Outliers 15B Sam
It’s now going into winter. Sam was in the basement of his home. The Shelves he had bartered for were full and he was pleased to see that he would have no trouble making it through this winter. His last two were miserable. His brother had asked him to leave after four years of very little success at doing anything. He wasn’t cut out to be a security guy and no one needed a graphic art designer, well not any more. So he tried his hand at farming and only got blisters. Which was better than the burns he got at the foundry. After that, he tried to be a handyman. That lasted less than two weeks. But now his basement was full of food and some tools. He figured he could spend this winter cleaning up the place around his house and start a garden in the spring. Maybe even paint the place. They still had pallets of paint at the commons and it would be free. But first he needed some help. Someone that had a mind for how to fix up a place and make it a home.
Sam started up the stairs and grabbed a box of jars to make a jam sandwich. He needed to make a fire before it got too cold this evening. He secured the door and went outside. The wood box was almost empty. He would need to barter for some wood next. Seasoned wood was like gold this time of year. He picked up what he had and headed back inside. Placed the wood in the stove and lit it. It sparked to life and in no time his kettle was whistling. He made some tea and then went to the couch. He had his favorite blanket there. Rarely did he sleep in the bedroom this time a year, it was just too cold and the little stove barely kept this room warm. Sam sat down and lamented that this life sucked. No power, no computers, phones or any real electronics. He had to hand write his reports and then go to the commons to transpose them on the few computers they had there. It took so much time and was the most boring part of this job. But the council wanted their records.
Sam thought, Damn that council. Especially, that Alan Scott. What a pompous jackass. He made sure his family was comfortable. They have a house and a cabin. They also have power, a radio and a computer. What makes them so damn special? Being the head Elder, I guess? Sam thought about all the special privileges that Alan and his family had, and was making sure that in the future, his family would get the same. Yes, he was going to make sure they didn’t live like this much longer. He had already made this year ten times better than the last few. If he kept up this pace he would be in a place that would be the envy of his neighbors. Then he could get a wife and family. Then someone would notice who he was. Maybe, if he played his cards right, he could even get Alan’s cushy job. Sam Eli Smith, head elder. That had a ring to it. Sam sipped his tea and snuggled into this blanket.
Sam was up early the next day and left the house. It was cold and he didn’t want to take the time to warm it up, so he got dressed quickly and headed to the commons. It was early and there were just a few people in the common spaces. They had some hot tea, water and a fruit juice available, but Breakfast was still not ready. The place was warm and there were fires started in both fireplaces. Sam got some hot tea and headed to a table near one of the wood stoves. He got out his inspections list and started to draw up a schedule. There were two new structures going up and three small electrical jobs. That would be about a full day with more time to transpose the notes to his files. He looked at the names on his list so he could figure out the travel time. That’s when he saw Dee Smith. The only other person in Graham with the same name as his, but she was a black woman that was at least a foot taller than he was. Looks like she was doing an expansion on one of her barns. Her brother was the contractor. They were doing well by what people say and one of her employees was the best butcher in the area. He could probably kill two birds with one stone. He can inspect the project and the butcher’s shop. Her farm was almost six miles out towards Elks Plain. That was a bit of a ride. As soon as he had breakfast he would go get his wagon and head that way. There would be plenty of violations out there that he would be able to spend all morning looking at. He just had to keep his eyes open for what he might be able to get from Dee or that butcher, I think his name was Billy. He needed to stop by the office and get the Health record and blank reports to add to the building report he had. This could be a very profitable day or at least the start of one.
After breakfast Sam walked over to the stable, but the horse was not out of the stable yet and he had to wait almost thirty minutes before someone could help him. He didn’t get his normal horse because they needed it to pull some heavy loads. He got an older one that didn’t like to go very fast. He slapped the rear end a few times with the reins but the horse didn’t go any faster. This old nag just had one speed, slow. Sam just sat back and gave into his plight. It would be almost an hour or more before he reached Dee’s farm. Before he rounded the corner he could hear hammering. They sure started early.
Before he went through the gate to the farm he was greeted by a pack of dogs. All of them were barking and letting the house know that someone was approaching. Sam then heard a long whistle and the dogs stopped barking and all but two ran back to the barn. The last two stayed with the wagon. They were brown and big. Not sure what breed but it wasn’t something that he wanted to mess with. Sam kept the horse moving forward and they reached the barn in just a few minutes. Sam saw the construction sight and there were five guys working on propping up a wall. While two were holding it up three other men were nailing supports to keep it there while the next wall was connected. This was a very normal process and all the men had gloves and hard hats. He had heard that Brad was a stickler to safety, but it was nice to see it.
