Sedona Law 5 by Dave Daren (e book reader android .TXT) 📗

“They’ve got a new principal at the elementary school?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Vicki shook her head vehemently, “he’s bad. He’s the worst. He reorganized the carpool pick up line in such a way that parents have to wait close to an hour in line to be able to pick up their kids on time. It backs up traffic several blocks down the street.”

“No kidding?” I replied with raised eyebrows. “An hour? What about working parents?”

“That’s why everyone’s upset,” she sighed. “The stay-at-home moms find it inconvenient, but they are taking up the cause presumably for the working moms and leading a revolt against the principal. But there’s this rumor that the whole thing is all because of this one Queen Bee stay-at-home-mom who’s mad because she has to cut her gym workout short to get the first spot in line.”

I laughed. “Green Day was right. High school never ends.”

“It really doesn’t,” she chuckled, “but it’s amazing what you find out when you get your nails done with Andrea McClellan.”

Perry chortled as he walked back toward us. “That whole thing about the elementary school principal.”

“You know about it, too?” I asked in surprise. “All the way out here?”

He shook his head. “Because of the brew I have to have social media, even though I hate social media. I’ve heard about how they’re trying to overthrow the poor guy because of this pick up line nonsense. See, this is why we’re never putting Neptune in school.”

“You don’t believe in school?” I question with a frown.

“Not the kind you and I know of,” he replied. “Education was never meant to be mass produced. Learning is so personal. It’s supposed to be a natural customized experience.”

“Like home schooling?” I asked.

“In a sense.” He shrugged. “Our educational philosophy is best understood under the umbrella of homeschooling, but it’s its own animal. We believe in unschooling.”

“Unschooling?” Vicki asked.

I sighed since I knew exactly what it was. My mother had talked about it for Phoenix for years, although she never did it. She worshipped the movement, though.

“It’s like,” Perry searched for the right words, “education is taught through life. You learn fractions through cooking. Reading is done naturally during story time, you know, read to the kid, teach them to love reading. They want to learn the letters and the sounds, so they ask. You learn science through natural curiosity like it should be. For example, you see a lizard in the yard? Cool. You have the Internet. Look it up and find out about the lizard, and that’s science class.”

Harmony taught at a school with a similar philosophy, but I still never quite got beyond the basic premise. It made sense on the surface, but the concept was so full of holes, that unless it was administered by a stay at home parent with an M.Ed., it seemed to be just straight up not sending the kid to school.

But, then again, I went to law school, so I was clearly biased toward our formal education system.

Perry went on and on about the virtues of unschooling until we got to an open expanse grassy area. In the distance, I saw the zebra munching on grass.

“He looks happy,” I commented.

“He is,” Perry replied with a smile. “We roped off this whole area, about three acres, for him to run. Manuel, you remember the old zookeeper?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” Manuel had been the zookeeper at the client’s estate before we’d liquidated it.

“Manuel took care of him,” Perry said, “and he still checks in with us from time to time. He’s been really helpful.”

“He’s in Mexico, now?” I asked.

“No,” Perry shook his head, “he’s in New York. He wanted to make it as a Broadway actor.”

“No kidding,” I laughed. “Manuel, the zookeeper? I would have never thought. He’s so reserved.”

“I know,” Perry grinned, “you wouldn’t think he had it in him. It’s always the quiet ones who surprise you the most.”

“I guess,” I shrugged, “I wouldn’t know.”

Perry took Vicki and I back to another side of the property.

“So,” he said, “now I want to show you our coolest project. The one I am most excited about.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Well,” he continued as we walked, “we’ve decided to invest the money that’s coming in from Earth Market into renovating the property. And we thought about what was the best way to do that. Someone said Tranquility is a serene, quiet place to be, and maybe we should offer that to other people. You know, they brought up the point we should give to the outer community from our extra funds. What we have here is really special, and people need it.”

“You’re talking about a retreat?” I mused.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I mean, people pay thousands of dollars a night to have what we have. So, why not give it to them at a much cheaper price?”

“How does that fit into Tranquility’s ideals?” I asked.

“It didn’t,” he shook his head, “for a while. But so much money was pouring into the bank from the kombucha that I didn’t know what to do with it. And so, I found offering our unique brand of peace to others was a perfect way to invest that money.”

“So,” Vicki began as she looked at the property around us, “are you talking about building cabins, or a hotel or something?”

“We’ve already started,” Perry explained. “We’ve built three cabins. Let me take you over there.”

We all hopped in a small golf cart, and Perry took us down a long grassy hill and along a gravel tree-lined trail. A minute later, I noticed a couple of small, wooden cabins at the end of the narrow dirt road. They each had a tiny wooden porch and vibrant flowerbeds.

“I like them,” I remarked as my eyes took