TEOTWAWKI

in #fiction6 years ago (edited)



#135 : Like A Flea On A Hot Griddle

..............................................................................................................................................

.............
present day
back at the breakfast meeting

So what do you think?” Shelby asked “ That ought fit right in with your fishing expedition?”

“I think so too.” Henry agreed.”It’d sure beat having to refrigerate the catch. I’ve got a big ‘fridge in the Retribution right now. I’ll be glad to get rid of it.”

Shelby raised an eyebrow at the ‘fridge’ remark, but pressed on.
“We should have it all ready to go in a few days.”

“No rush” Henry said “ But if ya’ll will excuse me...I’m for bed. I’ve been sitting here jaw-jacking with this old fart for much too long. I need my beauty sleep.”

“What?” he said. Everyone was looking at Wilbur. Wilbur had leaned back in his chair and was fast asleep.

He snored.

......a day or two later............

Henry and Wilbur were lounging on the deck on one of the Skirmish’s barges. They were watching a race in the water nearby. Their view was augmented by VR which helped a lot. A number of the Marauders had challenged an equal number of the RowdyBunch to a race. The little one person boats they were racing were miniature versions of bigger boats. If NASCAR cars were crossed with Krakens it would have been NO weirder. It was amazing how a tentacle could be used in a race. Grabbing a pylon to swing around a corner was an art. The kids were having fun and putting on a show for everyone to see. The two old coots appreciated and enjoyed it immensely. It reminded them of their youth evading cops. There hadn’t been that many tentacled monsters back then. The fact that there were today just made it funner.

“That boy was sumthin’ warn’t he?” Henry remarked, speaking of Cody. After he and Wilbur had woke up they’d had a conference with Cody regarding what needed to be done to the Retribution. Cody, as usual was FULL of ideas.

“Kinda reminded me of a flea on a hot griddle myself” Wilbur replied. “He was INTENSE! He moved from topic to topic faster than I could keep up.”

“Yeah he was” Henry agreed. “He said he’d have it ready in a week.”

“Kinda hard to believe...but this new tech. It’s amazing.” Wilbur said.

“I dunno....wow...did you SEE what he did? That’s UN-Possible. Isn’t it? How did he do that?” Henry replied. All thought of anything else was banished from their heads as they watched what the kids were doing in THOSE boats.

Until they were interrupted by a call from the crew refitting the Retribution.

“It took em long enough” Henry grinned. “I was beginning to wonder about them.”

“What?” Wilbur said.

“Steak” Henry grinned.

“You have STEAK?” that got Wilbur’s attention. The Banana Slug had been out of red meat for months. They had rabbit, chicken and fish but no red meat. No beef.

“Yup” Henry replied. “Some of them truck trailers on the bridge with me were reefers full of beef. To make a long story, and a LOT of aggravation, short..... I saved some.”

“How much?” Wilbur was thinking along the lines of a large picnic cooler or perhaps a household refrigerator.

“A few tons” Henry said. “ maybe ten or twenty.”

Wilbur dropped his cigar.

...............................

One thing led to another. Henry took the call from the re-fit crew and put out that grass fire. Then he got two calls at almost the same time. One from Ernie and the other from TigerMom. To save time he put them both on conference call.

“Lemme guess” he smiled evilly “you called me about meat?”

“YES!” Ernie almost shouted. “Caramba! “

TigerMom was much more subdued.. She nodded. The Avatar that she used for speaking was much less so. “Yes sir that would be true. I am very interesting in buying some.”

“Me too!” Ernie looked at Tigermom with suspicion..then at Henry.

“I know what you’re thinking” Henry said.” Bidding war?”

“Yesssss.” Ernie reluctantly agreed. The TigerMom nodded.

“Put your minds at ease” Henry said “I already have more ‘money’ than I know what to do with. How bout I just give it to you? How bout we split it equally?”

Ernie was NOT a very emotional person. Not normally. Tiger-mom was an order of magnitude less so.

They both heaved a sigh of relief.

After they signed off Wilbur turned to Henry and said.

“Your money won’t be any good at either of those fine establishments in the future. From the looks of things they’ll both feed you for free for the rest of your natural life.”

Henry looked at Wilbur and grinned.

“Ya think?”

........................
The Next Episode Is
#136 : Christening and Launch…
The Previous Episode was
#134 : Gamma Ray ZAP…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
..............
Book One: SoulStone
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Playing nice to the right people can keep a happy stomach for awhile.

There are people in life who are not ambitious, who are content to live well without amassing large amounts of money and who like to help people; So far, it seems that Henry is that kind of person; Of course this humanitarian behavior always opens the doors to most of the places where they go, in any case Henry should not be neglected in the business that begins to undertake in order to carry a healthy management with Wilbur ...

once you acquire a certain amount of money.
after that it's just numbers.
it's a game.

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