Dee saw Sam and started to approach him. She took off her gloves as she approached, she didn't’ have a hardhat on though. She called out, “Can I help you?” in her heavy Jamaican accent.
Sam got down and announced who he was, “I’m Sam Smith, the inspector.”
“Oh, why are you here?” Dee asked.
“Just wanted to see the size of the project and make sure it was going according to the plan that was filed.” Sam said.
“What Plan?” Dee asked.
Paul walked up behind Dee, “The plan I submitted.”
Sam asked, “And you are?”
“I”m Paul Smith. Owner and forman of this job.” Paul said.
“I’m Sam.”
Paul cut him off, “I know who you are, why are you here?”
“Well. I need to inspect the project.” Sam said, not sure why Paul was already defensive.
“I submitted that plan as a courtesy so that when we get annexed into the town, that it would be on record, nothing more. You have no jurisdiction out here. We are outside the protected zone.
Sam looked at the map Alan had given him. Dee’s property was on it, but like Paul said, there was a red line about a mile back that indicated the end of the protected zone. However, there was a blue line that showed that Dee’s farm was going to be inside the zone very soon. She had done a lot of work on the farm in the last two years and it was important to Graham and so they were planning to bring it in sooner than later. “I know, but you will be in soon and we need to extend all of our services. Like mine.”
Paul shook his head, “Sounds good, but that hasn’t happened, so get back in your carriage and leave.”
Dee looked at Paul with a questioning look.
Paul gave an almost unnoticed shake of his head “NO.”
Dee backed off. This was her farm, but her brother knew things she didn’t and she trusted him, even though just two years ago he fired her. Which was best for both of them.
Sam stood his ground, “I’m going to inspect this site sooner or later.”
Paul looked at Dee.
Dee Shook her head Yes. “We knew this day was coming and that’s why we’re expanding.”
“I’m here to see Billy as well. The butcher.” Sam stated.
“He’s not here today. He and Jessup had a job on a farm farther out.” Dee said.
“That’s okay, I can look over their operation without them.” Sam said.
Paul silently shook his head “No, again.”
Dee Stepped up to Sam, “Not without him present, sorry.”
Sam cursed under his breath. He was going to have to look for a different angle with these two. And Pual really didn’t like him and he had never met him before. That could mean only one thing. Others were talking. And that would make his job more difficult. He was going to have to imply that if they talked things might get a little harder to pass inspections. As for now, Paul was right, he had no authority, but he was going to get his claws in here soon. “If you let me in today, it will make it easier later.” Sam said with a smooth voice.
Dee looked at Paul, “We just barely started, what trouble could there be?”
Paul shook his head no, but his face said he would go with what she wanted.
Dee looked at Sam, “Make it fast, we are losing sunlight.”
Sam jumped down from the wagon and grabbed his bag. He was pulling out one of the inspection forms as he walked up to the site. Paul stepped in front of him, “Hat, gloves and glasses.”
Sam went back to the cart and got his safety stuff. If he was going to be a stickler, then he was going to have to play his part. Once on the site there wasn’t much to write up. It was clean, organized and everyone was working safely. By the time Sam got onto the work area the workers had another section of wall up and were about to pull up another one. They braced everything well. Sam looked and looked. There wasn’t anything to write up. He needed something, even if it was small. Then he noticed one of the workers putting up joist hangers. He was tacking them in with two screws and then two nails. But there were three holes on each side, which meant that Paul’s men were not filling every hole. He wrote that down and pulled a red tag from his bag.
Paul was watching and instantly headed in his direction, “What?”
“Your joist hangers, need to have every hole filled.” Sam stated.
“No they don’t, matter of fact you end up splinting the header if you do.” Paul stated.
“The engineers that made these gave them a rating based on the number of fasteners that attach them to the header. So every hole will be filled or I’m going to redtag this project and that will still be there when you get annexed.”
“Fine. We will fill every hole.” Paul just wanted Sam off the site.
“I’ll be back for the final.” Sam said.
“I’m looking forward to it.” Paul shot back.
