by Reed, N. C.
“It’s going to be hard to make change for a silver dollar, you know,” Leanne mentioned, frowning. “You’re looking at basing everything on dollars and that’s going to get expensive in a hurry. Inflation is already going to be difficult.”
“Inflation?” Clay grunted. “All I’m trying to do here is start-,”
“-start over,” Leanne cut him off, something she rarely did. “You’re going to reintroduce a specie-based economy into one that has, for going on two years now, been barter based. First of all, it will be difficult to get precious metal coins into the hands of those not part of the farm. Secondly, those without will just have another reason to hate ‘those Sanders’, and you’ll have trouble with people committing violent crime to steal from others. You’ll have goods no one can ‘afford’,” she used air quotes for the word, “and precious little money in circulation. It’s asking for every economic ill we had before the Storm to come roaring back.”
“So, we can’t do it,” Clay sighed.
“I never said that,” Leanne and Leon spoke in unison.
“Let us work on it,” Leon told his uncle. “We’ll try and come up with something. Besides, who are we going to trade with?”
“Yeah,” Clay nodded slowly.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“What’s the occasion?” Gordy asked as he noticed Leon working to ready Deuce’s Place for ‘business’.
“If I got my calendar right, then it’s Saint Patrick’s Day,” Leon informed his cousin. “More or less,” he shrugged after a pause. “Anyway, we got plenty of reasons to celebrate.”
“Makes sense,” Gordy nodded. “Need any help?”
“Sure! You want to set those chairs up for me?” he pointed to some folding chairs. “Also, make sure the monitors and the games are up and working, please? That’s about it, really. The rest is just getting all this ready back here,” he motioned to where he served drinks and cooked hamburgers and beef hotdogs.
“I can do that,” Gordy promised and got to work.
“So, what have you been doing?” Gordy asked after a minute. “I haven’t actually got to talk to you guys much, lately.”
“Well, you’re an uncommonly busy and important individual, Little Boss,” Leon grinned at his cousin. Gordy shook his head with a wry grin on his face.
“Seriously, though, the big thing Leanne and I have been working on of late is trying to establish a real economy, one based on specie I mean. Uncle Clay wants to open a bank, even. We’re trying to figure a way to make that work when the smallest denomination we have at the moment is a silver dollar. We’re thinking about sandcasting coins of our own, but we’re not sure just yet if they would work out.”
“Wait,” Gordy stopped, looking around at his cousin. “We’d have a real bank? How would that work?”
“Good question,” Leon admitted. “So far that’s about all we’ve got is a bunch of good questions. But unless we figure out a way to get around the whole lack of coinage thing, I don’t know that we’ll get much further. And to be honest, the barter system seems to be working okay for now. I think we’re a little way off from needing a bank and money, but Clay really wants it done, so Leanne and I are working on it.”
“Hm,” Gordy nodded and returned to work. He needed to talk to Sam.
-
“A bank, huh?” Sam shifted in her seat as she surveyed the land beneath Tower One. She lowered her glasses and looked at Gordy. “I will really be glad when Heath gets released to work,” she made a fake grimace. “That ladder is getting old.”
“Doing great things for your legs, though,” Gordy winked playfully as he pointed to her short’s clad legs. Sam blushed a full red immediately, but grinned, pleased by the compliment.
“Well, aren’t you just a charmer this afternoon,” she laughed. “Though I accept your comment in the spirit with which it was given, and thank you kind sir,” she bowed slightly. “Ya jerk,” she added with a giggle.
“You do look good, Sam,” Gordy promised.
“Thanks,” she bit her lower lip slightly for a second. “Anyway, about this bank.”
“Well, I remembered you have a lot of what you called junk silver,” Gordy shrugged. “Mostly quarters and dimes, I think?” She nodded.
“Then you might want to talk to Clay or at least to the twins,” Gordy went on. “You might get in on the bottom floor of the next big thing around here.”
