The provided excerpts detail the life of a young girl named Joy Wells, who lives in the declining town of Spooking and frequently clashes with her family and the inhabitants of the neighboring, more developed town of Darlington. Joy is obsessed with the macabre writings of E. A. Peugeot and believes the mysterious author lived in Spooking, which she seeks to prove through research related to a vanishing private investigator. The central conflict involves Joy's efforts to save Spooking Bog, a local wetland, from being destroyed for the Misty Mermaid Water Park, a project spearheaded by Darlington’s Mayor MacBrayne and his ruthless assistant, Phipps. Joy attempts to protect the bog by contacting the Federal Imperiled Species Protection Agency (FISPA), claiming the area holds an endangered species discovered by a dead naturalist named Dr. Ludwig Zweig. The tension culminates when Phipps and his accomplice attempt to destroy a resident's house in the bog, leading to a violent confrontation and an eventual FISPA intervention that halts the water park construction.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.