Just then a large wagon with two horses drawing it came down the drive. There were two people sitting on the bench. The wagon made a lot of noise as it approached. Sam was hoping that this was Billy the Butcher. That was a fun name for him. The wagon moved slowly and Sam had to wait till it drove up. He noticed that one of the men had a missing leg. But that didn’t stop him from jumping down to unhitching the horses. He loosen the first one and then gave it a slap. The horse walked off. The one legged man then started to work his way around to the other horse. Sam didn’t know what happened to the second man. He jumped down and was gone. The one legged man had jumped around and was unhitching the second horse. Then, like the first, he slapped it and it took off. That’s when Sam saw the stable door open and both horses walked to it. The second man met the horses and took off their harness that they used to pull the wagon. Each horse bowed its head to allow the harness to slip right off. The bridal was next. The horse then proceeded into the stable. The second horse did the same and then the door closed. The one legged man had gone back to the front of the wagon and pulled down a set of crutches and started to make his way to the pole building that he parked the wagon at. It was wide open and had a screened off area towards the back. There was a large number of flies that seemed to like the screen. This caught Sam’s attention. He watched as the one legged man started manipulating a wheel. From the side of the building an “I” beam started to protrude from the pole building. By the time the one legged man was done with the wheel, the second man, came out of the stable and headed to the back of the wagon. He Took a line out of the wagon and connected it to the beam and hoisted the bundle up and out of the wagon. He then gave it a push and it slid along the beam and under the pole building. He repeated this process three more times. The one legged man then pushed the bundles around a corner and into the first screened area. He closed this up and hopped over to a hose and washed the bundles down. Sam was close enough now to see that each bundle was actually a side of beef or lamb or something that had some size to it. The two legged man saw Sam coming and asked, “Can we help you.”
Sam was still looking at the meat hanging, “Yeah. I’m Sam Smith. The inspector.”
The one legged man looked at Sam and asked, “Inspector for what?”
“Well, just about everything.” Sam admitted.
“Can this wait, we have about ten minutes and this place is going to be swarming with flies and maybe a few wasps. Oh, And I’m Jessup. That’s Billy” Jessup said.
Billy waved as he started spraying down the meat.
Sam just watched. He really didn’t have much of a clue how the process was done outside of a clean room. But these two did have a system and they were right, Sam was swatting at flies within minutes. He decided it would be better to wait outside of the danger zone. The two men worked quickly and had the meat in the next chamber where it would be aged. The screens in this section were very tight and double layered. Nothing was getting through that. The two men met at the center of the screens and talked for a minute, then the darker one, Jessup came out and walked over to Sam. “Sorry about that. How can we help you?”
“Well, I need to see your operation and..Well inspect the product.” Sam stated.
“Do you know how to butcher an animal?” Jessup looked at Billy, “Better yet, have you ever butchered an animal?”
Sam caught Jessup’s drift and said, “You don’t need to know exactly how to do everything, you just need to know how not to do it.”
Jessup wasn’t going to let this go in the wrong direction so he said, “Listen we have been working on this process for a better part of a year. Our meat is hung, drained and packaged within two days, which is the proper aging, without refrigerations. And as you can see our process keeps the insects out. It’s not a 100%, but if the maggots love it, then it’s still good. What doesn’t get to refrigeration by the second day, gets cut into strips and goes to the smokers. They're not here, but on another farm. The rest goes to the food grinders at the commons. What our customers do with the rest of the meat is entirely up to them.”
“What do you mean, the rest of the meat?” Sam asked.
“Well that’s only a quarter of the cow. That’s our price for killing and cutting.” Jessup said.
“That sounds steep.” Sam said.
“You’ve never killed and processed a cow? It’s far from easy and we have that wagon as our tool just for that purpose. It’s fast and humane.” Jessup explained. “We just don’t do fowl, they're nasty.” Jessup could tell Sam was fishing for something. He wanted to talk to Dee, but he didn’t want Sam to nose around, that just seemed like a bad idea. “Let me show you our mig-shift refrigeration, it’s better than you think and it gets the meat down to about 4 degrees.”
“4 degrees?” Sam asked.
“Celisus.” Jessup said.
“Oh. yeah.” Sam was thinking Fahrenheit.
Jessup put out his arm so as to direct Sam to the cool storage. They went to the north side of the stables and then to a door that led to an underground room. He opened the door and the room was remarkably cool. Inside there were rolls of packaged meat.
Sam looked at Jessup, “How is this cooled?”
“Oh Alan rigged up this alcohol thing that we change out about every twelve hours. It’s so easy and only takes a few minutes.” Jessup explained.
“Oh of course, Alan.” Sam said.
“Oh yeah. If it weren’t for Alan and Mike, this whole thing wouldn’t be possible. They helped us get this.. I mean all of this, up and running. Dee, the farm, our business. Damn the whole thing.” Jussup explained.