“It does sound like a good opportunity, assuming it works,” Sam nodded thoughtfully. “And I don’t have to invest all of it, anyway,” she added, mind still exploring the possibilities. “It sounds like I’m the only one with the smaller denominations in silver, so that would make my help more valuable, right?”
“Oh, I think you and the twins are going to be haggling for a while,” Gordy chuckled. “I can’t wait to see this.”
-
“Sixty percent!” Leon goggled at Sam. “Have you been in Doctor Thatcher’s drug plants?!”
“It’s a good return on my investment, that’s all,” Sam worked to stifle a grin. She had no intention of demanding such a ridiculous sum but twisting the twins was a favorite pastime of many.
“Good return,” Leanne snorted. “More like highway robbery. And while I admit that having a supply of smaller silver coins would make the bank idea more viable, we can manage without them.”
“Oh?” Sam asked, eyebrow raised. “By melting down your larger silver coins, I guess? Making a mold to cast smaller coins?”
“That’s right,” Leon nodded once, firmly. “We already tried it, and it worked just fine.”
Sam knew that wasn’t the entire truth, as each time they cast a new coin it destroyed their mold. At that rate, they would need to cast two at the time just to pay for the molds.
“I wouldn’t say needing to rebuild a mold after each cast is ‘just fine’, Leon,” Sam countered. “Fine. Fifty percent, then.”
“Not a chance,” Leanne refused immediately. “Not short of Uncle Clay demanding that we accept,” she looked to where Clay sat in the corner, grinning at the exchange. He immediately held up his hands.
“Don’t drag me into this,” he ordered. “I’m just watching the show.”
“Same here,” Gordy chuckled, drawing a mock glare from Sam and a nasty little snicker from a highly amused Lainie.
“Then no,” Leanne said flatly.
“Wow,” Sam shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe the two of you would begrudge someone the chance to make just a little, itty-bitty return on her money.” It was all she could do at this point to keep a straight face.
“Itty-bitty?” Leanne all but screeched. “Five percent might qualify as itty-bitty! Ten would be more than reasonable! At best, at best it should be matching funds for percentages. Leon and I may not have any silver or gold of our own, but it’s our labor that will make this work or not!”
“All right, fine,” Sam decided to draw things to a close. “Because it’s you two, and because we’re practically family, I’ll settle, and this is robbery mind you, I’ll settle for three percent and a working share based on what I put into the depository.”
“That’s still too…wait. What?” Leon frowned as his brain caught up with his mouth.
“God, you two are so easy to wind up,” Sam laughed so hard she was holding her stomach. “You’re so smart that you’re ridiculously easy to fool!”
Clay remembered Leon the Elder saying the same thing once, when they had ‘tricked’ the twins into helping them. It made him smile to see someone else doing the same thing, since it wasn’t hurting them at all.
“Well, that…that’s fine, then,” Leanne tried not to stammer. “Whatever,” she added, feigning disdain of the entire idea.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” Lainie snickered again. “She got you two good, and all in good fun. Go ahead and admit it. You do need her help, after all, and she did agree to your terms. More or less,” she added with a grin.
“That is true,” Leon sighed. “Still
not cool, though,” he muttered with a fake glare in Sam’s direction.
“It’s hilarious,” Gordy laughed at his cousins. “Man, you two suckers got played!”
-
“Paid?” Titus Terry looked at Gordy. “Like, money paid. Real money, you mean.”
“I mean,” Gordy nodded. “Don’t count on it just yet, mind you, but it’s being worked on. We may have a store and a bank before long. Give people a chance to make money on their side gigs and stuff. Don’t know exactly how that’s going to work, but then I’m not in on the planning, so that won’t matter.”
“Paid,” Titus mused. “And a store? Really? What could a store possibly have?”
“People are making stuff, man,” Gordy shrugged. “Gram and some of the others are making cloth and thread, though I admit it’s a slow go. Some are making leather gloves and coats and what have you. Knitting socks and underwear, too. Guns, knives and what have you that we’ve taken from people who attacked us. I mean, if it works, it could be awesome.”
