1.52 - Pauline’s Property
I visited
Edan when we got back from the trip, I wanted someone to discuss things with
and he wanted to get drunk before preparing for his next run across the galaxy.
When I told him about Martin’s past, he asked me why I looked up to the man. At
first, I thought he was joking, but Edan reads people well. As we drank more, I
came to the conclusion that I did admire Martin. I looked up to him a lot. My
realization just seemed to piss off Renan. Martin was a human supremacist. He
did cause a ton of harm, and his actions indirectly led to the loss of lives. I
can’t deny that. Still he did what he needed to do so that he could make it
right. That’s the part I admire.
I can’t say
I went on a lot of missions for humanitarian causes. I was directly involved in
the assignation of seventeen different individuals. I’m sure there were more lives
lost in the fallout from what I did. I was wrong, and instead of making things
right, I ran away. The fact that he was able to recognize he was wrong and do
something about it makes him admirable to me. Am I his legacy? No, I see that
as the ramblings of an old man obsessed with mortality. He’s not the first, and
won’t be the last. We all struggle with mortality during our lives. Some of us
wait until we’re old, others when we’re blown up and lose an arm. But we all
think about death, and what the world will think of us when we’re done here.
Thoughts for another day I suppose. I’m already running late.
The door to
the bar is already open, Pauline is wiping down some tables humming to herself.
I grab a rag and some cleaner before joining in. I’m expecting Pauline to tear
into me about being late, but she doesn’t and we finish with all of the tables
pretty quickly before moving onto the kitchen. Occasionally she pauses her song
to give me direction but other than that, she just sings today. It’s an odd
atmosphere; the fact that Martin isn’t around only makes it stranger. I take a
seat at the bar as we finish and she pours me a glass of water, she doesn’t
believe in drinking on weekdays.
“You want
to be a rancher,” Pauline asks me bluntly.
“I’m not
sure what you mean.”
“We’re
retiring. I’m sure Martin bored you to death with his life story on your little
trip. He probably talked about how we’re old, don’t have any children and all
that. Getting out of the business, planning to retire somewhere nice, with
snow,” she gazes off with a smile.
I can’t
help but laugh, “you both like snow a lot.”
“Yes, and
we like you a little. That’s why we’re giving you the first option to purchase
the ranch.”
“I don’t
know what I did that gave off the idea that I was rich, or wealthy but I can’t
afford to purchase one of these single-family homes around here, an entire
ranch is just an insane thought.”
“If you had
the money, would you buy it,” Pauline isn’t giving me a chance to think any of
this over.
“I don’t
know, it was never in my plans.”
“You’re an
idiot if you’d pass up a 500 acre ranch falling in your lap. When we got the
place it was dirt cheap,” she laughs at her pun. “But, with prices the way they
are now, we’re giving you one hell of discount.”
“I don’t
really know much about running a ranch.”
“We’ll get
you set up, fully staffed. A good manager goes a long way. We can bring back
the animals, that’s where the real money is. Live, natural animals. We just
need to figure out what the market is craving.”
“I really
don’t know about this.”
“Yes, you
do, you just don’t want to say,” she brings out two shot glasses.
“Look, I’d
never pay it off.”
“We’re old,
we’ll keep it off the record. I’ll sign it all over to you this weekend, if you
just say yes. Who cares if you ever pay us off? We’re old, we don’t have any
kids. Just say yes, and send us half the yearly profit, just the profit. If you
lose money we won’t ask for anything. If you can promise that, we’re good.”
“Can I have
a few days to think it over?”
“No.”
“I feel
like I don’t have a lot of say in this.”
“You don’t
have any say in this.”
“What
happens if I don’t agree.”
“I just
told you, it’s already been decided.”
“Why?”
“Because
we’ve had a lot of folks in here, and you’re the only one who lasted this long.
We like you, Martin talks about you as if you were his own son. I can see that
you’re a hard worker and a tough bastard in a bar fight when you need to be.
You’ve earned respect from both of us and that’s hard to do. Any other
questions.”
“I’ve
killed people and I’m currently AWOL. Does that change your opinion of me?”
“None of us
are perfect. I’ve stolen more than you can imagine. I bet Martin didn’t mention
that part.”
“No, he
didn’t.”
She pours
two shots, “by the time you get that AWOL situation taken care of, we’ll have
this place looking like a real ranch.”
“I never
agreed to anything.”
“You don’t
have a choice. We’re doing what’s best for you. Keeping you from going out and
finding your own wars to fight.”
There’s a
knock at the door that interrupts us. I open the door to see Yushin, one of the
older workers Pauline has kept on staff. He works slower than most, talks
slower than most, but keeps at his own pace and finishes everything on time.
It’s like he has everything timed out, but he’s panicked today.
“Mrs.
Pauline,” he starts, out of breath, “we got another overdose.”
“Another
one,” Pauline yells more than asks.
Yushin made
the run here across half the ranch, but we ride in Pauline’s truck to where
supplies were being dropped off. Pauline really was serious about getting this
place up and running again. While were out on our trip, she brought in some
extra help to get everything up and running. She used the phrase, “faster than
a rumble rabbit’s fart,” on the ride over. Personally, I have no idea what that
means but Yushin seemed to understand. His response was something along the
lines of “ocean cats don’t swim fast but always get their prey,” and she nods.
Do rumble rabbits have fast farts? How do you even measure a fart’s speed? What
is an ocean cat? Is it a cat that lives in the ocean or lives near it? I
haven’t been on Nyame long enough to completely follow their conversation.
As we make
our way over people part the circle and Pauline lets off a list of curse words
and words I can only assume are curse words. The man seems to be coming to when
we arrive but it doesn’t matter. Pauline fires him on the spot.
“I don’t
know where this stuff is coming from, or what it is. But if I even think you’re
getting high on my dime, your ass is fired,” Pauline shouts out and takes the
time to look everyone in the eyes.
Some of the
others tend to the man was Yushin gets the rest back to work. I follow Pauline
to her truck. We don’t say anything on the way back to the main house, but
something is on her mind.
“I can take
care of it,” I find myself saying it without thinking.
I don’t
know why, maybe my body and mind are craving something more. Life on ranch with
a few camping trips isn’t bad at all. But, it’s boring. Even before she
finished describing the situation around here, my mind was putting together and
operation. Find a dealer, track the drugs back to the distributor, handle them.
“Don’t get
caught,” is the only thing Pauline says.
I was
expecting her to stop me, or tell me to calm down but these aren’t my parents.
Pauline and Marty seem to throw caution to the wind if they think something is
for the greater good. But this is Nyame, a place where the laws of Sol just
barely overlap in some places. I can take care of this. I think I can.
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