Free Chasing the Wind by Pamela Binnings Ewen

elbow between them and tightened his hand on the wheel, covering his discomfort with a grin. "I'm listening." A battle-green streetcar rumbled by on his left, and he looked that way, creating distance between himself and Amalise.
    "Just checking." She smiled and repositioned herself. "I want to talk to you about something. This new project I'm on? It's, ah . . . ," she looked off, "a development, of sorts. In an older neighborhood."
    "Where?"
    "I can't tell you."
    He raised his brows.
    "It's confidential." She sat back and folded her hands in her lap. "But it's bothering me some. Can I tell you about it, without going into detail?"
    "Sure. Go ahead."
    After a pause, she threw back her head, gazing at the interior roof. "All right. Picture a charming area, partly residential. Part commercial, but lots of small businesses around, like cafés, shops."
    "That could be any place in New Orleans."
    Her voice dropped a key. "But here's the thing. The place will be destroyed by this transaction."
    "What do you mean by 'destroyed'?"
    "Destroyed." She spread her hands. "As in, demolished ."
    He gave her a sideways look. "I'm assuming it's not in the Quarter."
    "No."
    He turned his eyes to the road again. Wheeling down St. Charles, he closed in on the University area and Broadway, tunneling beneath the canopy of live oak trees that lined the boulevard.
    Her voice hardened. "They're going to level the place, Jude."
    "Maybe the residents will fight it."
    She shook her head. "They won't know it's happening until it's too late. That's the way it works." She looked to the right, rubbing her arms, as if comforting herself. "I've tried not to think too much about it because there's nothing I can do. But I keep imagining all those wonderful old houses, pieces of history, crushed into rubble. Old-growth trees destroyed."
    He shot her a look. It wasn't easy to knock down an old house in the city of New Orleans, much less a tree. Oak trees in Louisiana even had their own club, the Live Oak Society. Trees with a certain measure of girth were members, and the only human allowed was the chairman. Certain trees were designated the president and vice president, and even Martha Washington, a member of the society, resided in Audubon Park.
    "Maybe you're worrying for nothing," he said. "If the area's as you describe, there will be too many obstacles. The developers will stumble, and the city will find an excuse to halt it. City hall won't let it happen, and neither will the residents."
    "No." She sounded dejected. "The groundwork's a done deal. All but the financing, and when that's completed, they'll start purchasing the properties in the target area." Blowing out her cheeks, she swiveled her head toward him. "I shouldn't be telling you any of this. You can't mention it to anyone."
    "I won't. I don't even know where you're talking about. But you can trust me, you know that."
    "I know."
    He swerved as a car pulled out of a driveway on his right. "This city isn't fond of change. Remember that expressway proposal a few years ago? There was such a commotion, they finally gave it up. Protests, lawsuits. They stood up to the mayor, city council, congressmen, senators, federal regulators, commissions under Presidents Johnson and Nixon." He laughed. "They even beat back the real powers, the sewage and water board and the levee board."
    "That was the French Quarter. This isn't." The look she gave him was reflective. "And that project was public, this isn't. Not even the press has gotten wind of this. It's big, but it isn't a highway or a bridge—the kind of thing where voters get to choose."
    "Huh. Now I'm curious."
    "And the permits have been issued, already approved." She sighed and looked to her right. "It's a huge project that will be announced one day after all the key properties have been purchased and demolition's begun."
    He didn't say anything.
    "The whole thing will happen without anyone realizing, one purchase at a time. The buyers will be agents