“Sounds like it,” Titus nodded slowly. “Imagine being able to go on a real date, even. Get a chance to be a big spender,” he laughed.
“Ain’t it the truth?”
-
“I’m not trying to rain on your parade, Cowboy,” Lainie laughed softly. “I’m just saying that this bank thing may not be the smooth operation you think it will. Nor the store, either. I hope it will, mind you, because that would mean things getting back to normal even if only here. But you’re talking about rebuilding an economy on your own. A micro economy at that, with no support from outside other than goods you might take in trade. It’s a big change from how it’s been since the Storm.”
“That is true, but the longer we wait to try and get back to normal, the harder it will be to get it done,” Clay replied. “We need to shake people lose from being entirely dependent on the farm. Everyone needs a job or a business of their own in order to create at some semblance of a normal economy. Once upon a time, small towns were almost isolated, just like we are now. While it wasn’t easy, they usually made things work. If we’re careful, we can make it work, too.”
“You’re going to have some people complain about ‘fair shares’,” she warned. “You know that. Right?”
“I expect it, yes,” Clay nodded. “But we have taken care of people all this time with a bare minimum in return. The farm will pay for labor, starting with planting season this year. We’ll also pay those who are working daily with the cattle, hogs and horses. People like Terri and Dee, for instance, and Charley Wilmeth and Gail Knight. They’re working with Dad almost every day.”
“Plus, we’ll be paying everyone on the security detail. A lot of them do that almost full time as it is, plus work on at least one other job. Most of them do more than the rest, and I’ll reward them for it.”
“Just asking for problems, right there,” Lainie sighed. “People will be demanding to get the same pay as someone who works all the time and screeching about how unfair it is when they don’t get it.”
“They’ll just have to screech,” Clay shrugged. “This is how it’s going to be.”
“Remember that I told you,” Lainie snorted. “And good luck with that. Really.”
-
It was two weeks before Lainie and the twins along with input from a few others had managed to get just the idea of a bank and store straight enough to finally begin planning the operations of said institutions. Planning that was constantly and consistently met with problems and roadblocks, all of which needed to be planned around. Worse, word had traveled like a wildfire through the farm population about the project and the plans, leaving people not already assigned to one of the ‘good’ jobs scrambling to get their name in the hat.
Two of those people caught Clay completely flatfooted as he had forgotten them altogether, including the operation they oversaw.
“What about us?” Tammy Denmark asked as Callie Weston nodded from behind her.
“Uh, what about you?” Clay asked, confused. “I’m going to need more to go on than that,” he clarified. “What are you asking about again?”
“About jobs,” Tammy stated. “We’re kind of tied in where we are at the moment because of how we came to be here, remember? Are we going to be able to apply for and compete for these ‘jobs’ everyone is talking about?”
“Uh, don’t you already have jobs?” Clay asked, still not seeing the problem.
“Are we going to get paid for the orphanage, then?” Callie asked. “We were basically doing it in return for not being sent away, remember?”
“Oh,” Clay finally realized the problem. “Well, no, you’re not going to be sent away, for one thing. Both of you have worked hard and haven’t caused a problem of any kind. Far as I’m concerned, you’re as much a part of the community here as anyone else. As to jobs, we’ll most likely keep the same crew operating the orphanage that we have now. You two, Lila Webb and Trudy Leighton. And yes, of course you’ll be paid. I’m sorry I didn’t realize what you were asking about. I mean, you two do want to stay there, right?” he asked almost as an afterthought, realizing this was something else he’d just taken for granted.
“I mean, well, yeah, of course,” the two women talked over one another in their rush to agree. “We just wanted to see if we could work for pay, like some of the others. We’d like to be able to earn a living, such as it is.”
“Well, you’ll be on the payroll at the orphanage,” Clay assured them. “We haven’t set down any kind of pay scale yet, but when we do someone will let you know. Are you two sure you want to continue there? Once this gets started you may be locked into that position for a while. For you to be able to leave, we’d have to find someone willing to replace you. That may not be a given, you know?”
