AZOTUSLAND Chapter Eighty-Eight

When Maugham got back to Azotus it was nearly 11. He called up to Martine to come meet him down in Silo 1 and he plugged in and received 37 emails. 23 of them were spam for fake Rolex watches, a couple more were badly translated Spams like these two of pharmaceuticals:

Greetings,
As a worthy purchaser we grant you as occasions offer with information and much renews. Notations inform us you may want to have some explanations. We apologize and hope you will take a jaundiced view at medicaments we sell. Again, let us introduce our drugs as attractive prices which may be urgent and all needed.
We also offer you impeccable customer care. Please, visit our web site at:

Maugham just shook his head and laughed. Then this one:

Hello,
We acknowledge you for being our customer. Thus, we put wise you of information and renovates between whiles. On the basis of our records it seems probable that you'd like to see a refill. We make a thousand and one excuses for troubling you.
Our products at low cost are ready-for-service and our highly qualified staff will giveback support to you.
It is great opportunity to save money and time. Please browse the URL listed below to see our speciaI offer:

Then Maug turned more serious as Martine entered the room and he saw not one but seven emails from Alabaster.

They were blistering and filled with rage and accusations. Maugham would have almost felt bad if he did not have pictures of he being banged less than 12 hours ago by a guy in room 702. Manfred came through looking for something.

"Why are you limping?" Maugham asked.

"Oh indeed I have banged my toe under a box with a great weightedness," Manfred exclaimed.

"Manfred, come over here will ya pal?"

Manfred had never been called "Pal" by Maugham. Usually he called him "Bakshi" and Manfred would laugh. It was their inside joke.

When he came over Maugham showed him the screen and asked him to read it.

"ohhhh," Manfred cooed. "at the hearts of such a womenz is a soul long dead."

"And what would you say Bakshi to such a womenz?"

"Goodbyes and many good thank yoouz," Manfred said quietly.

"Thank you Manfred."

Jim walked in at that point, came over and gave Martine a light hug and whispered "thanks for loaning him to me." Maugham told Jim all that had happened and all that had not.

"Er, can I see the pictures?" Jim said chuckling.

"Yes, and the envelope and hopefully fingerprints will be delivered on Tuesday to the detective." Maugham said. "Then I plan on seeing her for the finale in Atlanta next weekend if all goes well and she is sufficiently blinded."

"Blinded by what?" Martine asked.

"Blinded by anger, lust and her own vanity," Maugham said flatly.

"Oh, that whole thing," Martine said.

Maugham uoloaded the images from the camera.

"Ooo, that's a good one," Jim said.

"Yeah," Maugham countered. "He knocked her head against that headboard a good 8 times. He was relentless."

"Any idea who he was or is?"

"Not a clue. Probably just another victim."

"Tell me about the other letters."

"They are a mix," Maugham said. "Some are blaming and shaming and audacious. Others are reconciliatory. One was a poem. I'd say she scorched the earth and left no stone unturned."

"What will be your reply?"

"I like Bakshi's bead," Maugham said.

"A short good bye after she gets another entreaty from Hot' Lanta."

"Hot Lanta?" Martine piped in.

Jim and Maugham exchanged glances. "Allman Brothers," Jim said.

"Oh is this like The Stooges, The Godfather and baseball?"

"Sure is honey," Maugham said. Then Jim kissed her on the top of her head. "We can't help it."

Maugham crafted two letters meant to slingshot Candice to Atlanta the following weekend. When done he re-routed them to their start locations and asked for specific times for them to be sent in the morning. The one from Atlanta would go first and reiterate interest. The other would follow from the West Coast and be a terse denial then block her emails entirely and say nothing of any consequence in response.

Jim thanked Maugham for the excellent work and asked about the oysters from Puget Sound.

"Not as good as here," Maugham said.

************

Jim went back to Silo three and went to make up Matisse's bed, but it was already done. Sabine worried him sometimes because she was so harsh, but she was an excellent mother. Without her the child would have grown up scattered and utterly unsure, as Jim himself had. So it was good. It made Jim happy that she had her own room and place now. As for Jim, he had taken to sleeping in the big bed alone and accepting it. He heard the soft trickle of the water into the trough as he switched off the light and drifted off to sleep.

***********

Monday mornings were a big deal at Azotus as several of the more important shipments came in that day and stock has to be rotated. Long ramps up the Western backside of the complex and the back lot had to be traversed to stock for much of the week ahead. Of course, pastries came daily, but Jim had also insisted on having forms of protein. To this end Manfred became somewhat of a fry cook in the Big Room and he began to add a dizzying array of fresh spices, ingredients and condiments to he small plated creations. You could order a simple cheese omelet for three dollars, or a "Manfred Special" for five. Jim had insisted that every Manfred Special would yield Manfred himself $1.25. The rest would cover costs for additional items and eggs were cheap so he was already doing fine profit wise.

Manfred, on the other hand, as his fame grew, started to rake in with wages, nearly $24 an hour in the mornings. Between that, and free room and board, Manfred was quite content and started to "plays the stock markets!" with extra reserves.

That Monday evening Jim invited Ian, Dirk and Roo out to dinner at a posh Moroccan restaurant in San Francisco. Ian remembered the place well. When he had been Matisse's age Jim had brought him along with some clients to dine Middle Eastern style. One of the clients, a man larger than Jim by 3 inches (6'7") with a large beard had sat next to Jim and when the belly dancer came out and saw the two behemoths, she winked and soon enticed them up to dance in front of all with her.

Chakah-shing chakah-shing, chakah-shing went the bells as she swayed her hips and the two of them followed her like out-of-scale mutant lemmings and the patrons clapped and Jim caught Ian's young eyes that burned into him as if to say "You are no longer my father."

"Yeah I remember Papi," Ian said, and rolled his eyes.

As they brought out the soup and the bread Jim began to unfold his plan to the three of them. He wanted Roo, if willing, to actually move to Boston and find aplace for Azotus there. Or [erhaps not move yet, but go out and stay with friends and scout it out for a week or two. She could take her partner if she wanted and Jim would cover all expenses for both.

He wanted Dirk to start taking two days off a week and traveling to the City to scout out locations there. Jim would cover all mileage and his meals and he wanted him to enjoy the search and spend some time networking with people there.

Ian would be the first Azotus to open. Jim already had a bead on a location in Capitola with a small apartment overhead. It was perfect and Ian was pretty stoked.

"Who can I take with me?" he asked.

"The apartment could house...creatively three." Jim said "So take Thomas and Ben. They have to work long hours but they will have wage, free room and at least 1 day or two off a week."

Ian was happy. Then he turned serious.

"Dad," he said, "An Azotus in Santa Cruz will be different than here."

"That's right son," Jim said. "It's self-defining yet also directed. Have you decidied what your first presentation will be this month here?"

"I wanna show Big Fish," he said "at an Azotus Movie Night and then I wanna do a small presentation of archetypical dream models in the Library."

"Sounds good."