Focus Redirected Toward Resolution Without Extended Attribution
By Tom Seest
At Sequatchie Crossing, we tell the stories of Sequatchie Crossing.
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🎤 Audio Overview
Blame Attempted Briefly, Then Abandoned as Unnecessary
Act I – The Broken Gate at First Light
The morning began with a peculiar silence at Sequatchie Crossing.
Not the comfortable silence that usually settled over the town square before the diner opened and before the church bell rang. This silence had edges.
Boot noticed it first.
He stood near the community garden fence behind Town Hall, holding a post driver in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. A section of the garden gate lay flat on the ground.
The hinges had snapped.
A row of tomatoes leaned outward as if attempting an escape.
Boot squinted.
“Well,” he said, setting down his coffee. “That’s inconvenient.”
Across the road, Clovis emerged from the diner carrying a biscuit wrapped in paper.
He stopped.
“What happened to the gate?”
Boot shrugged.
“Gate broke.”
“How?”
“It appears to have stopped being a gate.”
Act I – The Broken Gate at First Light
Clovis nodded slowly.
That was technically accurate.
By then Mabel had arrived carrying a basket of fresh rolls for the diner.
She looked at the gate.
Then she looked at Boot.
Then at the gate again.
“Huh.”
That was all.
No panic.
No speeches.
Just observation.
Pastor Peeler crossed the street moments later carrying a small box of donated hymnals.
He paused.
“Looks like we have ourselves a project.”
Boot had already picked up a hammer.
The matter seemed settled.
At least until Vernon Pike arrived.
Vernon was not a bad man.
But he possessed a rare talent for locating blame before locating solutions.
He pointed dramatically.
“I knew this would happen.”
Clovis looked up.
“Knew what would happen?”
“The gate breaking.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Then what did you know?”
Vernon hesitated.
“I knew somebody would mess something up eventually.”
Boot continued measuring boards.
Mabel yawned.
Pastor Peeler smiled politely.
The goat grazing nearby ignored everyone completely.
Act I – The Broken Gate at First Light
Act II – The Search for a Culprit
Within twenty minutes a small crowd had gathered.
News traveled quickly in Sequatchie Crossing.
Especially news that was not actually important.
Vernon paced beside the damaged gate.
“Somebody’s responsible.”
Mabel set down her basket.
“For gravity?”
“What?”
“The gate fell down.”
“Because somebody caused it.”
Boot examined the hinges.
“They’re rusted through.”
Vernon pointed toward Town Hall.
“Maybe maintenance neglected it.”
Clovis crouched beside the broken hardware.
He rubbed the metal with his thumb.
Act II – The Search for a Culprit
The hinge crumbled.
“Looks older than my truck.”
“Still somebody’s fault.”
Pastor Peeler gently adjusted his glasses.
“Perhaps.”
Vernon brightened.
“Exactly.”
“Or perhaps metal eventually becomes less metal.”
Vernon frowned.
“That’s not helpful.”
Boot had already removed the remaining hinge.
Clovis noticed something interesting.
Nobody except Vernon seemed interested in assigning blame.
Everyone else had drifted toward fixing.
The conversation itself was changing direction.
Like water finding a lower path.
Vernon kept trying to pull it back.
The town kept letting it go.
Nearby, the goat wandered directly through the open section of fence.
Nobody stopped him.
Nobody cared.
The goat certainly didn’t.
Act II – The Search for a Culprit
Act III – Clovis Notices the Shift
By midmorning supplies had begun arriving.
A few boards.
New hinges.
Fresh screws.
Someone brought paint.
Someone else brought lemonade.
No committee had organized it.
It simply happened.
Clovis leaned against the porch of Town Hall watching the activity.
Something struck him.
Vernon was still attempting to identify blame.
Yet every new arrival skipped that step entirely.
“Need a hand?”
“Where should these boards go?”
“Anybody got a drill?”
“Who needs paint?”
Act III – Clovis Notices the Shift
Not one person asked whose fault it was.
Clovis walked over to Mabel.
“You notice something?”
“I usually do.”
“Nobody seems interested in blaming anybody.”
Mabel snorted.
“Why would they be?”
“Vernon’s trying pretty hard.”
“Vernon tries pretty hard at lots of things.”
Clovis laughed.
She wasn’t wrong.
He looked back toward the crowd.
The longer the repairs continued, the less blame seemed to matter.
Not because people had proven anything.
Not because responsibility had been established.
The question itself was losing relevance.
The gate remained broken whether blame existed or not.
The gate would be repaired only if someone worked.
Boot appeared from behind a truck carrying a post.
He said exactly three words.
“Need deeper holes.”
Then he walked away.
Clovis smiled.
That seemed to summarize the entire morning.
