Hmm. I'm not sure Red and Ben have high expectations of hospitality; someone's bed to spend the night in, some cigars and whiskey to re-home, and not being run out of town until after 11am :)
Hospitality "There's a bar," said Jimmy, but the way he said it didn't fill me with joy and expectation. "But it's not that great." "Does it serve whiskey?" Ben got to the heart of the matter. "On Tuesdays." Ben's gaze lasted a long time, and Jimmy looked away from it, back when he thought it was over, and away again. "Cigars?" "Fridays." Jimmy's voice was so small it could have been carried away on the breeze from the wings of a hummingbird, let alone the wind. "Food?" "No." Jimmy flinched. "But Josie's does good food. And if she's likes you she'll probably sort out the cigars for you too." Ben's shoulders relaxed just a little, though the thunderclouds blackening his face stayed pretty much put. "What's this Josie like then? Young, old? Does she like a story?" Jimmy's face opened up and a wide smile set on it like the sun rising in defiance of the storm. "She loves stories! She sits up of an evening outside, around a campfire, and has any visitors to the town tell stories." "Sounds like that’s the limits of the hospitality then. How many visitors does this place get, at all?" I wondered aloud. "Maybe one a month," said Jimmy. "I've been the new boy for the last four, people who come rarely stay." "I suppose we might have a few stories to tell," said Ben. He looked over at me. "You'll be negotiating the price, Red." I just nodded. I knew that Ben would take himself off for a wander at some point, find out what Josie was hoarding, and come back to tell me what to negotiate for. And we definitely had some stories to tell.
"What makes you so sure about this El Dorado then?" I said to Jimmy. "This seems like a miserable little place, and no-one stays unless they have to. And you said you've been here four months." "I did ask you guys to come three months back," said Jimmy, his voice light and definitely not accusatory. "I've been waiting for you for some of it. But there's gold here, in Elizabethtown. The locals are careful about letting you see it, but once you know what you're looking for it's there. And then when you know that you start to see a pattern with the people who come through, and they're never the same, but they do the same things. They stay in a certain place for a certain amount of time, and they leave with a bag or two more than they came with, not that I can see what you'd buy or steal round here. So gold is going out, and yet there's nowhere for it to be coming from that I can see." "The mine," said Ben. He jerked a finger back that way. "Or does your rock-ology tell you different?" "It does, Ben," said Jimmy. "Plus I took a wander around the mine myself on a Sunday morning when the miners were either sitting in the church and praying for their hangovers to heal or laying in bed and doing much the same thing. That's a copper mine; you might get yourself some fool's gold in there, but it's not a gold mine. But there is a river at the bottom of the mine, and it got me to thinking when I looked at it: why are there little boats down there? You wouldn't need boats unless you wanted to travel the river, and why would miners want to transport copper ore back in little boats?" "Those are good questions," said Ben. He sounded thoughtful. "Definitely worth checking out, and no mistake. You're a bright lad, Jimmy!" Jimmy sat up straighter on his burro and tried hard not to smile. The burros finally reached the edge of town, where I could see that the buildings were all tar-paper and wood and looked like the builders had been drunk. "So how are you explaining our presence then?" I asked. "Since the town gets no real visitors to speak of?" "I've told them you'll sort out the chupacapra problem they've got."
Greg - I suspect they should lower their expectations a little bit more... :)
The bar sounds delightful. And I look forward to meeting Josie as well! And of course Jimmy found a reasonable explanation for Ben and Red's presence :D
3 comments:
Hmm. I'm not sure Red and Ben have high expectations of hospitality; someone's bed to spend the night in, some cigars and whiskey to re-home, and not being run out of town until after 11am :)
Hospitality
"There's a bar," said Jimmy, but the way he said it didn't fill me with joy and expectation. "But it's not that great."
"Does it serve whiskey?" Ben got to the heart of the matter.
"On Tuesdays."
Ben's gaze lasted a long time, and Jimmy looked away from it, back when he thought it was over, and away again.
"Cigars?"
"Fridays." Jimmy's voice was so small it could have been carried away on the breeze from the wings of a hummingbird, let alone the wind.
"Food?"
"No." Jimmy flinched. "But Josie's does good food. And if she's likes you she'll probably sort out the cigars for you too."
Ben's shoulders relaxed just a little, though the thunderclouds blackening his face stayed pretty much put. "What's this Josie like then? Young, old? Does she like a story?"
Jimmy's face opened up and a wide smile set on it like the sun rising in defiance of the storm. "She loves stories! She sits up of an evening outside, around a campfire, and has any visitors to the town tell stories."
"Sounds like that’s the limits of the hospitality then. How many visitors does this place get, at all?" I wondered aloud.
"Maybe one a month," said Jimmy. "I've been the new boy for the last four, people who come rarely stay."
"I suppose we might have a few stories to tell," said Ben. He looked over at me. "You'll be negotiating the price, Red." I just nodded. I knew that Ben would take himself off for a wander at some point, find out what Josie was hoarding, and come back to tell me what to negotiate for. And we definitely had some stories to tell.
"What makes you so sure about this El Dorado then?" I said to Jimmy. "This seems like a miserable little place, and no-one stays unless they have to. And you said you've been here four months."
"I did ask you guys to come three months back," said Jimmy, his voice light and definitely not accusatory. "I've been waiting for you for some of it. But there's gold here, in Elizabethtown. The locals are careful about letting you see it, but once you know what you're looking for it's there. And then when you know that you start to see a pattern with the people who come through, and they're never the same, but they do the same things. They stay in a certain place for a certain amount of time, and they leave with a bag or two more than they came with, not that I can see what you'd buy or steal round here. So gold is going out, and yet there's nowhere for it to be coming from that I can see."
"The mine," said Ben. He jerked a finger back that way. "Or does your rock-ology tell you different?"
"It does, Ben," said Jimmy. "Plus I took a wander around the mine myself on a Sunday morning when the miners were either sitting in the church and praying for their hangovers to heal or laying in bed and doing much the same thing. That's a copper mine; you might get yourself some fool's gold in there, but it's not a gold mine. But there is a river at the bottom of the mine, and it got me to thinking when I looked at it: why are there little boats down there? You wouldn't need boats unless you wanted to travel the river, and why would miners want to transport copper ore back in little boats?"
"Those are good questions," said Ben. He sounded thoughtful. "Definitely worth checking out, and no mistake. You're a bright lad, Jimmy!"
Jimmy sat up straighter on his burro and tried hard not to smile. The burros finally reached the edge of town, where I could see that the buildings were all tar-paper and wood and looked like the builders had been drunk.
"So how are you explaining our presence then?" I asked. "Since the town gets no real visitors to speak of?"
"I've told them you'll sort out the chupacapra problem they've got."
Greg - I suspect they should lower their expectations a little bit more... :)
The bar sounds delightful. And I look forward to meeting Josie as well! And of course Jimmy found a reasonable explanation for Ben and Red's presence :D
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