Chapter 10: Glenda

~~ August - Week 31 ~~

The day after Allan told her of the new arrivals, Glenda went to the transporter.

She found the maps in the system for how to get to Jahnville and even the papers were Allan had jotted down the coordinates for the new town where the other humans were now living. She connected to the satellite locator and looked for a signal.

She found there was one and she was able to update the maps from it onto an old pad. She was then able to type in the coordinates to the new town. Now all she had to do was find the money and an airship, which would take her to Jahnville. She was going home.

When she got back to the house, Allan was there. She was surprised, as he rarely visited two days in a row. He followed her in and made her sit at the kitchen table. He took her hands in his and quietly informed her that Ferris had been killed in an accident at the mine.

Glenda had broken down and cried hysterically. Now how was she to get out of here? She didn’t have the money. She had planned to steal some crystals to pay for her way out of this cursed town of tiny people. Now she was left with no money coming in and two kids to look after. She had come so close to getting away, and bloody Ferris stuffed it up for her.

Allan called a doctor and got her sedated. She was kept sedated for several days. She also refused to feed her youngest son. He was nearly two, and Allen thought he should have been weaned by now anyway. He didn’t realise she had kept feeding the kid, so she had milk for him.

Glenda got mastitis from not expressing her milk. The nanny had to express it for her until she stopped lactating. Allan visited her every couple of days, as he was concerned about her. He may not love her, but she had been his mistress and his friend for a long time.

After the funeral, he handed her a purse of money to help her out until she had the kid she was carrying. He told her he would be going to Queland for a couple of weeks and was leaving in a day or two. He would visit her when he got back.

Glenda had got the Nanny to find out how much it would cost her to hire an airship for two weeks. The money Allan had given her was just enough to hire the ship, but she still had to pay for provisions. Plus, she still had to get to Ogilhinn in Queland first. She had discovered airships didn’t go to Jahnville from here, but some of the Captains in Ogilhinn would go there for a fee.

Angry that Ferris had left her in this predicament she started emptying the cupboards of his clothes and possessions to throw out or sell. When she threw his shoes out of the bottom of the closet, she realised the bottom of the cupboard has a false floor.

She removed it and found a metal box the size of a shoebox, and she opened it. To her amazement, it was filled with de Ray crystals. It contained a small fortune. She quickly closed the box and pulled out Ferris old jumpsuit. She had to use the laser cutter in his workshop to cut off one of the legs. She wrapped the box in the material.

Then she placed it in a bigger crate that she found. She threw a heap of photos, books and other items of Ferris’s in on top and labelled the box Memorabilia. Allan had developed a scanner, which could be used at the seaports and airship ports to detect the crystals if people tried to smuggle them out of the country. But she knew the shielding in the suit would deflect the scanner.

The money Allen had given her would get her to Queland and feed her and the kids. The crystals would get her to where she wanted to go. Glenda asked Gretta the nanny if she wanted to go on holiday to Queland with her. She explained she needed to get away for a while.

Gretta agreed to come and even booked their passage on the ship, leaving the next day. Glenda didn’t tell the others she was going in case they tried to stop her. She had to wait until Allen had left and then packed up the few possessions she needed.

As she suspected, customs searched her box of possessions. When they found the box of memorabilia and asked what was in it. She explained that they were keepsakes she could not leave behind. She needed some of her husband’s things with her. The officer didn’t probe any harder as he knew who she was. Plus, she and husband often went to Dinas at this time of the year.

He gave her his condolences and wished her well on her holiday. It took them four days to get to Dinas the closest city to them in Queland. Many of the passengers knew who she was as well and left her alone with her supposed grief. Glenda was more worried that Allan would still be in Dinas when she got there. She was relieved to find on arrival that his ship had left the day before.

She rented a room in the hotel that she usually stayed in when she came with Ferris. The place was high-class for Utopia. It boasted of its high ceilings and grand furniture. Glenda had thought this was the main reason they stayed there. They did give excellent service, and the hotel had its own vault. Glenda now suspected this was the real reason the cheap bastard she had married, truly stayed there.

She had purchased a set of small scales before she had left and told customs that it was for weighing the baby’s food as he was on a special diet. She made sure they used them on the flight in case anyone had overheard her.

She had Gretta go buy her ten small leather purses. She told her not to buy them all at the same place but to shop around. They had to be good quality leather. When she got the purses, she took them, the scales and the box of crystals into a cupboard in her room.

With a carefully shielded light, she weighed out 50g of crystals into each bag. She still has two-thirds of the crystals left. She sealed the leftover crystals up again. When she had gone through Ferris things, she found a diary containing a list of people, whom he sold the crystals too. It explained their twice-yearly trips to Dinas. She even knew the weights he sold and the prices.

They were due to come again in a few weeks. This time she would be just a bit early and without Ferris. She had also found out when she read his diary, that the money he got for the sales was spent on gambling and his whores, which is why she had never seen any of it. It also explained where all the money the Queen had given them had gone. Glenda was pissed, and if he had still been alive, he wouldn’t have been for long.

Glenda wrote five notes to the five names and addresses she had. She explained that Ferris had an accident and had sent her to do the deals, as he was incapacitated. She gave each a different time to meet her in the restaurant downstairs. She found the table she had chosen and made herself comfortable.

Her first customer turned up on time. He was pleasant enough until it came to the money. He told her that he would pay half the price Ferris usually got for them. She laughed at him and smiled. She said to him that she had many other buys. If he didn’t like her price, he was welcome to purchase them elsewhere. They both knew the likelihood of that happening.

He bitched moaned and tried to haggle, but Glenda just looked at him until he gave up. Finally, he handed the money over. When Glenda placed the scales on the table and poured the money into them, he got very distraught.

She removed the smaller denominations, but the scales indicated he was still about twenty dollars short. She simply sat there until he topped up the pile on the scales until it was correct. Finally, she handed over the two pouches of crystals. She also placed the pistol on the table.

Ferris had warned her on previous visits that there were some unsavoury people in this city. And to be careful whom she trusted. She now appreciated his warning. The buyer got her message, and he left. Glenda put the coins away.

The scales she put back on the floor and the pistol back in her lap. She then ordered tea while she waited for her next customer. She didn’t get any grief from her next customer.

She asked if he knew of anyone else who might be interested. He told her that he would take twice what she was offering if she had them. She asked him if he had the money now of if he needed to get it? He informed her he could purchase one extra now, so she sold it to him.

Her next two customers could only afford the two bags. The last customer was one Ferris had indicated in his diary, that he was his best customer but that you had to watch him. She told him she only had one bag at present but had more. How much product was he interested in?

He told her he would happily take another five hundred if she had it. She agreed to meet him here in the morning. Once he had left, she immediately took the money to be put in the hotel safe and got a receipt. She went out and purchased twelve more purses. This time she put a hundred grams in eight of the purses, and fifty grams in three of them.

Glenda still had about eighty grams leftover. She put the last of the crystals in a bag. She wrapped it in the cloth and put it back in the smaller box with the rest of the keepsakes. The rest of the purses she put in the nappy bag.

She got a visitor that night. She had placed a chair to the side of the door, so the intruder wouldn’t see her until he entered the room. She made herself comfortable and waited. She woke when the laser sensor went off. She had rigged up a sensor to an alarm that let out a high, piercing noise.