Chapter 37: Dealing with Adversity

Island Day 30 - 32

Blaine Murdock POV:

We were just notified, by Zeus, that Hugo, Lugo, Fredo and Otis were nearing our beach. We all had a quick ‘silent’ conversation about how we planned on dealing with them.

We knew why they were coming, but needed to figure out how much we were going to ‘show and tell’ them.

At this point, since they really didn’t pose a threat and we actually needed their help with our ongoing plans, we decided to tell and show them a lot. But, not everything ... just yet.

The way we did it was hilarious and shocked them to their very cores!

We had Tumrik and his crew come out riding their scooters and if that didn’t scare them enough, we introduced ‘Smokey’ to our Gromorik friends AND them.

We all had a good laugh, then, when Hugo told us they wanted to join us, Chen and Max suggested I make them a ‘Deal’ they couldn’t refuse!

I looked at the four of them, “It’s like this. With everything that’s gone down, forgive us, but, we don’t feel like we can trust you just yet.”

They all looked defeated, so I added, “But, if you guys are willing to do some work, we have a way you could gain our trust. Like we told you, Ibera has given us a whole shit-ton of cool stuff. But, that wasn’t until AFTER we proved we were willing to work together to make an honest life.

“And, we’ve all busted our asses! We will show you this massive garden we planted, so we could have some of the things we had on Earth that aren’t available here. We all worked very hard and even the girls worked, right beside us, every step of the way. We all discovered that by doing that, we became a much closer group, more like a Family, than just friends.

“Sooo, ... are you guys willing to do some hard work to earn our trust?”

Hugo looked at his buddies, then all four nodded. “Yes! We don’t mind hard work, it’s just ... we don’t know much about how to do stuff. Otis is the smartest of the four of us, and in some ways I think he’s smarter than Elmer, Lola or even Marcella. What do you want us to do?”

“Plant a garden! We have lots of seeds for things we haven’t planted yet, but, really want. If you guys would plant a large garden with the seeds we will give you, you could then trade those items for things we have that you don’t.” I told them.

“But, we’ve never grown anything before. Could you guys show us how to do it?”

I grinned, “Sure! Just that, we’re going to want you to do all the work. Mario has become our chief gardener and really knows his stuff. I’ll gladly send him with you as long as you promise not to try to make him do all the work. He and I have talked a lot about what things were like when he and his brothers were younger. You know what I’m talking about?”

Hugo frowned, but nodded, “Yes, we do. I can promise you, the four of us will protect Mario from Elmer so that shit doesn’t happen again. The only other question I have is, we don’t have anything like tools to work the garden with. Are we going to have to dig up the ground with our hands?”

I summoned Mario who popped in right next to me.

Hugo gasped, looking all around, “Where, where did he just come from?”

Mario was grinning when I said, “Our young friend won’t need too much protection, Hugo. When I said that Ibera gave us many special gifts, Mario is going to exhibit one of them right now. Mario, why don’t you pick up Lonnie and Lucy’s old boat and move it closer to the shore, please?”

They were all shocked as they watched Lonnie’s old boat levitate and move to within 15 feet of the shore. When they all stared at Mario, he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Chen asked, “Blaine, perhaps our four new helpers should see the kind of garden that we’re talking about? Why don’t you and I teleport the four of them over there while Stefano and Enrico start putting a couple toolkits together for them?”

I was still grinning at Mario as we each took two of our ‘helpers’ and we teleported to our garden. They all squawked, then gasped when the next thing they knew we were looking at our garden.

With eyes like pie plates, Otis gasped, “Holy shit! You guys want us to plant a garden... this big?”

I chuckled, “No, nothing this big. What you’re looking at is several weeks’ worth of work that nearly all 20 of us helped with. The one we want you guys to plant only needs to be maybe 100 paces by 50 paces. We just wanted you to see this so that you would know that we’re not asking you to do anything we haven’t already done. Do you guys see any vegetables or anything that you’d like some of, to take back with you?”

That had all four of them looking around much more closely at our garden. Otis was the first to notice the tomatoes.

“Wow, these are the nicest looking tomatoes I’ve ever seen! Are those carrots over there?” He said pointing at our long row of carrots.

Mario was grinning as he walked over and pulled one up, then handed it to Otis. It was nearly a foot long and the second Otis saw the stream nearby, raced over to wash it off. He looked to be in heaven as he took a bite then handed it to his buddies. They were all reveling in the sweet taste when Fredo asked if we had any potatoes. Mario nodded, then said that we had some already dug up that we’d gladly include in the ‘care package’ we planned on sending with them.

By now the four of them were very interested, asking if they could also plant some of these in their garden.

Who would’ve thought that vegetables could make these guys so happy?

Mario chuckled, “You’ll have to make your garden a little bigger, then, because the things we want are gonna take most of the room in that hundred by 50 paced garden we told you about. But, we will gladly give you enough seeds to plant anything else that you want!”

Otis chuckled, “That’s cool! I can’t tell you just how good that carrot tasted and I can only imagine what the tomatoes, string beans and potatoes will taste like when they get ripe. Thank you for showing us this, guys. Now we completely understand how this deal will work. Just out of curiosity, what types of vegetables do you want us to plant?”

