AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 31
“Hi Mr Mayor,” I began, then was interrupted.
“Come in Mr Roberts, Mick, you head on out.”
Mick looked at me, and I shrugged. Mick couldn’t get far with the booze, the most would be a bottle or two until he passed out. I was sure we’d be done in time to find it and get it delivered.
He went back to his rig, and drove off back to his house, and I went in.
The house was small, but well furnished. It had the typical painted plywood walls I’d come to expect of the local architecture, and the requisite tin roof. He gestured into a chair, and I sat, as he did, facing me.
“Hi, I’m Koby.”
“Anthony,” he said, with an accent that said England instead of what I thought of as Aussie or Kiwi mixed with islander for everybody else I’d met. The internet said he was the first non native Mayor.
“So I’m hoping you’ll help me out, I want a place here for when I want to just get away from it all, and hide out from the world. I’d really like it if I had some land to call my own, and am willing to pay for it,” I said, activating my negotiating skill.
“What can you give the island?”
“Access to supplies, shipped overnight, from America.”
“And how would that work?”
“We set a limit, probably by volume. We set the number of times you get that volume in a month, and you use it as you need it. If I’m not available to send it, then you’ll have to wait, but I’ll make it a priority.”
“What kind of volume can you deliver?”
“The wooden chest on the back of Mick’s cart is the volume I was thinking of. Mick said yesterday you guys would like some booze, so I filled it with booze.”
He held up a finger, and pushed some buttons on his phone, and stepped out of the house. I waited patiently, hearing Mick’s cart come back. There was a bang as they carried the chest into his house, setting it on the floor.
Anthony stared at the open chest looking at the collection of bottles for a bit, “Did you know that this used to be illegal here.”
“No, but I thought it would be best to let the government control distribution, didn’t want to step on any toes.”
“How do I know this isn’t some trick?”
“Like my new shirt? Told him yesterday that’s what I wanted if he could get it, got me six of them, all brand new,” Mick volunteered.
Anthony pulled a bottle out of the chest, popped open the top, and took a swig, wiping his sleeve across his face, he said, “Well, that’s whiskey.”
“I had to have my guys get an assortment. I’ve got another two chests, one with cheese in it, and an ice chest with fifty nice big steaks for todays potluck. Old lady came by yesterday, said she wished she had some cheese.”
“Patty’s been talking all about the American coming in off the submarine,” Mick volunteered.
“Ah, she didn’t actually tell me her name.” I said.
He nodded at me, “Mick, I’ll see you at the potluck, but give Mr Roberts a hand with his other chests, I’ll send him over to get you when we are done here.”
“Yes, Sir,” Mick said, a big grin on his face.
“How much land do you want, and how anonymous do you want to be?”
“I’d love two dozen acres, on the north end of the island, on the mountain preferably. I’m fine with being on the rock, I can dig into it to make planting beds. As for anonymous, feel free to call me the crazy american, or any other nickname, I just don’t want any official record of when I’m here, and I want the fence around my property respected.”
“Ok, that’s doable, it’s the fertile spots where you can have a garden that are marked off for future residences, about a third of an American acre each home. Once you have a residence, then the property becomes yours. I’ll give you five acres on the north mountain ridge, up past the green stairs. They need repair, and I’d rather pull them out then continue to risk a tourist falling off the trail.”
“Make it twenty, but make it steep. I’ll be leveling the north face of the mountain out a bit, putting terraces in. I’d also love to put in a helipad for the island, maybe get a Jayhawk or something similar out here, there are other islands you know.”
“What we really need is a floating cargo dock.”
“If things work out, I’ll see what I can do to improve things.”
He pulled out a rather large topographical map, and we figured out the borders of my new piece of land. We negotiated a rectangular block, starting just north of the green stairs, six hundred feet wide, and stretching north one thousand feet. Not quite 13 acres, but a rather unusable bit of rocky valley facing the sea. Nicely, it included the new steps I’d already carved down to the water.
“Now I’m setting aside much more land than I wanted to, but it’s pretty unusable, so I’m going to want six chests like that a month, plus an emergency chest any time as needed, three times a year.”
“I was hoping for four, but I’ll take six, but with the three emergency chests, hold those in reserve, if you don’t use them, I’ll fill them at the end of every year for the new years party.”
He held out his hand, “Welcome to the island Koby, now I’ve got to get Willy to pull out his grill so we can get the steaks cooking.”
With a smile on my face, I headed back outside, and walked down the street to Mick’s. He was waiting, sitting in his cart, and he drove us back, where we loaded up the two chests, one of cheese, one of milks, which also had a few extra bottles of booze stuffed in it, and I held the big styrofoam ice chest with the steaks.
Anthony took the chests, the cheese and the steaks, and gave me directions. I hitched a ride back to the green steps, and walked out over my new property. It was fantastic, if a bit windy. With the northern view, I’d always have sunshine when it was available, being in the south pacific. With the property extending over the ridge line, I’d have a view of the sunrise, and the sunset, with no neighbors but the sea birds. Also, I could now legally fish all I wanted.
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