Between the Lanterns(46)
August honestly didn’t know what to say. He was flabbergasted. An employee of Montek was apologizing for all of the horrible shit they had put him and Samantha through. And not just any employee;: it was Chadwick Sheppard. The head of Montek.Automaton. The third-richest man in the world.
“Well, Mr. Sheppard…”
“Please, August. Call me Chad.”
“Ok, Chad,” August said, “I appreciate your kind words and all, but you’ll excuse me if I don’t entirely trust everythin’ you’re sayin’ to me. Y’all have done me pretty wrong, and I’ve come to terms with that. All I want is to sell you this tech so that my wife and I can retire right now, today, and travel the world. No more working, no more stress. You offer me enough Credit and the SameSoul is yours.”
“All in good time, August. All in good time,” the immensely wealthy son of a bitch said. “First, let me ask you a few questions. You see, Mr. Stevens doesn’t believe your tech is what you say it is. Can you tell me why he should? How do you know it will perform the way you say it will? Have you tested it?”
“Well, no,” August answered honestly. “It’s all theoretical at this point; that’s true. I ain’t tested it, but I know it will work. Everythin’ I make works the way it should. Believe it. Or, hell, don’t. If you don’t want to buy it, I’ll just market it myself and Montek can kiss my ass.”
Chadwick Sheppard laughed over the line, seeming to enjoy August’s angry response.
“I do believe you, August,” Chadwick said. “I’ve seen the upgrades you made while working for us. I’ve seen the tech you made after you left. I have full confidence that if you say it will work… it will work. I just wanted to see if you believed it. And it seems that you do. I’d like to make you an offer now.”
Mr. Stevens smiled satisfactorily as he drove away. August was smiling, too. He was sure that Chadwick Sheppard was probably laughing far away in his opulent office.
At least they were all happy.
Mr. Sheppard had offered August the most unbelievable sum of Credit imaginable. All he had to do was give the blueprints to Joshua right then and sign over all of the rights to the SameSoul. They let him have the only working model as a keepsake.
And now Samantha and August had more Credit than anyone else in Alabama. They had more Credit than most people on planet Earth. There would be no more hard work or stress. It was all over. His beautiful wife would get the kind of life she deserved.
August gathered all of his personal effects from around the store and put them into a box. He grabbed a sign for his Life Lanterns and scribbled a message on the back. He walked out of Sweets, Inc. and left the door wide open, placing the sign on the window sill as he walked away from the shop he and his wife had worked so hard to start. The culmination of their hard work and all of the merchandise still in stock didn’t matter anymore. He walked away from it all. The sign that he left behind said:
CLOSING SALE. ALL ITEMS ARE NOW FREE OF CHARGE. TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED AND LEAVE THE REST FOR SOMEONE ELSE. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
Samantha paced the house. She was a nervous wreck. August hadn’t called and let her know how things were going. Did he sell the SameSoul? Would they get enough Credit for what was to come? August needed this. He had worked so hard with Sweets, Inc., and with Montek before that. He had earned an early retirement. So what if they were only in their thirties? If Montek was going to pay significant Credit, then retirement it would be.
Just as she was mulling over how useful Woodrow would be on this lifelong trip around the world, helping August so he could still invent and work with tech the way he liked to do, the front door was thrown open and scared Samantha half to death.
“Honey, I’m home!” August called out loudly.
Samantha ran to him and slapped his arm a little bit harder than if she were only kidding.
“You scared the heck out of me, sweets!” she exclaimed. “Why didn’t you call? What’s the word? Did they buy the SameSoul? Are we free?”
August looked down at his feet and stuck his hands into his pockets. He kicked at invisible piles of dirt, as if embarrassed.
“Well, I wanted to surprise you is why I didn’t call,” August said ashamedly. “Mr. Stevens came by the shop, and I told him about the SameSoul, but he didn’t believe me.”
“He didn’t believe you?” Sam asked incredulously. “Why on Earth not?”
“Well, I only have the one untested prototype, you see. Can you blame him for not takin’ me at my word?”
Samantha shook her head. She had never even considered that it wouldn’t work. Everything August made always worked. Why wouldn’t the people at Montek know that?
“So they didn’t want it?” she said, her voice growing tight with worry. “What are we going to do, sweets?”
August patted the air with his hands to calm Samantha down. “Now hold on, babe. I didn’t say that,” he said. “Mr. Stevens called the home office, and someone else wanted to talk to me. This new fella believed me and made me an offer.”
Samantha felt relieved instantly. The Credit wasn’t the important thing, not even close. As long as the journey could still happen… as long as August would get to travel the world like he had always dreamed… that is what mattered. “So you dealt with a real management type, huh?” she said, acting impressed. “Fancy that, sweets!”