Black Market Merchant

Chapter 17: Next Step

After returning from the tavern that afternoon, the trio arrived to find Benny sitting in a lawn chair on his porch waiting for them. Seeing them coming back, Benny stood up and gestured with his arms out wide signaling his displeasure. John moaned under his breath seeing him.

"Where did you guys go without me?!" Benny said getting up and angrily stomped over to towards them. "I'm not so old that you don't need my help!"

"I'll leave him to you guys." Lisa said dipping over to Richards house. "Joan might have dinner ready and I'm starved."

She easily abandoned the other two to deal with Benny and entered the house. She took a big whiff of the delicious aroma coming from the soup Joan was cooking in the garage. Her stomach groaned uncontrollably, ready to eat. However, the rest of house was quiet, so that meant everyone must be elsewhere doing chores or resting.

Lisa put her coffin down by the door gently, then hung her Yankees hat and leather jacket up on the coat rack. Leaving her shoes on, she went back outside and crossed the yard towards the open garage. Inside she could see that Joan was cooking at a small fire with a pot of soup simmering on top. Hanna was there too, but she was only watching glumly from a chair in a corner.

"We're back Joan." Lisa called out stepping inside while also waved to Hanna. Hanna replied with a short sad small smile. It seemed that she still needed time to cope with her parent's death.

"Soup smells good. What's in it today?" Lisa asked hungrily.

"I added some spice this time." Joan replied as she stirred the pot slowly with a large metal spoon. "The marketplace had just received a new shipment of practically everything today. So, the prices were lowered just for the day and I got some good deals."

"Everything?" Lisa said thoughtfully. "Maybe in the morning I'll go take a look at what's come in." She gave a quick chuckle. "I haven't been to the market area since I found Hanna. What a terrible merchant I'm turning into."

"Don't worry about it." Joan said looking up from the pot. "You have been busy helping us."

"I know, but I still feel annoyed by that fact." Lisa replied crossly.

Lisa grabbed a nearby stool and sat down to watch Joan. The whole set up of the fire in the garage fascinated Lisa. The fire was lit with wood and other flammables, so smoke was rising into the room. However, instead of filling up the room Joan had rigged a large hand powered fan on the back wall of the garage. Joan would only need to pull on a rope tied to the vertical fan and when it swung back and forth, it had enough power to blow the smoke outside. Richard had cut off the top of the garage door to allow the smoke to leave. Then if it was too cold or raining the door could be shut without smoke building up inside the garage. It was simple and yet clever solution.

Additionally, to prevent the roof from catching fire, Richard had also screwed to the ceiling two car hoods close together, which blocked the smoke and sparks perfectly. The car hoods had been blackened extremely so at this point from the constant use of the fireplace.

"So, what do you plan to buy at the market?" Joan asked after a few moments.

"Hmm, well I need to stock up on some personal supplies, but I mainly want to see what is popular to buy and sell here in town. It might help me to know what I can make a profit from." Lisa replied thinking of some possibilities.

"Can I go too?" The small voice of Hanna called out, surprising the two women.

"Well looks like someone can speak again." Joan remarked smiling at the little girl. She hadn't hardly spoken to anyone since Lisa brought her back. "Why do you want to go to the market?"

"It's boring here. Besides, I would like to have something to do, rather than just chores. It might help me to maybe relax some." Hanna complained while still speaking quietly.

"That sounds fine to me. One more set of eyes can help me find something neat in the market." Lisa replied cheerily.

"Alright, but make sure you bring her back by lunch time." Joan said while wagging a finger jokingly.

"That's fine. By the way, it looks like the soup is ready." Lisa said licking her lips hungrily.

Dinner that night was a noisy one. Benny couldn't believe what John and Richard had told him about Lisa's fight and talk with the merchant. Benny made Lisa explain it again to everyone just to be sure. Joan and Mary were shocked after hearing what happened directly from Lisa. They kept asking Lisa if she really was alright and not hiding any injuries from them. Eventually they settled down some and let her talk about the deals she made with the merchant, Frank Sellers.

