Kate

by Dwight W. Hunter

Chapter19 - The RockPile

  During the afternoon Rita was alone in the condo when the phone went off with its usual chirping.

  "Good afternoon, Rita Blaine speaking."

  "Hello, Ms. Blaine, this is Gus at Junction Realty."

  "Yes, Gus, it's nice to hear from you. How may I be of service?"

  "I'm calling in regard to your interest concerning land northwest of town. An eighty-acre parcel has become available in that area. I have a proposal which may interest you. It involves joining a possible combination of interests to purchase two parcels of land, the small one in the northwest and another rather large acreage in a different location. If you still retain your interest and have the time, I would appreciate you dropping by the office where you can meet the other principal and hopefully arrive at a mutual understanding of value to all concerned."

  "Yes, I would be interested," Rita answered. "Do you have a time in mind for the meeting?

  "We are pretty much at your disposal."

  "I have nothing scheduled for the next couple of hours, if this afternoon would work for you.

  "It would be most convenient," Gus replied, with a shade of surprise in his voice. "I was ready to suggest this afternoon. Would forty-five minutes from now be agreeable with you?"

  "Forty-five minutes would do very well. I'll meet with you at your office." Rita agreed, staring at the phone she just hung up. "So, I get to enter the lions' den and meet the great and mighty 'Buck' all in one shot. My, my. How lucky can I get?"

  Forty minutes after ending her phone conversation with Gus, Rita parked her car in front of Junction Realty. Entering the office she saw a rather slim fairly tall man wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a western shirt sitting in front of Gus' desk. She made a quick appraisal and thought,

  "So this is the legendary Buck. He's not too bad except for a weather beaten face. I guess that goes with being outside most of his life doing whatever cowboys do." Both men stood as she entered the office.

  "Good afternoon, Ms. Blaine," Gus greeted her. "Please meet Buck Thorn, the other principal.

  "Mr. Thorn," Rita smiled, extending her hand. "By the way, I prefer being called Rita. This Ms. thing is a little much for me. It doesn't appeal to my old fashion sensibilities, nor have I been able to see the point in burning perfectly good bras."

  "It's my pleasure to meet you Ma'am," returned Buck accepting her hand.

  "It's Buck if you please. This mister stuff always makes me think whoever is calling me Mister has a hand rechin' for my pocket."

  "Well put, Buck," Rita agreed. "I agree with your sentiments completely, only in my case when a man is being sickly formal he's generally trying to get his hand someplace other than in my pocket."

  Rita's last comment caught both men off guard for a moment before they grasp the significance of her remark, causing a mirthful reaction. Soon all were enjoying a hearty laugh, breaking the initial tension of stranger meeting strangers.

  "I'd like to thank you for responding so quickly to our request, Rita," opened Gus. In the interest of saving time, I'll go the point of us being here."

  Unrolling a map on his desk, with the eighty-acre parcel boundaries shown in red, Gus pointed out the property's location. Next he outlined the sale conditions placed by the seller and how Buck was only concerned with the larger property." Gus pushed the map aside and talked about how the seller would not separate the two properties, forcing Buck to buy both properties to get one.

  "Rita if you would join in a joint purchase where you guarantee to purchase the smaller parcel it would give Buck more negotiating leeway." After Gus explained various option combinations available to them he leaned back and waited for Rita's comments.

  "Gus, if I understand you correctly. When one gets down to bedrock nitty-gritty, I have two basic options open to me." Rita summarized.

  One, I can let you negotiate a price on the two properties followed by me purchasing the smaller parcel at whatever price you were able to reach, hopefully lower than the current asking price. Or.

  Two, I could negotiate directly with the Land Investment Ltd. in parallel with you dealing on the larger parcel, this option allows me to purchase the rock pile at whatever price I can wear them down to accepting. I would further enter a good faith agreement to complete my negotiations within approximately two weeks or less so as not to interfere with your dealing on the larger property."

  "I think you have an accurate understanding of the situation. I appreciate your consideration for us by agreeing not to prolong your negotiations and later throw in the towel. With the eighty acres being peripheral to a bigger package involving rather delicate serial negotiations, we expect time to become a limiting factor. Without resorting to a bunch of legal mish mash, I will accept you are a credible business woman and act in good faith with you arriving at a 'go' or 'no go' position in two weeks or less."

  "Based on your last statement, I gather it's acceptable with you for me to negotiate independently with Land Investment Ltd. and reach a definitive position in two weeks or less. This will allow you to deal on the larger property. I will assure the seller I'm acting in concert with you to ensure Land Investment Ltd. will not be stuck with a bastard stepchild piece of land inhibited by reptiles."

  Rita paused to let Gus think over her conditions. While waiting for Gus to comment, Rita wondered how the two men were thinking. It became obvious from the 'get-go', Gus was the business man of the two because Buck failed to utter a word and wore a blank look on his face, indicating he likely didn't understand a large portion of the multi-syllable words used by Gus and herself.

  Buck was probably like most men of the soil, when it came to business negotiations he would probably think three or four times and speak once. Nellie described Buck as being quick on his feet and getting to the point using more actions than words. "I wonder if Buck will make a move on me today."