Act III – Clovis Notices the Shift
Act IV – Mabel Ends the Discussion
Just before lunch Vernon made one final attempt.
He stood beside the diner porch and addressed anyone willing to listen.
“I still think we ought to determine exactly who caused this.”
Mabel was arranging pies in the display window.
Without looking up she asked:
“Why?”
“So it doesn’t happen again.”
“Rust?”
“No.”
“Weather?”
“No.”
“Time?”
“No.”
What exactly are you trying to stop?”
Vernon opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Mabel finally looked at him.
Act IV – Mabel Ends the Discussion
“The gate is forty years old.”
“Maybe.”
“The hinges are older than disco.”
“Possibly.”
“Boot’s already replacing them.”
“Sure.”
“So what are we discussing?”
Vernon stared.
Mabel slid a pie into place.
“The tomatoes don’t care.”
“The gate doesn’t care.”
“The goat definitely doesn’t care.”
Almost on cue the goat walked behind Vernon carrying a mouthful of weeds.
Mabel pointed.
“See?”
Several people laughed.
Even Vernon managed a reluctant grin.
The argument lost energy.
Not dramatically.
Not with some grand victory.
It simply ran out of fuel.
Act IV – Mabel Ends the Discussion
Act V – Pastor Peeler Redirects the Crowd
Around noon everyone gathered under the shade trees beside the church.
Someone distributed sandwiches.
Someone else brought sweet tea.
Repairs paused briefly.
Vernon sat beside Pastor Peeler.
For a few minutes they watched the town.
Children rode bicycles.
The goat investigated a mailbox.
Boot continued working even during lunch.
Nobody seemed surprised.
Finally Vernon sighed.
“I still think accountability matters.”
Pastor Peeler nodded.
“It does.”
Vernon looked relieved.
Act V – Pastor Peeler Redirects the Crowd
“Exactly.”
“But timing matters too.”
“What do you mean?”
Pastor Peeler gestured toward the garden.
“Imagine your roof starts leaking.”
“Okay.”
“You can spend the storm debating who should have inspected it.”
“Right.”
“Or you can place a bucket underneath.”
Vernon chuckled.
“Fair.”
“The discussion isn’t necessarily wrong.”
“It’s just not first.”
Vernon thought about that.
Pastor Peeler continued.
When action is urgent, blame often becomes a distraction.
“You think that’s what’s happening?”
“I think people saw a broken gate.”
“And?”
“And then they saw tools.”
Vernon laughed.
The simplicity of it seemed almost ridiculous.
Yet it explained everything.
Act V – Pastor Peeler Redirects the Crowd
Act VI – Boot Never Stopped Working
By early afternoon the new posts were standing.
Fresh hinges gleamed in the sunlight.
The gate itself had been rebuilt stronger than before.
Most of the credit belonged to Boot.
Though Boot appeared entirely uninterested in receiving credit.
Clovis approached him.
“You know everybody appreciates this.”
Boot tightened a bolt.
“Good.”
“That’s all you’ve got?”
“Mostly.”
Clovis watched him work.
“You never joined the blame discussion.”
Act VI – Boot Never Stopped Working
Boot looked confused.
“There was a blame discussion?”
Clovis laughed so hard he nearly dropped his drink.
“There definitely was.”
“When?”
“Most of the morning.”
Boot shrugged.
“I was busy.”
That answer traveled through town faster than the original argument.
Several people repeated it.
Some even wrote it on a chalkboard outside the diner.
I WAS BUSY.
By late afternoon it had become the unofficial slogan of the day.
Vernon himself laughed when he saw it.
Perhaps especially Vernon.
Act VI – Boot Never Stopped Working
Act VII – The Goat Provides Perspective
The repaired gate stood finished.
Fresh paint dried in the warm afternoon air.
The garden looked better than it had before the collapse.
Which should have marked the end of the story.
But Sequatchie Crossing rarely missed an opportunity for one final lesson.
As townspeople admired the repairs, the goat returned.
He approached the brand-new gate.
Everyone watched.
The goat examined it.
Sniffed it.
Then walked around it entirely.
Straight through a section of open space beside the fence.
The crowd burst into laughter.
Clovis nearly spilled his tea.
Mabel doubled over.
Act VII – The Goat Provides Perspective
Even Boot smiled.
Pastor Peeler shook his head.
“There’s a sermon somewhere in that.”
What sermon?” asked Clovis.
Pastor Peeler pointed.
“We spent all day discussing a gate.”
“And?”
“The goat never cared about the gate.”
The crowd laughed again.
Vernon nodded thoughtfully.
“I suppose that’s true.”
The goat continued eating grass.
Completely unaware that he had become the wisest creature in town.
