AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 40
When I arrived at the tunnel construction site, I found the whole town there. They were going up and down the stairs, talking about it, and exploring the beach. Patty was going on loudly about how wonderful it was, because she hadn’t been able to climb down to the beach for years.
“Hi Crazy American!” Mick greeted me as I pulled up on my ATV.
“Hi Mick!” I greeted him back, just as enthusiastically.
He turned to the people he was with, “When he first came in I asked him his skills, he said smuggling, and rock carving among other things.”
Several people came up to me, and wanted to shake my hand and say thank you. I let them, the points were rolling in with all the positive interaction and smiles on their faces. It seemed to be working out to nearly a million positive points per resident. There was one unbalanced guy, so I grabbed the extra negative points to go with it, 14 million.
The now balanced guy stopped looking so unfriendly, and started smiling and enjoying himself. I made the guess that being unbalanced really affects your mood.
I went down the tunnel, and others followed. When I got to the bottom the Mayor was there, and led a round of cheers for me.
“Thank you everybody. I just wanted to contribute to this beautiful island. I hope everyone likes the new tunnel staircase. I know being a good neighbor is just the first step to being a good friend!”
The cheers continued, so I raised a hand, “I also wanted to be sure that everyone knows that I brought extra supplies and they are for everyone, so dig in and get what you need and want, just try to take fairly so everyone has an equal chance.”
They cheered again, and Anthony stepped up, “I haven’t released the newest batch of supplies, but I will do so tomorrow, so plan on coming by the general store to pick up what you want.”
More cheers rocked the beach. I tried to get a count, but people kept moving around. My skill that gave me a name wasn’t too much help, because everyone but Anthony seemed to have only one of three last names. I got more hand shakes, and a couple of hugs from the older ladies.
I excused myself and headed up the stairs where a group was examining the obsidian section of the tunnel.
“What do you think, do we need to put something over the obsidian so it isn’t slippery?”
“Nah, Crazy, it’s fine. Lots safer than the old path.”
“How far back does the obsidian go?”
“I think it will go back more than a mile, deep into the heart of the mountain.”
“Can you carve back into there?”
“Sure, Anthony was thinking it would make an awesome boutique hotel, or be even big enough for a meeting or party space. Maybe even an underground cathedral.”
One of the guys shivered, “I’m not a big fan of being underground, the only reason I can handle this tunnel is the stiff breeze blowing thru it. Even so, I think I’ll head down the rest of the way.”
“Well, my carving energy is mostly used up, but I did want to talk to the local architect lady about putting a roof over the entrance up there.”
“I’ll go get her, she’s on the beach.”
“You know the other beach is better,” one of them offered.
“What beach is that?” I asked, “I thought this was the only beach.”
“The beach in the sea cave.”
“Right, Anthony mentioned a cave.”
“A tunnel down to there would be amazing. Especially if it let light in, because the sand is very nice, but it’s very dark. You also can only get there by boat at low tide.”
“My next project is getting the roof over the obsidian tunnel, and then getting the crops planted on my lot over at the corner.”
“Yeah I saw all the trailers parked, that all your stuff?”
“Well the fuel trucks are for island use, and the materials are supposed to go to building a new house on the property there, and a garage up on the north side where I have the ravine.”
A middle aged lady came up the steps to shake my hand, “Anthony says you need help designing and getting a house built.”
“That’s right, are you Angie?”
“I am, are you free to check out the property right now?”
I looked around at the tunnel examiners, and decided I’d rather go all the way up now, then down again and up later. I headed up with her, and we walked the 250 feet down the road to the property.
I stopped to look it over, but she kept walking.
“This is the property,” I told her.
“No, yours is the parcel around the corner,” she said.
Surprised, we walked past the property, and around the corner heading south down the hill. We got past the cleared area, and my parked trailers, and I could see an old scrubby palm tree row, creating a dividing line.
“This is your property. I’ll get Dan to use the blade on the digger on Monday to clear it.”
“How far back does it go?”
“It’s 2 acres.”
“Why so much?”
“Anthony said you were going to do some farming, This is actually a lot set aside for farming. That corner spot is slated for more cocoa trees.”
“What about coffee?”
“Those are up on the hill, they do better with the drainage, plus they need lots of room around each shrub. Not really a cash crop, as it’s all for island use. Each shrub only makes a pound of coffee each year.”
“Do cocoa trees grow closer together?” I asked.
“No, even further apart, but you get more from each tree. Just takes forever to get them to maturity.”
“How much more do you get from a cocoa tree?”
“Instead of a pound of coffee you can get 25 pounds of chocolate. Much bigger yield, and something tourists will be willing to buy extra of to take home.”
We walked down the road, until we got past the area that had been cleared previously.
“This is where I suggest you build. With tourists not using the Down Rope anymore, the coast road is going to be less traveled.”
“The coast road?”
“Haven’t you gotten a tour of the island yet?”
“Just from the air,” I joked.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.