"Do you really think you can get the electricity running again?" Mary asked first. "It's been years since I had my air conditioning working. I can't stand the summertime heat."

"I am really hoping that I can. But even if I do get it working, it might take a long time for me to get power lines to run all the way out here." Lisa replied apologetically.

Mary looked a bit disappointed, "Please get it working." She mumbled.

Benny was next to speak up. "Let's say you can get the electricity running. How are you going to hire people to work for you, much less pay them? Do you know anyone that can run a hydroelectric dam?" His questions were definitely valid and the others at the table nodded their heads in agreement.

Lisa though for a moment before giving her answer. "First, I need to beat the Mad Dog Match Fighter to get a computer to open the blueprints. Once I get that done, I can look at the dam. I may be a merchant now and studied Marketing in college, but I switched majors three years into my learning. I was going to learn about engineering, but I absolutely hated learning how to design blueprints and schematics. Not to mention those ridiculous levels of math I had to learn."

She paused seeing that no one was really interested in her reminiscing. "Ahem." She coughed and continued. "If I can get the power on in just the dams' buildings then I will probably have to live there. Just so that no one else will try to steal my findings."

"You mean you're going to be leaving us?" Joan said sadly.

"Yes, unfortunately I will have too. But only if the dam works." Lisa said placing a hand on Joan's. "I really have appreciated your hospitality."

Joan smiled, though unhappy about the idea of her new friend leaving.

"Ok, I understand that much, but what about the workers?" Benny asked.

"That's the hard part. I need people that I can really depend on following my orders. I also need to first finish helping getting revenge for the Marshals." Lisa shrugged. The others also nodded understandably.

Then Lisa continued and she spoke with absolute seriousness, "So, John I won't be hiring anyone to do this plan. I plan on doing this idea by killing two birds with one stone. I am going to take over the Mad Dog gang after killing their boss."

The room was silent. Everyone was too shocked to say anything. The sound of a cricket chirping outside was clearly audible.

"You WHAT?" John said first standing up quickly.

"You heard me." Lisa replied leaning back in her chair to look up at John. She looked calm as she explained. "I am going to take them over and run things the right way around here in town. It will be the easiest way to get people to work on the dam too. With electricity back in town, peoples way of life will defiantly improve. Then once Frank returns, I can get the needed supplies to rebuild the dam and power grid."

"How could you possibly get the whole gang to do that? They're nothing but stupid thugs that do nothing but bully the whole town?" John continued his argument. "This is an even more outlandish idea than the first." Lisa's idea did sound rather crazy to everyone present.

"True, they probably are mostly idiots, but even idiots have a purpose. If anyone causes me trouble, I'll let my fists do the talking. From what I've seen around here is that violence is about the only thing these kinds of people understand." Lisa answered him calmly. Then while glancing at Hanna she continued, "Also, what better way to punish them than by making them do work for those they mistreated."

John sat down heavily and rubbed both his temples with his hands. "Everything you do seems to be getting crazier every time. If I hadn't seen you fight those two Match Fighters in the tavern or hear the way you dealt with the merchant, I couldn't back such an insane plan." He paused briefly. "If you need any help and I'm able, I'll help. With one condition." He looked serious at Lisa and she took the hint. "After you kill their boss and something happens that we can't handle, you can never return here. I can't risk my family and friends here in the community. Is that understood?"

Lisa nodded slowly while giving her reply. "I promise that if I can't handle it, I will leave."

"Thank you." John said relaxing some.

The darkness of night had arrived long ago, and everyone was getting tired. The light of the candles on the table were starting to burn low. Mary clapped her hands together and spoke, "Well it's getting late and you, Lisa and Hanna, will be leaving early for the market. So, let us all go to bed."

Everyone agreed without any argument. It was not long before everyone was in their homes fast asleep, all except for Lisa. Her mind was racing as she thought about how she was going to take over the gang. Not to mention the amount of money she might get from exploiting them. She smiled at the thought of controlling bullies and making glorious money! Before the night grew too late, she finally drifted off to sleep.

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