"But seriously, What's the catch?" Chopper said while waiting at the gate.
"I promise, no catch. Just take a look at the scale model in action and you will see I am telling the truth." I was struggling to get the gate moving. It was not in the greatest condition, the hinges were sticking from rust and the corner dragged against the ground. I needed to get inside before Charlie took off. I needed just a few seconds more and his skepticism may keep him from giving me that.
I got the gate open to human width and made my way in.
"Come on Chopper, I will show you" The machine was out in the open. I had Nola waiting invisibly inside it. Just a few more steps and we can have our first lifetime customer
"Well you have a fancy looking prop there, but I don't see no way this thing does what you say." He was holding a bag of household trash in his hand exactly as I had asked. Now or never
"Well, lets open that bag and get started" I set up a crooked folding table in front of Nola for him to dump it.
Chopper pulled out a used glass jar of salsa. Not fit for recycling under normal circumstances. The label was still on, it hadn't been rinsed, and the lid was a plastic with way to high a number to process. Destined for the dump any other day. But not today.
I had decided to make a few ramps for output. After some practice with Nola we had figured out how to get different material types to go down different ramps. In this case we'd need 4 active ramps. One for paper pulp, one for glass, one for plastics and one for food waste. Nola and I agreed that anything that didn't have a tray could "go missing" during processing.
I put the jar on the in ramp and hit a just for show on button indicating that Nola should start. The ramp moved quickly, taking the jar into the 'processor'. I don't know why I was so nervous. I felt it from Nola's end too. Over the past day and a half we had processed literal tons of trash. I guess theres something to be said for performance anxiety.
A quick hum followed as the can disappeared from view, followed a second later by a pile of finely ground glass making its way to the first bin. Then a small pile of paper shreddings. Then a small shredded plastic bead collection from the lid. Finally the little mess of leftover salsa. Perfectly separated. Ready for re processing.
Charlie had a raised eyebrow looking at the piles. Still not a believer, but I finally had something other than naked cynicism. Progress.
"Where's the hidden compartment on this magic trick? What's the Con?" OK, I wasn't expecting anger as a response. Gotta get him back
"There's no trick" I said, I had to think of a way to disprove magic on the thing that absolutely magic. "Its heavy, but if you help me lift it you'll see there's nothing hiding underneath"
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Chopper made his way to the flower bulb and pushed with one hand until it came off the ground. At least nothing snapped off. I sent a psychic message to Nola to have her lock the doors to the processing part. "Hey man, how much could possibly fit inside that thing?"
Chopper didn't stop searching for the hidden trick. But he did acknowledge that I asked a question
"If you let me, I'd like to process everything you brought today. And I will make you a bet. If I can't do it I have a hundred bucks with your name on it"
"This isn't possible"
"Let me prove it"
And I did. There weren't enough ramps to really separate things properly. I'd have to correct that for the full sized version. More ramps, more splits, more bins. Are we gonna have enough space to do this? I guess we could always build up. But more and more garbage went in and came out as ready to process material. Far more than we could fit inside the little flower bulb. Magic trick disproven.
"It is just not possible man." Chopper looked like he'd just gone through a crisis. He was sitting in front of the mini machine staring at it like it was an alien, which it technically was.
"I know it seems like a lot, but this has been my side project for the last..." think of a convincing number..."15 years. Every night and weekend and right now I am ready to go and show it to the world"
The older man gave me a look that said 'bullshit' louder than words ever could.
"I have been doing this a while kid" He slowly got to his feet and dusted off before facing me "Ten years ago I met these two Harvard guys back when I was hooked up with WB Services. They had funding, backing and a bigger machine than yours and do you know what it was for?"
"I don't know? Maybe processing engine blocks" That seems like a Harvard level project, not quite what I've done here but still impressive
"It was for getting the paint and plastic out of aluminum cans before melting. Ya know, to keep the slag down." Chopper looked smug. He had a reason to be. Nola had been removing the pigment from soda cans the whole time. Some of the 'freebees' she got to keep. He was right that that shouldn't be possible.
"You know the best part?" Oh this will be fun.
"They spent half a million of the city's money before deciding it didn't work well enough to keep working" He laughed, probably thinking back to the expressions on the faces of the college kids as they were sent packing. I knew the feeling. Every few years a new city program brings in a hot shot to do our job better, it usually doesn't work out.
"Somethin is up with your thing. I don't know what, and you ain't telling. You can keep your secrets, and the garbage I get rid of normally. If that's your payment I'll let you do you." He put a too firm hand on my shoulder as he started walking away. "But I don't believe a thing you said"
He stood at the door to the future processing center and turned back to me "How long did you say till you were open for real?"
"Tomorrow" He's not gonna buy any story I give him, might as well start piling on.
He looked around the empty yard with a half broken shack and a tiny flower bulb. More skepticism. I should have laid out the pieces of the full sized machine. That would have made an opening date of tomorrow more realistic.
"Of course you will." He said with a big exhale.
"I am gonna trust there's no tricks from you kid, you've been up front with me when we worked together. I'll tell the others. The scarpers, the junkmen, the clean out guys. All of em. You'll get more than you'll know what to do with"
He started walking back in towards me before leaning in close "But if this thing is half of what you say it is you need to be careful. If it isn't, even more so. You in a brave new world now kid" He then patted me on the back with all the power of a man who has been lifting refrigerators for 30 years.
He left me standing there in the afternoon sun with one overriding thought above all others.
I need a way better cover story.