"Life Boat"

It's driving me crazy.  I can't find this story.  I was in junior high school when I read the short story, which I thought I remembered was O'Henry's, about a group of people in a life boat.  The captain is keeping everyone from mutinying in this life boat, by holding them at gunpoint.  He gets increasingly sleepy, and the passengers are waiting to pounce as soon as he falls asleep and drops the gun.  He finally does, there is a melee, and one of the other passengers gets the gun and holds it on the rest, making them continue rowing toward safety.  Somebody needed to take charge and do the right thing.  Somebody needed to provide the sobriety and goal-directedness of the captain.

His Honor our Mayor, apparently having freed himself from some of the mind-numbing influence of his mentor, has been able to begin to act sensibly.  He's not all the way there, but he's approaching usable common sense and perspective.  He showed brief flashes of decency and grace.  It was nice to see.

We had an odd Commission tonight.  Barbara Watts had said she wouldn't be there, and Bob Anderson had a family emergency.  So it was just the three: His Honor, Commissioner (now Vice Mayor) Ross, and the terrorist/anarchist Commissioner Dr Bryan Cooper.  In case anyone ever thought he wasn't a lost cause, he really won't let you forget it.  Sometimes, you just have to shake your head in disbelief, or wonder, or amusement.  There's always, always someone for him to accuse or criticize or suspect.

There were fewer 2-1's than I expected, and they didn't always go the way I imagined they might.  Here's where His Honor's awakening began to show.  He doesn't fully get why Roxy Ross is the most remarkable of  representatives, and of people, but he's starting at least to feel some sort of connection.  He's starting to sense something.  He seemed to listen, and he could detect some of her brilliance, level-headedness, gracefulness, and true dedication to this Village.  Barbara Watts figured it out some time ago.  His Honor is getting a scent.

In a perfect world, Mayor Jacobs steps down from his office, hands the gavel to Roxy Ross, and she is confirmed, 4-1, as our Mayor once again.  For as long as she cares to stay.  In a perfect world.  Which this one isn't.