Part 001 - The Vacancy

Harvey Wilson paced up and down in his office. What was he going to do? Old Miss Thompson had died three days ago from natural causes. What could he say? She was in her 90s for goodness sake, but she always claimed her regiment of sleeping for two days straight and staying up for three days in a row was her secret.

“An old coot, she was,” Harvey said out loud to himself and continued, “Who has time to follow a routine like that in a world so fast paced as this?”

Harvey thought back to his problem. He was the Vacancy Commissioner for The Kamunita, a residential community, which was a century old. It was an exclusive community with every amenity a resident could ask for - grocery store, bank, sports facility, three restaurants, medical center, post office, television and radio station, business arena, and kindergarten through twelve education campus.

Every single resident was hand-picked, and it was currently Harvey’s job to do so. The problem was there was no one on the current list as “excellent” or “likely” candidates. However, the Kabinet thought differently. As far as the thirty members of the Kamunita Kabinet were concerned, there were exactly twenty-one candidates from whom one was going to be picked to move into deceased Miss Thompson’s place. Harvey had four more days to make his choice.

Harvey decided to go to each of the current candidate’s homes and give them a sort of informal interview. He called each candidate to set up the appointments. He would see seven candidates a day for three days. On the fourth day he’d make his decision and go in front of the Kabinet.

His first four appointments went as he thought. The candidates were boring, complacent, and unintelligent as far as Harvey could figure. They went through the formalities as anyone would if a guest entered their homes. The talk was typical. The mood was unenergetic.

The fifth candidate was a fifty-three year old man. He was a bit eccentric on the outside – crazy hair, a monocle, suit, and sandals. After talking a while, Harvey asked him some more serious questions and realized the outward appearance was a ruse. For the man was just the same as the others. A sheep following a shepherd he didn’t know the appearance of.

Out of the twenty-one candidates, Harvey found three who were interesting. The first was an older woman in her fifties. She was a teacher and had some very unique ideas on the make-up of the world and how community is the key component. The second was a forty year old man. He was a doctor convinced life was a miracle for living. The third was another woman. She was young, good looking, and strong in her appearance. She told Harvey she loved nature and the harmony it exuded.

Throughout his appointment as Vacancy Commissioner, Harvey never had the opportunity of appointing anyone who was extraordinary. As a result, he was at a loss. He had three possible residents out of a pool of twenty-one, and not one stuck out to him as someone who would contribute to The Kamunita in any great manner. Sure each of them would become a productive citizen within the community, but none would contribute as extensively as some of the great Kamunita members had in the past. Jonath Jones came to mind - the inventor of the hydro car.

“A revolutionary man of science Jonath was,” Harvey declared out loud as he tossed his newly sharpened pencil up into the air. He watched it fall silently then impale itself into the left eye of the young, environmentalist woman he had interviewed a day earlier. “She’s the one I guess,” Harvey muttered as he pushed himself up out of his chair and headed toward the Kabinet Room. This appointment into the Kamunita would be another dull one.