I grinned, “We want you to plant some watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon, along with some strawberries, cucumbers, onions and radishes. We just found the seeds for those and haven’t planted any of them yet.”

“Can we pick some of the melons and stuff for us to?” Hugo asked.

“Of course. Just remember, the stuff we want you to plant you will use to trade with us for other things that you want. Let’s take your hands again so we can teleport back to the beach and fill you in on a few other things.”

They weren’t nearly as nervous now and took our hands willingly as we ported back to the beach. We purposely kept them away from our campsite’s so they wouldn’t see all the other cool stuff we had, like the buildings. We didn’t think we’d be able to ever get them one, so, it made no sense showing them ours.

We showed them the two toolkits our guys had prepared for them.

Knowing they had next to nothing, we included some fishing gear, including two sets of masks, snorkels, fins and spears.

That made them very excited, then, when they asked about their empty bottles ... we ALL got a surprise!

Hugo asked, tongue in cheek, if I’d figured out how to make scotch whiskey or beer yet. I said, “Unfortunately, not. Since the hops wasn’t quite ready to harvest and I didn’t have any barrels to age any kind of whiskey in yet.”

Then, Tumrik barked a deep chuckle before asking, “Would any of your bottles have anything left in them?”

Hugo frowned, “Probably not more than a few drops. Elmer went through his 9 unbroken bottles like Grant took Richmond! And we all rinsed out our beer bottles so they wouldn’t stink like a biker bar’s dumpster.”

I chuckled, because poor Tumrik had NO idea what he meant.

After a confused look he said, “Well, while a full bottle would be better, we can replicate anything from even a tiny amount. It may not be exactly what the original was, but, it’ll be close?”

Fredo started fidgeting, then pulled a full bottle of his ‘Old Style’ out of his cargo shorts’ big pocket. “You mean, like this?”

Tumrik grinned, “Yes! We can replicate THAT exactly, especially because it’s still unopened.”

Fredo got some hearty backslaps before Otis chortled, “And here I was going to get mad because you held out on us! Did that guy just say he could replay, repro, no, er ... copy that exactly?”

When Tumrik nodded I asked, “Will you need a sample every time, or just once?”

“Just one time. Once it’s in our system, we’ll give it a name and then we can replicate as many as you want, anytime you want it.”

By the way our four big ‘probationers’ were smiling, I all but knew they’d never attempt to double-cross us now.

I’d already gotten the feeling they were serious, so, this just iced it.

While Tumrik went back to his ship to replicate some beer and hopefully, JWB, our four new guys really opened up about their true feelings for what they wanted to see happen in the future.

And if that was really us on those anti-grav scooters that scared the crap out of them. We confessed and laughed at how Lonnie flipped one of them off.

They also asked what other kinds of ‘jobs’ we had in mind for them.

Chen hinted about possibly being bouncers or enforcers for some our future enterprises on the mainland and they seemed very enthused at that idea. They admitted they were getting bored just fishing and working around camp all day.

It was funny that they didn’t even ask about getting powers or even telepathy.

When they were told about getting Lonnie’s old boat they were overcome with joy. They couldn’t believe we were going to just ‘give’ it to them. They confessed to not knowing how to sail and Lonnie told them it only worked if the wind was blowing in the direction they wanted to go. He did then show them how to raise and lower the sail. They paid close attention and asked some good questions. Chen said it was our way of showing them that we held no hard feelings and really wanted to find ways to trust them again.

I thought they were going to break our arms they were shaking our hands so excitedly. They even gave Chen, Max and me big ole bear-hugs!

When Tumrik and Juules returned with a big box filled with 24 bottles of Old Style and two bottles of JWB they couldn’t believe it.

Hugo asked, “Do we have to give the JWB to Elmer?”

Chen chuckled, “Absolutely not. Everything we’re giving you is yours to do with what you want. If you feel you need to use the JWB to make Elmer more pliable to not standing in your way, that’s entirely up to you. Understand something. We believe it may be possible for Elmer to join us at some point, especially if he ends up helping you plant your garden. That being said, there’s no way in hell we will ever be able to trust Lola or Marcella.”

Otis gave us a lopsided grin, “You got that right! Do you realize those two bitches wanted to come over here with us? At first they had us convinced they wanted to establish a better relationship with you guys. Then, two seconds later, they said that the first chance we got we should kill as many of you as we could so we could steal all your stuff! There’s no way in hell any of us can ever trust those two again. I don’t think they’re ever going to get over this stupid vendetta they have against everyone who didn’t try to help Guido. Maybe we should just kill them?”

Chen grinned, but shook his head, “We thought about doing that, ourselves, however, I have a better idea...”

Darren James POV:

When JB arrived back at home, he seemed nervous and fidgety.

I was going to take the next two-day shift monitoring the prisoners and wondered what had happened.

He said he needed to have a private talk with Linda before he told me anything. We had been planning to have Chinese take-out for dinner, so Linda suggested that he ride along with her and they could talk on the way.