  "I believe the course of action you summarized will be acceptable to us." Gus nodded, bringing Rita back to the present. "If we work separately, but in concert it will make a much cleaner situation by not having to create so much legal paperwork. Incidentally if you haven't given the rock pile a looking over I'll be glad to take you out there."

  Thank you," Rita replied. "It'll not be necessary; I've already given the area a general looking over to get the lay of the land, to use an old clich?. In my opinion there isn't much difference between rocks, it's more a matter of how they're stacked. I appreciate and enjoy the quietness and privacy afforded by that section of the country.

  If everything works to our mutual satisfaction, I'll probably be living out there in the not too distant future. I'm surprised you gentlemen haven't recognized the potential the area has to offer." Standing up, Rita extended her hand to Buck and Gus. "You'll be hearing from me in a few days."

  "You're a friend of Nellie Bunmeyer, aren't you?" Buck asked, speaking for the first time. "If my memory serves me right I saw you at the VFW with her sometime ago."

  "Nellie and I are acquainted through a mutual friend," Rita replied. "Yes I do faintly remember the night. As I recall you and Nellie had some urgent business to discuss and left quite early. I trust the negotiations turned out satisfactory." Rita gave Buck a knowing smile with a raised eyebrow.

  "Ah, yes. As a mater of fact it did. Since we're sort of neighbors like, with you rentin' one of my condos, it would be my pleasure if you were to have lunch with me sometime soon."

  "Thanks for the invitation,' Rita smiled, taking a step toward the door, then paused an instant and turned back to face Buck. "It should be an enlightening experience, I've heard through the ladies' grapevine you claim to have a potion guaranteed to be a sure cure for the symptoms of menopause and its related follow on maladies."

  Rita left the office, got in her car and drove away, leaving Buck with his mouth agape and Gus with a confused inquiring look on his face.

  Driving home Rita thought over bits of the recent conversa
tion. "I thought the offer Gus made to personally show me the rock pile was a pretty sneaky maneuver, after Ted told him I had flown over the property. I suspect he's also wondering how come I was interested in that particular chunk of desert before he called me to day with the purpose of bringing me into the deal."

  Arriving home Rita noticed Sam's car was parked in a visitor's space.

  Thinking to herself, "it looks like the play is beginning to unfold. With Buck and Gus put to bed for a. .while we can move on to the fun stuff of getting houses built."

  Opening the door and letting herself in she found Julie and Sam sitting on the couch watching a movie on T.V.

  "Hi, you two," Rita greeted, "Sam, are you ready to do something constructive?" It looks like we'll soon be in a position to start moving dirt and building houses."

  Rita sat down at the breakfast table and Sam soon joined her.

  "Julie has been telling me a few tid-bits about you and Nellie cooking up a sting operation to burn some poor unsuspecting cowboy and you want me to help. It sounds to me like a pretty severe action."

  "You have it partly right. There is no need for you to worry about the sting part, since you will only be a background player anyway. Remember the time you were here and talked about designing houses to fit in among the rocks and rattlesnakes.

  As I recall the houses you had in mind would blend in with the environment and once completed will hardly be noticeable. If you're still inclined, I'm on the verge of having eighty acres of boulders, gullies, ridges, horny toad, rattlesnakes and cacti along with a few wondering coyotes waiting for your hand and genius to turn the aforementioned items into RockPile Estates."

  Sam sat stone still as if an unseen hand had silently substituted cement for sugar in his coffee and the resulting concrete suddenly hardened. After a moment without movement, Rita turned to Julie.

  "Looks to me like you need to throw some water on Sam, I think he's gone spastic or his joints have frozen, one or the other. He's stopped moving."

  At the same time Sam returned to the living.

  "No need for anything so drastic," Sam said looking around. Good God, Rita! You sure know how to shock a person. Here I sit all innocent like and without one speck of warning you come out of the blue with an opportunity I've been drooling to have for most of my life. No wonder I went into shock. Can you lay all that stuff on me again, only this time take it a little slower so I can suck it all in?"

  "Julie, I believe you need to bring Sam a tall glass of whatever he drinks to help relax him before I hit him with the full load. All of the required explaining may take some time."

  Armed with a cold beer in his hand Sam sat back to hear how his long hoped for dream was about to become a reality.

  After Rita completed her narration and made him an offer of becoming a partner in the new venture, Sam was still without words. For someone as talkative as Sam this was a rare moment.

  "Well, I'll be. This must be a new version of the same old dream and I'm still unsure about being fully awake," Sam ventured.

  After downing a few large gulps of beer, to mark time while he mentally digested the significance of Rita's offer and received positive reassurances from Rita and Julie he was back to operating in real time, Sam slowly regained his full in-the-now presence.

  "I gather this project is still something you want to do? Rita asked. "And when do you want to begin?"

  "I, I think right now is about long enough to wait," Sam stammered.

  "Sam, there's one important item I must warn you about before we go any further with this joint business undertaking," Rita said. If you begin neglecting Julie by devoting all your time to this project, I'll fire your ass with no recourse."

  Sam blinked a couple of time, looked at Julie, where he received a gentle nod and turned back to face Rita.

  "O.K., I'm in."