by Holly Ardent
Still a bit overwhelmed I asked Billie for a moment to talk to Molly. Molly told me that bras would probably make Sandra happiest, since we had other spare clothes we could give her, but none of those. She winked at me and told me that it would probably encourage Sandra's resolve to get me to sleep with her.
Wait, what? I thought.
“What do you mean her resolve to get me to sleep with her?” I asked.
Molly chuckled.
“You've always been clueless when it comes to women checking you out. I guess I shouldn't be surprised you missed it. She's interested, I guarantee it. I don't know why she hasn't said anything yet though, I've given her several openings.”
“She just had her parents killed, lost everything she owned, maybe she's just not in the mood?”
She shook her head.
“Nope, she's in the mood. Sex is a survival affirming thing. I've seen her watching you and hinted that I didn't mind sharing. I don't know why she hasn't responded yet though,” Molly said.
I sighed, not knowing how to reply, and asked her what a bra would be worth, it not being something I'd ever bartered for or ever even considered bartering for.
“Tim, if you went to market one day, sold as much as you normally do, and the only thing you brought home was a bra in my size, in its original packaging? I'd think you got a good deal,” she said.
I was pretty sure that they weren't worth quite that much, but I got the idea she was trying to get across.
“Okay Billie,” I said, “I'm definitely interested. You hang on to that wagon there and we'll go back and see what you have.”
That was an old trick for selling things. Let the potential customer hold the item they're interested in and carry it around for a bit. They start thinking of it as theirs and are willing to part with more to make it actually belong to them.
We went back to Billie's area and she showed me five bras in different colors. There was one in pink, one in powder blue, one in chocolate brown and two beige. We settled down to haggling and I used my normal trick of asking her what she thought they were worth first. Depending on the person, you might get a low-ball answer doing that and if not, that's where good haggling skills came in. Billie was as good as I was at haggling and I could see why her husband just left us alone to bargain while he dealt with the rest of the items on the blanket and other potential swappers.
In the end we were both vaguely satisfied and unsatisfied with our deal, which means it was probably fair. For three bras, the pink, the chocolate brown, and one beige I ended up giving her the wagon, two silver dollars, a silver quarter and a silver dime. It was a fair chunk of the silver I'd brought with me but this type of thing was the reason I brought it. Tucking the bras away in a bag, I headed back to our blanket. Molly, Rita, Sandra, and both girls were all there now. I drew Molly aside and had her look in the bag.
“I don't suppose they had a 'D' cup available?” she asked wistfully.
“Sorry hon, they had these three and two others. All 'C' cups.”
“How much did you end up paying?”
I told her and she grimaced for a moment, then smiled.
“I bet if they weren't intended as a gift you'd be able to get twice that for them if you were to sell them,” she said.
“Well, I think they only offered them because I said I was looking for a gift for someone who lost everything to raiders. Anyhow, do you think she'll like them?”
“Tim, you don't get it do you? By giving her bras, she's going to think you've been checking her out, especially her tits. She'll love them, don't worry. I'm just worried that she might jump you with enough enthusiasm that you forget about me and Rita.”
“It won't happen Molly. I love you and I think I'm coming to love Rita as well, she's very easy to get along with and just nice to be around.”
“I agree with you there, I'm developing more affection for her than I'd expected. Not a bad thing I suppose, just... unexpected.”
I tucked the bag with the bras into the larger bag that held the second wagon and just sat back for a while. I'd spent probably forty-five minutes haggling with Billie and while it wasn't manual labor it was still hard work when you were haggling with someone as good as yourself. While resting I noticed that the cat doll and one of the baby dolls were gone. When I asked Molly what she got for them she just smiled.
“You'll get to see eventually,” she said.
After resting a few minutes I got up again. I told Molly that Allan wanted to see me and wandered off to the concession table where I thought he would be. Allan and Mary were behind the table and, as I approached, Mary looked up and offered me a big smile. Then she nudged Allan and pointed me out to him. He came out from around the table, hand extended. I shook his hand, then Allan took me back to the hallway that led to his office, out of the ambient sound of several hundred people talking.
“Tim, man... I don't know how the hell you did it, but I can't thank you enough for what you did with Mary. I'll try to show my thanks though and I'll try this for a start. I've got the government dole coming in this Wednesday and I need a couple of people to help out. It's a cold cash paying position. The government pays for five people at each location they distribute from. Normally I use myself, the two guards and a couple of the day laborers, but if you'd like I can offer you and Molly two of the positions.”
“I thought you said you had a regular crew you use?”
“Yeah, but if you haven't noticed we're getting an influx of new people in the area. Evidently there was a major fire in Denver a couple of months back and a hundred or more of the evacuees from it ended up coming to our area. Most of them are not the type we got before with just the clothes on their back, these folks tend to have some valuables and some of their possessions. Still, I don't feel comfortable having the guards do the dole work this time, I want them guarding. Not all the evacuees are doing well enough to not consider trying something.”