“And how much meat is stored here and for how long?” Sam asked unimpressed.
“Everything is dated, and only gets to set for five days. From there it has to be cooked or sent to the freezers at the commons. But we rarely let it set that long.”
“Who controls how much is done?” Sam asked.
“What do you mean?” Jessup asked.
“I mean, who controls how much meat you slaughter and where it goes?” Sam asked.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Jessup said.
“It makes perfect sense. Who is driving how much meat gets slaughtered?” Sam asked with an air of irritation.
“Our customers?” Jessup said.
Sam was irritated now, “That’s not an answer.”
“What do you mean?” Jessup asked, “I’m assuming they need a cow and ask us to slaughter it.”
Sam then asked, “So why do you have four haves?”
“Well, if you do the math, we did four cows.” Jessup said.
“Don’t get smart with me. Why the hell did they need four cows?” Sam asked.
“I didn’t ask.” Jessup said. He was now ready to escort this ass off the farm. “I think we’re done.” and Jessup started for the door.
“We’re done when I say we're done.” Sam stated and didn’t move.
Jessup pulled a knife from his hip and pointed it at Sam, “You know the difference between human and cow meat?”
Sam had pushed too far and he was way off the reservation of sorts. He looked at the knife and then the man holding it. “Okay, Okay, you don’t know. I get it.”
“Get out of here.” Jessup said.
Sam moved quickly and ran up the stairs. He didn’t stop moving until he reached his wagon. Jessup came up shortly after Sam, and he had put the knife away, so the only ones that knew what happened in the cellar were just the two of them.
Now that Sam was by his ride he shouted back, “You’ve made a big mistake threatening me. I’m going to study up on your operations and if anything smells off. ANYTHING! I’m going to have the elders council shut you down.”
Jessup had had enough, “Get out of here you little man.”
Billy was now watching all of this and Dee had come over. Sam looked at each of them, “I’ll be back with some of Mike’s men, you’ll see. You all will pay for this.”
Dee was surprised as she didn’t think there was anything wrong. She looked at Jessup for an answer.
Sam slapped the reins against the old nag’s butt and she took off with a start, but quickly slowed down. Sam directed the horse out of the yard and back to the road leading off the farm. He was red faced and looking straight forward.
Dee walked up to Jessup, “What’d you do?”
“That little weasel was looking for trouble. I just made my point and told him to leave.” Jessup explained.
Dee looked at his knife, the restraining strap was off. “Great. Just great. Now dat guy is gona to throw every rule he can, at us. Good job.”
“He's trouble, but a good old ass kicking can fix that.” Jessup said.
“NO!” Dee stated. “I’m goin to town tomorrow and vix dis. And it's gona cost you some steaks, the goot ones.”
“That guy is going to try every nasty trick in the book. He’s a weasel and weasels just keep diggin until they get all the chickens. You watch. He’s going to play nice for now, but he will keep looking for our weak point and then he’s going to exploit it.” Jessup was angry.
“Den I’ll go to Alan.” Dee said.
“Alan hired him.” Jessup shot back.
“Alan knows me. He’ll listen.” Dee said hopefully.
Billy approached the two, “What was that all about.”
Dee looked at Jessup, “He pulled his knife on Sam.”
Billy looked surprised.
“He’s trouble and he’s going to do everything he can to make it hard on us.. You watch.” Jessoup said pointing at the man retreating from the farm.
Billy looked at Dee, “I got this.”
Dee looked at them both, “Two packages of steaks.” She then pointed at both of them.
Billy put his arm around Jessup, “Let’s just see how this plays out, but if it goes like you say, then we are going on a recon mission. You and I.”
Jessup looked at Billy. “Okay.” Recon meant a lot of things, but the one thing it always meant was that problems went away, mysteriously and permanently. “Okay, boss.”
Billy turned back to the screened area and Jessup went with him. They had to do some cutting so the meat would drain completely and then they could process the meat in the morning. Once they were done they put up the caged walls and left for the night. This kept the bear out, that and the dogs.
Jessup went to get some meat for tonight's dinner. He was going to have steak tonight and the workers that were doing the barn extension would join them. Paul on the other hand, would grab his, and go home. He had a family and that was where he wanted to be after work.
Dee just sat at the end of the table and was thankful for all that she had and hoped that it wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
If you want to read more about the Remnant Series see the links below.
Bood 5: Chaos coming soon to Amazon.com
Book 6: Obsidian Arrows
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R. A. Legg
R. A. Legg
R.A. Legg © 2016. All Rights Reserved.
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