“I’m sure,” Callie replied at once. “Honestly, I don’t think it’d be good for the children for all of us to up and leave, either. They’ve become accustomed to us as their caregivers, and I honestly don’t know how they’d respond to all new people.”
“True,” Tammy was nodding, frowning in thought. “I hadn’t really considered that, either.”
“Well, neither had I, to be honest,” Clay agreed. “So, that’s just another reason for you two to stay, and be paid. Now, like I said, I don’t know what any of the pay scales are going to be yet, so if it’s not what you expect, please don’t be disappointed. We’re having to do this from the ground up and we’re bound to hit some rough spots. Please be patient.”
“Will our job still include room and board?” Callie asked, clearly trying to calculate her needs and that of her own child.
“Of course,” Clay nodded. “And we’ll still try and rotate you out of there at least one day a week to work outside, like in the gardens. And give you a day off, too. Might not be every week,” he warned. “I can’t remember the last day off I had where I wasn’t sick,” he chuckled.
“People in the old days didn’t get a day off at all,” Tammy shrugged. “We’ll make do, I promise.”
“I never doubted it,” Clay smiled. “And thanks.”
-
“I did warn you,” Lainie told him over lunch.
“To be fair, they weren’t complaining, or demanding,” Clay pointed out to her. “They were concerned and not a little nervous. Scared may not even be too strong a word. Now they’re reassured and have gone right back to work.”
“Not everyone will be that easy, Cowboy,” Lainie shook her head. “As a former manager and business owner, I’m telling you what I know.”
“You were a business manager, weren’t you,” Clay murmured, a statement rather than a question. “Even had an Associate’s in Business Management, right?”
“Yes,” Lainie drew the word out, wary. She didn’t like his tone. “Why?”
“Just happened to think of it,” he shrugged. “That’s all.”
-
Darrell Goodrum wasn’t the same disagreeable man he’d been before Xavier had ‘counseled’ with hi
m, but that didn’t mean he was all sunshine and puppies, either.
“How am I supposed to make a living, then?” He had walked up without fanfare or pleasantries and launched right into his concern.
“By blacksmithing?” Clay sounded like he was guessing.
“For who?” Darrell demanded.
“Well, me for one,” Clay reminded him. “I got a ton of horses that are going to always need shoes. Pretty soon we’ll probably start building wagons and they’ll need stuff made. For that matter, you should look into building wagons if you know how. As fuel gets harder to come by and vehicles finally quit running, everyone will be needing wagons to move stuff.”
Darrell reacted as if he’d been slapped. He clearly hadn’t thought of that.
“Damn, Clay,” he almost murmured. “I…I never thought of that. Or about the shoeing, either. And you’ll pay me for that?”
“Of course,” Clay nodded. “Mind you, I hope you’re reasonable, since I have a whole bunch of horses, but yeah. No one else here can do it that I know of. Maybe Charley, I guess, but that’s just a guess. I’ve never asked her. Anyway, I expect you’ll be one of the busiest people on the ranch outside of the people farming and caring for the livestock. I don’t know of another blacksmith or farrier anywhere around.”
“I’m sorry,” the bigger man took a deep breath. “I just kind of panicked. I’ve been trying so hard to be a better husband and father and suddenly I didn’t know how I was going to take care of them.”
“Well, I get that,” Clay nodded. “But you know, housing and food are still going to be available to everyone, Darrell. At least everyone that works or is willing to work. No one is going to have to start buying food. They will have to put in hours in the gardens like last year, but that’s everyone. Including all of us on security and doing farm work. Those gardens feed us. They’re important.”
“No problem,” Darrell promised. “Thanks again, Clayton.”
“You’re welcome.”
-
“Quick thinking, Cowboy,” Lainie chuckled as Clay relayed the story to her. “And, maybe, hopefully, I was wrong. I really do hope I am. I’d love to see all this go smoothly.”
