Not All a Dream by Sophia Kell Hagin

Author:Sophia Kell Hagin [Hagin, Sophia Kell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636790688
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2021-10-01T20:08:23+00:00

Chapter Twenty-nine

Ten percent

I need to talk to you,” Duka said at the very instant I spoke exactly the same words to her.

A heartbeat ahead of me, she blurted, “You first.”

I led her into the living room and pointed out the west windows to where the Hulk once stood and then to the property across the street to the west. “I found out those properties have been declared tax delinquent and the town has foreclosed on them. So they’re for sale.”

“You mean the Hulk?”

I smiled. “Aa-and…”

Duka’s eyes went wide. “An’ the property across the street where I keep picturing a wind turbine?”

“Yep. It’s a double lot with a house over on Alder Way, the one that almost burned down, so purchase price is five thousand plus a hundred-dollar processing fee. As for the Hulk—it shares a border with this property and since the only thing left on it is the concrete foundation, it qualifies as an empty sidelot, which’ll cost just a hundred dollars. As long as the current owners don’t object and no one else grabs it first, I’ll have the deed in my hot little fist thirty days after I sign on the dotted line.”

Duka stood before me agape while I tried to recall if I’d ever seen her agape before.

“Fifty-two hundred altogether,” she murmured. “That’s a shitload of money, Hester.”

“And a damn good deal, too—although just a start. We’ll need plenty more to put a greenhouse in the Hulk’s foundation. For the lumber and polycarbonate covering and soil and lights and heating and seeds—”

“Not to mention a wind turbine,” Duka added almost absently as she stared westward out the windows. “So we can stop stealing electricity.”

I gulped. Duka couldn’t possibly build a real live wind turbine from what she scavenged. So we’d have to buy one—and how the hell much does a wind turbine cost? Better not to think about that. Yet. “What the hell,” I said instead. “I’m willing to try if you are.”

“Simón que sí, I’m willing. But you know we’ll have to get through this winter first, right? Without much help from another greenhouse, cuz we’ll need at least a couple months to build it an’ make it operational.”

“And then another three months for crops to grow. I understand. But I’d rather risk my fifty-two hundred bucks on that instead of contributing even more to Alison Perry’s profit margin.”

Duka rubbed her face with both hands, and behind her hands she was grinning. “Wow,” she said. “That really jibes—”

“With what you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Exactamente. I got an offer. An’ I said yes cuz there’s not much time left an’ I’ll be paid ten percent of what we bring back here—gross, not net after costs. Won’t have any say in what it’ll be, except it’ll be food, y’know? An’—”

“Whoa, wait.” I put up a hand. “Not much time left for what?”

“For getting as much food in here as we damn well can.”

“Before winter, you mean.”

“Yeah, an’ before food rationing starts.”

“You believe our masters mean it this time?”

Duka’s head flicked toward her shoulder.

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