“Oh, I thought I saw a lot of new faces around. That explains it.”
“I thought Molly could do the job of checking state Identification Cards and marking them on a list. You could do the individual dole rationing, she checks them off, you get their stuff and give it to them. I'd boss the whole thing like normal and could use two day laborers to do the offloading like I usually do. The pay would be twenty dollars silver in Colorado coin, per person per day, about the equivalent of two hundred dollars per day in before Crash pay. The day laborers get less, their manual labor pays them five dollars silver per day.”
“That's tempting, but you know I'll have to ask Molly first. It's a decent chunk of change though.”
“The government likes to pay well, it keeps down on the distributors trying to swipe extra for themselves. Then there's the flip side, if they catch you stealing from the dole you get shot out of hand. Carrot and stick works for me though, especially with their nice big carrots. Your positions would run Thursday through Saturday,” Allan said.
As an aside: Colorado had set up their gold/silver/copper currency back before the crash and then kept to it after. They minted four size coins in copper, four size coins in silver, and four sizes of gold coin. It worked as follows:
Since the Denver mint was in Colorado, they seized it to run their own coinage. They used the same size dies as had been used prior to the crash and did simple patterns on the coins. The coins showed a map of the state of Colorado on one side with the word 'Colorado' printed along the bottom and the currency value printed along the top. The back side listed currency value, weight, and purity of the main metal content (gold, silver, or copper) similar to the print on most gold and silver bullion coins but with a small picture of the Rocky Mountain skyline in the center.
Copper coins were as follows:
dime size: 1 copper cent coin
penny size: 2 copper cent coin (These were not minted fresh, only pre 1982 pennies were in this class. They were actually slightly overvalued against the rest of the system but since they were already in existen
ce they were assigned a value as close as possible to the sequence of the developed system)
quarter size: 5 copper cent coin
half dollar size: 10 copper cent coin
silver dollar size: 20 copper cent coin (The silver dollar size used for all the metals was the same size that had been used for Ike, Peace, and Morgan silver dollars).
Silver coins:
dime size: $1.00 silver coin
quarter size: $2.50 silver coin
half dollar size: $5.00 silver coin
silver dollar size: $10.00 silver coin
Gold coins:
dime size: $20.00 gold coin
quarter size: $50.00 gold coin
half dollar size: $100.00 gold coin
silver dollar size: $200.00 gold coin
The system worked pretty well although making change in below the dollar range could get you a pocketful of coins if you payed for a small purchase with silver. The only reason they left the penny size in copper was due to the large number of pre 1982 pennies people had been collecting for the copper value.
All metals were alloyed to decrease their malleability, the copper coins were ninety-five percent copper and five percent zinc, the silver were ninety percent silver/ten percent copper, and the gold were ninety percent gold/ten percent copper. The weights on silver coins had been left the same as the pre-1965 ones that were ninety percent silver and those old coins were accepted at the same value as the Colorado coins.
The historical gold/silver ratio was sixteen to one. The twenty to one rate used by Colorado was based on that with an upward extrapolation based on the increased gold/silver ratio in more recent history. It had gotten up to nearly one hundred to one at a point before the Crash, but that rate would have made gold coins useless from excessive value. So the historical rate was decided as the base and then rounded upwards to an easier to use ratio for coin values.
“Allan, I'll tell you now you can count on me, but let's go check with Molly to see if she's interested.”
Twenty dollars silver (two silver dollar sized silver coins) a day was an incredible rate, but I understood why the government would offer it. It would really cut back on potential corruption and with an automatic death sentence on the other side if you did try to mess with things, it balanced out.
Plus, and I'm sure the government thought of this as well, most people would probably splurge with it and as a result more money would be in circulation encouraging more trade, etc... Although Colorado had printed a large number of their coins I, at least, saw more of the pre 1965 silver coins and pre 1982 pennies than anything else.
We wandered back over to my blanket and Allan talked to Molly for a minute or two. I could tell she was giving a qualified yes so I stepped in.
“Molly, what's up? I thought you'd jump at the chance.”
“Well, who will look after the girls? They do have school on Thursday and Friday, but I certainly don't want them home alone on Saturday. I also don't want them down here with the two thousand people Allan expects coming through in those three days.”
“Well, I know Rita's been getting along well with them, I think she'd be able to handle watching them. We lay down the law to the girls and tell them to listen to Rita and that we'll ask Rita to let us know if they give her any problems. Hang on a second...”
I stepped over to Rita and asked her to join the conversation. I explained what was up and that I was thinking she could ride herd on the girls if she was willing. As we moved over to Allan and Molly, I realized that Rita and Allan hadn't been formally introduced.
“Allan, this is Rita, she recently moved in with us. Rita, this is Allan, a friend of mine and the manager of the store.”
Allan looked at me quizzically and I realized I hadn't filled him in on just what we'd hired Rita for. I held a hand up to forestall questions from him until later and looked at Rita.