We called in our order, then the two of them left, shortly after that.

Sarah asked me if I had any idea what that was all about?

I told her I had no idea, but it must’ve been important since he wanted to do that before he would say anything about what transpired over the last two days. I knew that the prisoners were shown some anti-gravity scooters and were anxious to hopefully try them out. But, I had no idea of the particulars or even how many they actually had. Everything else on the island seemed like it was settling into a routine, which was why Brad had suggested we take turns monitoring them, so we could each have some extra time off.

Greg was due to return in less than two weeks and the whole family was getting excited to welcome him back. Jamie admitted to being nervous about it, not knowing how to break it to him about everything that happened since he’d been gone.

The poor guy was bound to be overwhelmed with all the shit that had happened. Most of it bad. He had no idea that his, Eddie’s and Bill’s houses had all been destroyed and that we were now all relocated to Arizona. Nevermind how messed up he was going to be when we have to tell him about Bob, Mary and little CJ being abducted by Gromoriks and that Charlie just flat disappeared, to who the hell knows when.

Bill and Emmy had teleported themselves and their kids back to Emmy’s parent’s house in Glencoe, Illinois, now that things here had settled down. They were planning to come back the day after Christmas, to stay with us permanently.

Construction had already begun on the nearly 2000 feet of underground utilities that had to be run up to the house from the main road. Our contractor had set up a construction trailer on the south side of where the proposed building would be built. Our trailers, being on the north side, were far enough away we would hardly even know they were there.

Sarah and I were standing outside, waiting for Linda and JB to come back, when I noticed one of the underground construction guys firing up his Harley to go home. I watched him take a towel he had on the seat, off, and put it in his saddlebag before climbing on.

I chuckled before it dawned on me that sitting out in the sun all day probably made the seat pretty freaking hot! It also dawned on me that this was the perfect place to make a motorcycle your main ride. It only rained about 15 days a year, so getting stuck riding in the rain wouldn’t happen very often.

I’d ridden a lot of bikes, but, always wished I had a Harley. Living in northern Illinois for most of my life, however, made having a Harley a luxury that I wouldn’t get to use much. Living here, I could justify having one since I could ride it virtually year-round.

I mentioned that to Sarah and she gave me a cute giggle, “I’ll bet you didn’t know that I have my own Harley, did you Darren?”

I was flabbergasted, “My little Sarah has her own Harley? You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

She was still smirking and nodding her head, “I sure do, would you like to see it? Bob gave it to me when he, Charlie and Greg all got brand-new Electra Glides from their dads for wedding presents. I told them how much I wished I had one, then Bob told me he had a tricked out 1200 Sportster. I couldn’t believe it when he just gave it to me! It even had the lowered seat, so my feet would touch the ground. I couldn’t really ride their big bikes because of my short legs. Bob’s Sportster was like it was made just for me! It’s sitting in the barn, along with all three of their Harleys, our two ATVs and the three Honda 350 road/trail bikes. Our bikes were the only things we were able to salvage from our garage, after our house blew up. Lenny and a couple of the parents ‘popped’ them out here for us a little while ago while you guys were working.”

I remembered them asking if JB and I could help teleport them here, but we never got around to it. We walked down to the barn and sure enough, there they were, all lined up with Sarah’s sweet looking Sportster on the end. They had some dust on them, but they were beauties. I promised I would get them washed off and said we needed to get some covers for them.

Sarah grinned, “So, do you want to go for a ride sometime? I don’t think Charlie would mind if you wanted to take his out for a spin.”

I shook my head, “I wouldn’t feel right riding Charlie’s, since I’ve never ridden a bike that big before! I said I always dreamed of having a Harley, not that I’ve ever ridden one. Heck, your Sportster has nearly twice the motor that I had on my old 650 Honda.”

Sarah giggled, “Charlie said the same thing the day he got his. But that didn’t stop him from firing it up and riding around the block a couple times. You just have to remember how heavy it is, and know that if you lay it down it’s going to take two people or your PK to get it back up again. If you’re still nervous, I’ll let you ride my Sportster around until you get used to it?”

“Actually, I’d be more than happy with a Sportster! I don’t know if I can afford an Electra glide.”

Sarah gave me a weird look and a half giggle, “What if I just buy you one? It’s not like I can’t afford it.”

“That’s an awfully expensive gift, don’t you think? I know you must have some money, but I don’t know how I’d feel about getting such an expensive gift?”

“Darren, sweetheart, you really don’t have any idea just how much money the family has, do you?”

I shook my head, “Not really ... I know you have to be well-off just to be able to build this massive house, but, I figured you’d probably be taking out a mortgage for it?”

Now she was really shaking her head and laughing, “Do you see that big metal gun safe over there?” She said pointing at this huge gun safe, “Don’t tell anyone, but there is over $5 million in it. And that’s just our pocket money! And we’re not going to have a mortgage on our house, because we already have $30 million in escrow just sitting in the bank.”

“Holy shit! Just how much money do you have?”

She put her finger in front of her lips, “Come on, I think I just heard Linda and JB drive up with dinner. I’ll tell you the whole story after we get done eating, okay?”