Chapter 218

I awoke the next morning at 5AM and rode the bike out of the drive and across the plank that was over the trench just to allow the bike across. I rode the two hours and felt better for it. I was sitting in Hardee's with a biscuit and coffee when my phone rang. I had a pretty good idea who would call me so early in the morning.

"It raining here this morning, but very warm springtime is upon us," the man's voice said with just hint of a Latino accent.

"Sounds nice, it's still chilly here in the mornings," I said.

"So, I hear you are making a change," he said.

"It's a very large change, not a small change," I said. "I'm sure the priest told you."

"Oh yes he did. He also said you might be going into politics," he suggested.

"Well I'm opening a trading company first, but I might dabble a little one day," I said.

"Well I do hope you do. We could always use a friend in politics," he said.

"Sorry, but we aren't friends now, and we aren't going to be friends, if that happens. You won't be treated any worse than anyone else, but no better either. Just the same as everyone else." I said.

"Have you thought that position through?" he asked.

"I have and I hope you think your position through as well. I don't know what, if any arrangement you currently have here, but if I were to win, all you get from me is a fair deal. Just like the local gas station. First do no wrong and we will get along fine," I said.

"That's not what I hoped for, but we will have to wait and see," the voice said.

"That's true. We will have to wait and see," I suggested.

"You do know it's hard to keep anything secret in a campaign," he tried one last time to convince me.

"Well do what you have to do, but you might want to remember, I might win. I admit it isn't likely, I do have a skeleton or two in the closet, but you just never know, when it comes to an election where mountain people vote," I informed him.

When he broke the connection, I felt like I needed a shower more than ever. The camera revealed nothing, so I took off for home. I decided if I did run and were to lose, I was going to move the gate about ten to twenty feet onto my property, I would also have to post notices that the field on either side of it was mined. That should stop people from trying to drive around the gate. I had no intention of doing it for real, just of posting the signs. What I would do was to line the drive with well hidden spike strips. Not as deadly a solution, but maybe a distant second to the land mines. I know I was beginning to really get paranoid but I had enemies.

I rode the bike home and rode it up to the empty still house. It had a heck of a lot of space inside it at the moment. I could put the inventory of the trading company in it. If the inventory wasn't to valuable. I couldn't see putting guns in the storage box.

What I needed to do was to go out and buy things with my ill gotten gains. I also had at least ten gallons of the Green Dragon in my dry well. Some of it was the last batch I had brewed for the Colonel. That stuff was either going to be a kick ass batch, or just the same as the others. I couldn't measure the THC level, so it was purely a guess, but I hoped it was a higher level. I left the alcohol proof at one hundred and twenty.

I thought about it and knew I couldn't keep really bad ass stuff in the dry well. I couldn't for instance keep guns and knives in one, but I could keep thing that were unlikely to interest thieves. There were probably things I would come into contact with that I couldn't even imagine at that moment.

I went to the house and sat around trying to decide what I could possibly do to occupy myself now that I wasn't cooking all day. I really hadn't realized how much of my life revolved around cooking liquor, till I stopped.

I rode the tricycle into town. It wasn't all that far, but it took about twice as long on the trike than it did in the cruiser but I didn't mind. What else did I have to do with the time. I was back to being retired and it sucked. I thought about buy some aluminum and silver wire and going back into making jewelry. That morning the best I could do was sit in the pub and bitch,

"Like someone once said to me, find something you want to do and get on with it," Jeremy said. "It doesn't even matter, if you are really good at it, or not."

"Damn that makes good sense," I said. "I want to start a trading company, make jewelry, and run for Sheriff."

"Well that's a hell of a list. Why don't you go into business with Jeremy?" The Brit asked.

Jeremy was sitting on a stool behind the bar where The Brit stood. "It really would be a nice tie in, hand made jewelry and my art work. You could have a couple of display cases for your estate jewelry and other items. We could work out a fair rent."

"Jeremy sweetie, I know I can trust you, but Allen will try to have me paying all the rent, if I let him." I said with a laugh.

"Well don't let him," he said.

"Tell you what let me think about it over the weekend," I said.

"My God Sylvia, it's only Wednesday," The Brit said.

"Alright, now you have told me that, I might need a little longer," I said with a laugh.

"We could run the shop part together and be in our studio or out buying stuff separately, or together," Jeremy suggested.