“So, what do you think? Could you ride herd on the girls if we lay down the law to them first? Only a couple hours in the morning and evening on Thursday and Friday but all day on Saturday.”
“I think I can manage something, maybe more just kind of guide them and keep them out of trouble than herd.”
“Molly?” I asked, “Will that do for you? Or should we try to make other arrangements?”
“I think it'll do for Thursday and Friday at least. If I'm worried on Friday night can we bring them all down here on Saturday and keep them out of the main area or something Allan?”
“Sure, that'd be no problem. Maybe Mary could keep an eye on them if needed.”
When I saw the satisfied look flash across Molly's face, I knew what she'd been looking for in the store earlier. Or more properly, who she'd been looking for. I leaned over and whispered in Molly's ear.
“Mary is manning the concession table, you'll get to meet her when we get lunch.”
I told Allan it was settled then and thanked him. He said that I was welcome, but he knew which way the balance of favors was still leaning. He left to go back to helping Mary at the table and the rest of us sat back down. The girls came wandering back a few minutes later to pick up a load of their items they had negotiated to trade for and to go complete the trades. I told them lunch was soon so they shouldn't dawdle.
When the girls returned, laden down with new (to them) items, we wrapped everything up in the blanket we had spread on the floor and returned it to the cart. Taking the cart along with us, we headed over to the concession table. It wasn't very busy at the moment, so I took the chance to introduce Molly and Mary. I was worried about Molly's reaction here since she'd seemed to be looking for Mary earlier, and she looked very happy when I promised to introduce them. I needn't have worried though as Molly took one look at her and nodded to herself.
“Mary,” Molly said, “Do you get a break here at all?”
“No, I told Allan I'd work the concession table straight through with maybe a break or two just long enough for the necessaries. It's wonderful having things to do all the time again. I was very bored for the last several years.”
The two woman moved off to the edge of the table and continued their conversation out of earshot.
Allan looked at me and I just shrugged, I might have been married to Molly for a long time, but she was still a woman and I'd be damned if I understood half of what they did.
“Allan, we need lunch for five. I've got some citrus with me like normal but I forgot about Rita so I can toss some silver in as well.”
“Nah, I got it. You just save your fruits for market. I really think you don't understand the kind of favor you did me. I would never even have had the nerve to talk to someone like her, never mind proposition her. She practically jumped me when I finished my office work the other night. She told me that night that she wanted sex on a regular basis and that if I could handle it, she'd be happy to have me.”
Allan shook his head.
“That bypassed the whole shy and nervous crap of mine quite nicely. She also told me she plans on having you some more but... You've got an attractive wife, plus a lover, so I don't exactly think you'll try to steal her away. If you'd wanted to do that, you would have already. By the way, a lover? She is your lover, right? With the way Molly looks and what you've said about her, why a lover?”
Allan started putting some food together while we chatted.
“Remember I told you I had some luck helping people adjust? Rita there was disguised outside your store, begging for work or a handout. Her husband and child just kind of disappeared during the Crash. She needed a way to feel like she was part of something and wouldn't be abandoned. She needed a family, in essence, that was large enough that even if a member or two disappeared she wouldn't feel abandoned again. I offered that, plus being a part of a community. Now I just need to get the community to not have a problem with the idea and we're golden.”
“Why do I think the meeting tonight is going to be more interesting than most of them?” Allan asked.
“I don't intend to make a fuss
over it. I'm just going to stand up and tell them that Rita is living with us now and that I expect her to be part of the community. It wasn't my idea in the first place. Molly was interested in having another female around and we could afford to feed another mouth and still have some to sell. So it was her idea. Yes, even having Rita as a lover for me was her idea. Remember, Molly likes to watch.”
Allan was grinning wide enough to split his face.
“And when some of those nosy busybodies that live around here start asking questions what are you going to do?” he said.
“ If I'm reading things right, the only things that will happen is that a bunch of guys will be envious, a bunch of older women will cluck like hens about it and everyone else won't really care one way or the other. That's what I'm hoping for at least. If anyone asks I'll just tell them it's none of their damned business.”
“Well, you've got my backing if you like. I don't know if they consider me as part of your community, but your neighborhood is the one closest to the store so if I fit in any of them it's that one. Plus I've been at all your neighborhood meetings so far. I guess they do think of me as part of it. I've got your back if there are issues, I think between the two of us we'll have enough pull that even if there is a problem, there won't be much of one.”
“Oh, one other thing Allan. If Rita and Sandra have their ID cards, can we get them on the dole list for this next one?” I said.
“Sure, no problem. If either one doesn't have her card we can get her a replacement one while they're here also. Send them over with it after lunch if they have them and I'll get them entered into the list.”
Allan handed over a tray loaded with food. He knew what we normally got and had included some of all of it on the tray: Popcorn, french fries, fried dough with honey, venison sausages in homemade buns (the current version of hot dogs), corn on the cob, and a pitcher of a local root beer (that tasted nothing like the old commercial root beers but still satisfied a sweet tooth).