught."
All of them nodded, the town was small, and the nearest thing to excitement was over three hours away. "So, what are your thoughts?" Jordan's father asked.
"Well I have enough of my emergency money and some other accounts I can dive into, which will make all your lenders happy, they won't come after your horses. They definitely won't try to take Sherry's house," Jordan nodded as she ate some of her breakfast.
"But," her mother looked at her.
"We won't have much of anything left; I mean next to nothing. If we don't have some income coming into our banks within two to three months' tops, we will have to file bankruptcy, and after that, we will have to think about downsizing and moving in with each other." Jordan looked over the table at Sherry, "All of us."
"Whew," all of them said as they all sat back in their chairs, each of them thinking about moving into one house. Sherry had the two kids as well as other pets. The thought of everybody under one roof was not a pleasant one.
"Well you're the smart one of the group," her father said breaking the silence. "What do you want us to do?"
In the next three hours, the family got all the affairs into order. Most of the banks were surprised to see them walk in to settle everything that they owed. After that had been done, they all went to the bar.
"I told you, it's a dump. The water only works at the bar and the ladies room, most of the tiles on the ceiling need to be replaced, the dance floor..." Sherry began to say before Jordan held up her hand.
"We get it, the place needs a lot of work," Jordan nodded.
"That's putting it lightly," Sherry reiterated.
They stood around looking at everything, no one saying anything. Then Jordan's father started laughing. "Remember when Bill first bought this land?"
Their mother started laughing, "It used to be a slaughterhouse, then the family up and moved, the place smelled to high heaven," she laughed. Their father sat on one of the stools.
"That didn't bother Bill any. He came into this place grabbed a bucket and some wash cloths and began cleaning, after two days it still smelled. He called everybody in town, told them to bring hammers and all the tools they could carry."
"Sherry you were just turning two," her mother said, which meant Jordan hadn't been born yet. "Well everyone came alright, and all of us just started tearing into the place. It took us two weeks to get it all down. Over that time people would come in just for the hell of it, or if they had a bad day, they would come here with hammers and start banging away. Even when they had arguments at home, they came here and just started beating on the walls. Finally, all of it was gone, the whole building was nothing but pieces."
"Then he started building, people came with wood, others with nails, sheet metal, piece by piece, brick by brick people came," her father nodded. "Until," he smiled as he looked around, "This."
"If we get started, people will help. We forgot what a place like this means to a town like ours," her mother nodded. "People used to come not to drink, but to talk, have fun, let the worries of the week wash away. When Bill passed away people stopped coming, they will come again."
They all sat around and began to formulate a plan for the renovations which would start in the morning. Jordan was the last one to leave as she had some thoughts on what to do with the layout. "Thought I would find you here," a voice broke her silence.
Jordan rolled her eyes as she looked at Rick who stood a few feet away from her. "We have nothing to talk about," she said as she turned back to her drawing.
"Cole, had no business telling you what I did with my parent's money, they gave it to me, not to him!" Rick shouted.
"Right, they would have wanted you to do the right thing. They would've wanted you to invest it, to do something relevant with it, but no you bought a house you can barely afford. A truck that you're behind on payments on and you traveled to see me, first class, how many times?" Jordan roared back at him.
"You have no business prying into my affairs," Rick yelled at her.
"Your affairs aren't that private, everyone knows about the broke sheriff of the town," Jordan looked back at him with disgust.
"Fine," Rick looked at her, "I don't know why I waste my time with you anyway," he said as he walked out of the bar slamming the door behind him.
Jordan felt better about the upcoming days now that she had sorted most of it into smaller manageable portions.
The morning came fast, and Jordan looked over at her father as they pulled into the parking lot of the bar. A huge smile appeared on their face as they saw most of the town had shown up.
Trucks filled with tools of all kinds filled every inch of the parking lot. Kids ran back and forth, and someone had set up a table with all sorts of food and drinks.
"Your mom started making phone calls last night, and well you know how we all like together," Cole laughed.
"I am surprised," Jordan smiled as she walked through the crowd of people.
"When do we get to break stuff?" a young boy asked.
"Soon Daniel," Sherry smiled. "This is your aunt. Aunt Jordie."
"Nice to meet you finally Daniel," Jordan smiled. The young boy smiled and hid behind his mother.
"I already took the liberty of disconnecting the water and the electricity," a tall man said approaching Jordan, "So whenever you're ready," he smiled.
"Thank you, Ethan," Jordan said as she took the sledgehammer away from him.
Jordan turned to face the crowd, "Thank you all for showing up, it means a lot to us," she said as she looked at her mother and father. "We look forward to having you all show up here after it is done."
Everybody clapped as she took a few steps back. "In memory of Bill!" someone shouted.
"To Bill!" the crowd roared.
Jordan swung as hard as she could connecting with one of the pillars that held the outcropping over the door, it gave a little then fell to the ground.
"Now can we break stuff?" Daniel asked.
"Break away!" Jordan yelled.
The large crowd began to hammer and tear away at the building. Some went inside. Others worked from the outside. Jordan mingled with everybody. She saw Rick standing by his truck.
"Just came to make sure no one starts a fight," he said as she looked at him.
"Thanks," she nodded.
What had taken the community weeks to do those few years back, took them just under eight hours to accomplish today, the building had been leveled. People used the back of their trucks to haul off most of the rubble.
"That was fun," Daniel said covered in broken pieces of wood and dirt.
"Let's go home and get you cleaned up," Sherry smiled.
"Can we do it again tomorrow?" Daniel asked as they walked away.
Jordan smiled as she looked at the large open clearing that had once been a bar. "I will bring over some of my co-workers tomorrow, so we can get started on more of the clean up as well as making sure everything is level," Ethan smiled.
"Thank you again, Etan, I don't think it would have gone as smooth without you being here," Jordan laughed. Ethan was one of the construction contractors for the town and most of the small cities around.
