“His latest effort was trying to shut down the Bakers' new deli," Jane said.

“Deli? Oh, that house at the end of the next block? How are they getting away with putting a business in a residential area anyway?" Suzie asked.

“Some quirk in the zoning laws," Jane said.

_ "Mike told me about it. He's working as a delivery boy for them this summer, you know. Apparently the house was the first on the block — an old farmstead. During World War II the people who lived there had a big garden and raised chickens and sold vegetables and eggs at a roadside stand. I guess they were still doing it when the township was incorporated or whatever townships do and so there was a grandfather clause.”

Shelley had sat down on the other side of Suzie and suddenly said, "Oh, yes! When I was a kid growing up here, my mother bought eggs from them. I'd completely forgotten that."

“I guess everybody had," Jane said. "When Conrad's wife and her sister inherited the house, they came back here to sell the place — did you know Conrad or Sarah, Shelley?"

“Only slightly. Conrad was two years ahead of me and Sarah was a year behind. Grace Axton — that's Sarah's sister — was in my class though."

“Anyway, Mike says Conrad did some research and discovered that the zoning had never been changed. It's something strange, like 'residential, with an exception to sell food products.' I mean, you couldn't put in a used car lot or anything."

“Conrad Baker figured this out himself?" Suzie asked. "I've run into him a couple times and I always thought he was pretty dim. Nice man, but about as bright as a breadstick.”

Shelley said, "Oh, no. He's really bright. Just quiet. Back in high school he won all sorts of awards — in the days when awards really meant something. He went to college for two or three years, got in on the tail end of the hippie thing. He and Sarah got married right after she graduated and they went off to Oregon or someplace to be flower children. They ended up working in logging camps as cooks."