AZOTUSLAND Chapter Sixty-Seven

Later that day Alice and Fred came by. When Jim brought them into Silo 1 Maugham barked "Not now!" as he pasted more information on the wall. Silo 1 had become a War Room.

Nothing needed to happen to Silo 2, so Jim took them to Silo 3 and explained the modifications that he wanted to the room. Fred took notes while Alice walked around looking at someone else's waterworks.

"Not bad Jim," she said. "And you said you didn;t have any money."

"I didn't when I finished," Jim said. "But I'm better now. I have only 42,000 allocated for both projects...Fred's and yours."

Fred came over and said "Well upstairs is a no brainer as stuff just needs to be stripped out. I mean, behind the one curtain you have a small kitchen set with plumbing already. I can have Jonathan do most of the work and you just pay him." Fred smiled. "As for in here, yeah...the main cost is the support beam across the two load bearing walls. Alice here can give me a deal on a stone slab to be a bridge for your little girl."

With that Alice looked up at him like "give him a deal?"

"So I come in at around $13,000 for labor and materials and it will take just a few days.

"That leaves $29,000 for me," Alice grinned.

"Almost," Jim said. Then he took them into Silo 1 past Maugham and down the tunnel to near the elevator.

"Fred, how much to wall off the dirt over there and seal the floor?"

"Well you have good support beams and it's only a few feet high. Do you want to level out the area once the dirt is contained?"

"Yes, and then I want you to cut a small door, of maybe 5 feet tall into this wall," Jim said.

"Note sure that will up to code."

"It's for storage only" Jim winked.

"Gotcha."

Alice looked at Jim with a keen eye.

"So what are we looking at now?"

Fred thought about it and said "$20,000 if Maugham has no needs."

Alice was less pleased. "Okay, so that gives me $22,000. Can we go look at the grounds now?"

"Sure...ah Fred?"

"Sure," said Fred.

***********

The next morning Ward was steaming mochas and lattes while Jim readied himself to do interviews. He would do first interviews up in the cafe and make them quick. Those who passed would get a more formal interview scheduled through Hans.

Hans was quite pleased when a new desk was delivered and phone system installed in the Gallery. He looked around at the paintings he loved so much and at the dark red/brown painted and "distressed" floor and how ordered his new desk was and he smiled. "Perfuckt."

That morning a retired history professor was giving a small lecture in the Library on Modernism and Jim had suggested, indirectly, that Ted might want to attend. He did. He also was still considering Jim's unusual offer. It didn't make sense to him, but he was intrigued.

Sex sat over at a table by the window with Templar who was telling her a story about his last trip to Jamaica. Rand got up after awhile and went over to sit with Maurice and see how he was doing.

Andy's plants continued to thrive and grow around the grounds at a remarkable rate.

Mrs. Furnst, one of the volunteer gardeners, was out around the long lean flower bed picking out snails. "Little fuckers" she said as she tossed them not sweetly down the hillside.

*********

Jim sat at a table by the wall and went over his questions. The first interviewee was a thin blond-haired man named Tim who was a bit hyper for Jim who felt there were enough "characters" around. He wanted settledness and an ability to be with people that exceeded his own.

The second person he interviewed was a tall dark-haired woman named Rachel. She was unusual right from the start. She had a calm way with people, but was also not hard or cynical. She had vast expereince as a major Sales Representaive for a pharmacuetical company.

"Why get out of your line of work?" he asked point blank.

"I do not like where I see them going," she said calmly. Then she laughed. "It's not all that serious...but that's the truth."

"Why would you consider this job at 80% of what you are paid now and many more hours?"

"I'm intrigued by your pholosophy," she said. "And I am just considering. I won't leave the other unless this is really right for me."

"It's all about you," Jim said off hand.

"Why of course sweetie," she said, the disarming way people do who work all day long with people.

Jim liked that. He noted it. Second interview.

*********

Ked Woman had, of course, heard about Jacob and it had deeply disturbed her. She put a call into Jim that Sunday night and they had talked on the phone. Jim listened and made sure to tell her how much Jacob had meant to them both and how much he cherished her.

"Can I come and just sleep next to you sometime this week?"

"Yes, of course. I would love that and it would do me good as well," he said. "I am making changes Delphia, and that opens things up. Why don't you come late tonight and I'll make you a quiet breakfast in the morning?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Okay...but downstairs. Um....just meet me at 10:30 upstairs."

"What if I don't"

"Then you don't. I'll wait till 10:45 then you won't find me."

"Won't find you?"

"I'm getting slipperier all the time," Jim joked.

"Oh baby, I'll find you," They both laughed and rang off.

***********

Out on the grounds Alice's mind was raking the landscape with imagination.

"NO, no no..." she kept saying. It was near noon and Jim looked at Fred who nodded back. Jim left and came back with two beers. Alice didn't drink. Jim looked at Fred and he looked back like "Well, we do."