Ray Moss’s head was spinning. He had just gotten off of the phone with Bob Perkins. Bob told him that Venice Beach was theirs. LA was so happy that they would get all of the beaches back for tourist trade that they were willing to sacrifice Venice Beach for a time to get rid of the homeless! The first cruise ship had arrived from Seattle and the next one from Portland would arrive as soon as the elderly were cleared out in Portland, when the remainder of the people on the second ship had been moved to the one remaining ship in Portland. He had so many things to organize to make this all work smoothly, that he needed to sit down and get it all on paper.
Ray was to meet today with the owner of the mine in the mountains to see if they could come to an agreement. He had the road construction crew on standby, as well as the ones who would construct the swimming pool and hot tub, and of course the clinic, itself. No matter where they built, the crews would have to be ready to start at a moment's notice. When Ray got together with the owner of the mine, he asked if he could send a camera down the two holes to find the depth and the size at the bottom of the holes. The owner agreed and said, “You will not find any jewels that way. You need to use a pick and shovel to find the good stuff!”
The owner thought, “this guy is a real greenhorn. He don’t know what he is doing. I better close this deal real fast before he finds out the mine is all tuckered out!”
Ray made an offer, slightly under what the owner had originally quoted. The owner jumped on it and they headed to the bank to take care of the details. Before he knew it, the mine was bought and Ray made a couple of calls, getting the road started and the construction on the resort, swimming pool and hot tub going full speed ahead! He returned home, reporting the good news to Bob Perkins. The construction crews had to get all of their heavy equipment up to the building site before the road construction could begin.
Once this was all started, Bob sat down with a martini, no, closer to 5 martinis, and took a breather. He knew things were going to be crazy for a while. He still felt conflicted about getting rid of the elderly. They hadn't done anything wrong and weren’t drug addicts. They were mostly victims of inflation. What to do? What to do? The martinis helped, but there was still the nagging feeling that maybe it wasn’t right to just throw away people’s lives.
Sarah, the lady who was supposed to move to Venice Beach to run the base, was enjoying room service. She had ordered a filet mignon, green beans with bacon bits, a baked potato with the works and a hot fudge sundae! She was being treated royally. She had to remind herself that this was only temporary. It was almost time to leave for California. She had decided to go because LA was so humongous that she would probably never run into her ex.
Her mind wandered to the park near her house in Portland where she often took food for them. The last time she had seen the homeless there was late one night. The next morning, they were all gone and it was eerily silent. She had tried to warn them. Sarah had heard that moving crews came in the middle of the night when the addicts were all strung out and asleep and picked them up and took them to the clinic. She supposed that was what had happened but didn’t really know. All of their junk, tents and trash had been left just as it was until a clean-up crew came three days later and made it look as if no one had ever been there. Spooky!
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Max had found a houseboat to rent in Seattle and was on his way to pick it up. He would leave his black, 2024 Ford pick-up truck parked there in Seattle until his return. He completed the paperwork with the owner and proceeded to load the supplies from the truck into the houseboat. He was pleased with himself, having thought of a less expensive way than hotels to sleep and he would cook his own food. The houseboat had cooking facilities, as well as sleeping accommodations. He had even brought seasick pills just in case. It took him the better part of a day to get set up and he decided to spend the night at the dock and start for Alaska early in the morning.
Excitedly, the next morning, Max jumped out of bed, ready for his new adventure! He untied the houseboat from the dock and immediately complained about the tight quarters, trying to get out and away from the dock. He went slowly, so as not to jostle any of the other boats and finally made it into clear waters! Max thought, “I am tired of going slow, let’s see what this baby has got! He accelerated and put the boat into third gear. He kept waiting for the houseboat to pick up speed, but when it simply wouldn’t go over 25 miles an hour, he just about cried. He called the man he was renting the boat from and asked what the deal was. The man told him he should have realized a houseboat only goes so fast and if speed was what he wanted, he should have rented a speedboat!
Ray Moss received word from Bob Perkins. He sounded really excited. “Guess what just happened? We just got news that the government bought a decommissioned cruise ship that is huge! It will hold over 7,000 people! That gives us the two smaller ones plus this one, meaning we have room, as soon as they get in town, to put close to 12,000 people out there! How are things going with the resort?”
Ray Moss gave him the news that the road was halfway completed, the cement had been poured in both the pool and the hot tubs and the rebar had been laid for the whole ground floor of the building! “ You know we sent a camera down into the mine holes and they go down three stories plus there is a huge cave at the bottom! Things are moving ahead by leaps and bounds. The lady who will be running the base at Venice Beach will be here the first of next week with all of the equipment, large tents, shower trailers, etc. We are just about ready to get started!”
Bob said, “You are bound to have demonstrators at the base after the publicity Portland got so here is how we are going to handle the demonstrators. We will make a big deal out of the fact that there is no clinic in LA, that we are putting the sober homeless out on the cruise ships and that a resort is being built up in the mountains for the elderly. You know, the mountains are much cooler and it is a better place for the elderly. Come up with something to that effect on the posters. The posters need to get drawn up, printed and posted about the same time Sarah, the lady in charge of the base gets here. Get that resort built just as fast as it can humanly be done, Ray! I’m counting on you!”
Max was putt-putting along out in the Pacific Ocean and fuming! He figured this was not one of his brightest ideas. The problem was he hadn’t realized how many variables there would be on this trip. Alaska has a lot of coastline and it would take him waaaaay longer than he had been given leave for, to stop at every little town to ask for information. Also, he was forced to travel incredibly slowly and how was he going to sleep and drive the boat at the same time and if he put down the anchor so he could sleep, he wouldn’t be making any time. Aaaarg! What to do?