Act VII – The Goat Provides Perspective
Act VIII – The Real Outcome
As evening approached, the town square settled into its familiar rhythm.
The diner filled.
Porches gained occupants.
Church lights flickered on.
The repaired gate stood quietly in the distance.
Clovis sat on the Town Hall porch beside Mabel.
“You know what I noticed?”
“You already said that once today.”
“I noticed something else.”
Mabel sighed dramatically.
“Proceed.”
“The story changed.”
“What story?”
“This morning the story was a broken gate.”
Act VIII – The Real Outcome
“Right.”
“Then it became blame.”
“For about ten minutes.”
“Then it became repair.”
Mabel nodded.
“That’s usually the better story.”
Clovis considered that.
She was right.
People often assumed the loudest issue was the most important issue.
But that wasn’t what happened here.
The loudest issue had faded.
The useful issue remained.
The gate was fixed.
The garden was protected.
Life continued.
Meanwhile the blame conversation had evaporated so completely that nobody could remember exactly what Vernon had accused anyone of doing.
Act VIII – The Real Outcome
Act IX – The Matter Settles Itself
The sun dipped below the ridge.
Long shadows stretched across the square.
Most of the townspeople headed home.
Vernon remained on the porch for a moment.
Pastor Peeler joined him.
They watched Boot loading tools into his truck.
“You know,” Vernon said, “I started this morning convinced we needed answers.”
Pastor Peeler nodded.
“And now?”
“I still think answers matter.”
“They do.”
“But maybe I confused answers with progress.”
Pastor Peeler smiled.
“That happens.”
Act IX – The Matter Settles Itself
Vernon looked toward the repaired gate.
The funny thing is nobody actually stopped me from assigning blame.”
“No.”
“They just kept fixing things.”
“Yes.”
“And eventually it seemed less important.”
Pastor Peeler chuckled.
“Action has a way of doing that.”
The two men sat quietly.
Across the street Boot climbed into his truck.
The goat wandered through the grass.
Children laughed near the church.
The diner lights glowed warmly.
The entire town seemed to agree on one simple fact:
A solved problem occupies less space than an unsolved argument.
Act IX – The Matter Settles Itself
Epilogue – What Remained
Weeks later nobody talked about the broken gate.
Visitors admired the garden.
Tomatoes grew.
Flowers bloomed.
The new hinges worked perfectly.
The blame discussion survived only as a faint memory.
What people remembered instead was the repair.
The cooperation.
The lemonade.
The laughter.
The chalkboard sign.
And Boot’s accidental philosophy.
I WAS BUSY.
Clovis remembered noticing the shift.
Mabel remembered dismissing the distraction.
Pastor Peeler remembered redirecting attention.
Boot remembered none of it.
He had simply fixed the gate.
Meanwhile the goat continued living exactly as before.
Which, in its own way, may have been the most sensible response of all.
Because blame often demands attention.
Action demands effort.
And when enough people choose effort, blame frequently discovers it has nowhere useful left to stand.
Epilogue – What Remained
Disclaimer
This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment purposes. All characters, locations, businesses, organizations, and events depicted herein are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, organizations, or real events is purely coincidental. Sequatchie Crossing is a fictional storytelling setting, and the events described in this narrative did not occur in reality.
The underlying theme explores how communities often achieve better outcomes when energy is directed toward practical solutions rather than prolonged efforts to assign fault. Readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions and interpretations from the story.
Disclaimer – Blame Attempted Briefly, Then Abandoned as Unnecessary
Real Places Behind the Ruckus – From The Dunlap Directory
Real Places Behind the Ruckus – From The Dunlap Directory
Yes, this story was fictional; even the parts that weren’t true. These places? Absolutely real. Stop by, support local, and keep the Wi-Fi away from livestock:
- Five Star Wine & Spirits
- Chattanooga Ghost Tours Inc
- Keith’s Affordable Plumbing Service
- The Suttmiller Woodshop
- Tractor Supply
- Affordable Storage Guys – North Dunlap
- Way of the Cross Baptist Church
- Clayton’s Septic Pumping and Porta Potty Rentals
- Dunlap Iron & Metals
- Funk Excavation
- Peachy Keen Cakes
- Botanas Ricas
- Stoker + Bro’s Mowing + More
- Andy’s Pizza and Steakhouse
- Cagle Community Church
- Coast Home & Auto Center
- Dunlap and Pikeville Yard Sale on Facebook
- Discount Metal Roofing
- Faith & Farmhouse
- Crossroads Baptist Church
Real Places Behind the Ruckus – From The Dunlap Directory
At Sequatchie Crossing, we tell the stories of Sequatchie Crossing.
Please share this post with your friends, family, or business associates who may want follow the news from Sequatchie Crossing.
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