Chapter Twelve

THE FIRST SECTION:

Having seen that the streets were cleaner and as back to normal as they could be, Willie and his sisters were allowed out into the street for the day. They were warned, however, not to venture too far away. Once outside, Willie and sisters had different ideas as to what they were going to do. Willie went around to the front of the store and sat down while his sisters ran off down the street, clearly in violation of their mother’s warning.

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The day seemed different to Willie. Gone were the normal pedestrians and traffic that ordinarily swept through at this time. He could hear that there was still a lot of commotion down on the docks, which was unusual in itself because the daily noise on his street would normally drown out the sounds of the waterfront, but just how many people we down there he could not tell. For a moment he thought of following his sisters’ lead and running off to explore the new world a day after yesterday. But as he considered that, he heard his mother’s voice echo out the window from above,

“Just sit here and I’ll fix you something to eat,” he heard her say. He fell back to the ground and thought that the day was going to be a very boring day. A few minutes later Lewis came over and sat down beside him. The two barely spoke to each other and instead sat next to each other staring out into the street.

From time to time they saw various men walking the streets surveying the scene. One man had a crew of three people following him, all were taking down notes as the man pointed at different derelict buildings or lots. Later in the day a man sat down across from them and drew several sketches of the surrounding area. Willie watched the man move from block to block and draw what seemed like the entire street.

As the morning turned to afternoon, the boys became hungry and wandered down a block to the vegetable stand to see what was on the shelf that day. They were disappointed when they saw that there were only a couple of people selling food that day; certainly there was not enough of a crowd to get away with stealing and apple or two. The eeriness of the empty street made Willie shiver and he felt more comfortable sitting closer to home. An odd sense of grief came over him; one that he did not understand. It was almost as though the terrible events from the day before had not ceased, and that more was yet to come. On their walk back to the house Elizabeth caught up with them.

“Hey,” she shouted, “wait up!”

Willie was happy to see her despite feeling a little guilty that he had forgotten all about her in the previous day’s commotion. But with her and Lewis on either side of her, he began to think more about playing in the street and less about the boring day ahead of him. When the gang of three got back to the lot next to Lewis’ home, they found two thin, wooden containers that someone probably used to carry small paper documents in. Without thinking to look inside, they set the containers up on a nearby fence and challenged each other to a stone-throwing contest – the first to knock both containers over with two throws got to choose the next game. This game, however, went on for most of the afternoon, as neither child had neither the arm strength nor the accuracy to knock over even one of the containers.

At some point in the late afternoon the children stopped throwing their stones and turned their attention to two men who were walking around the street as though they were searching for something. The men kept shrugging their shoulders at each other as they looked under staircases, behind bushes and amongst the normal garbage that littered the street. While this seemed exciting at first to the kids, their imagination failed to grab a hold of what the men might be looking for. And so they turned to Lewis to take his turn at throwing the next stone.

“Hey you there,” one of the men shouted as Lewis cocked his arm, “don’t do that!” The two men ran over to surprised children, who stood in the lot looking at each other as though they had no clue what or even who the man was yelling at. “Those are not yours,” he scolded them. He then looked at them calmly and asked, “Where did you find these?”

Willie pointed to the end of the lot where they had found the two containers. For a moment, he thought that he was in trouble, but the man smiled and thanked them for not hitting the containers with the stones. Still not knowing what to do or even what had just happened, the children remained standing with their eyes wide open. Now I wish I had opened them, Willie thought.

But then Elizabeth broke the silence, “Well, since Lewis was the last to throw, why don’t you chose the game then?”

Willie and Lewis looked at each other and said at the same time, “OK.”

But before Lewis could say anything, Willie’s mother spoke through the window, “You had better not play anymore today. William, come inside and Lewis you go to your father.” She then looked at Elizabeth with a curious eye before a smirk came over her face, “I don’t know where you live little girl…what is your name?”

Before Elizabeth could respond Willie blurted out, “That’s Elizabeth!” Instantly, his face turned red and he became embarrassed.

Penelope smiled at her boy and then looked at Elizabeth, “You had better go home too Elizabeth. Maybe you can come back tomorrow OK?”

The young girl gleefully agreed to come back the next day, but only if they would be allowed to play Lewis’ game of ‘invisible’. Penelope, having no idea what that mean, agreed and more sternly asked Willie to come inside.

“There are still people walking around here I don’t like the looks of,” she said, “so hurry up.”

*******

Across town, Richard pulled his carriage up to Coleman’s estate and caught his son-in-law just before he was about to enter his house.

“I just want to tell you Coleman,” Richard said, “that you are definitely wearing tomorrow’s dirty clothes.” That was all Richard had to say, and he left Coleman staring at him, probably wondering what the old fool meant. Richard then turned his carriage back toward his office and focused on his next problem, what was he going to do to take care of Montgomery and Coleman?

When he arrived at the town hall he noticed a figure in his office window. What the hell does he want? he muttered to himself and walked inside.

“Where have you been?” he asked Reginald once inside. “I thought you had left.”

“I had left,” Reginald replied. “I went to Boston and I think I have some good news for you.”

Richard glared at Reginald. He was wary of anything good that Reginald had to say to him. “Well then,” Richard said, “tell me what you have and maybe we can talk.”

“Not so fast,” Reginald said. “I want to make sure you are on board with me. Because if you aren’t I will have to align myself elsewhere.”

Richard scoffed at this remark, “Like who? Are you going to become friends with Edward and Montgomery? They set you back rather well twenty years ago remember?”

Reginald nodded his head and said, “I remember very clearly. But they still do not know whom I am or that they caused me so much trouble then. I could foul their business from the inside you know?”

Richard thought for a moment and then answered, “All right, I am on board. But you have to promise me something.”

“No promises here,” Reginald said. “We do this my way or you fight me while they protect me. It is your call. If I crush them from the inside, they will think that I am one of them and be more than willing to protect me from you. And then…I would have a free reign in this town.”

“So why not just do that then?” Richard asked, “Seems like you would have it all your way.”

Reginald paused and Richard waited for his response. He knew the young man would rather have friends than enemies. “It would be easier and beneficial to both of us I agree,” Reginald finally said, “but my mission is not to make friends necessarily. It is to take out ruthless group. And if that means taking others down with me, then so be it.”

“If you cannot make any promises,” Richard replied, “then neither can I. But I will work with you to the best of my ability. All I ask is that you let me find a way to remain mayor. I cannot lose this position. You understand?”

Reginald agreed and pulled out of a sack the two containers that he had just taken from the children earlier. He opened the containers and pulled out several documents that were rolled up and needed to weights on all four corners to remain flat. Richard peered over them and looked surprised at what he saw. It dawned on him that when Reginald said he wanted a full commitment that he had no real choice.

“These are signed documents from Portland, Salem, Gloucester, New Bedford and Mystic,” Reginald pointed out. “All of them ready to establish a network of trading centers in the northeast. You could choose to compete, but I would think that you would want to jump on board.”

Richard studied the contracts carefully. Each location had a region that it would service exclusively, except that Salem would serve as a shipping port while Gloucester became a fishing community that provided the area with fish to ship out. In some ways the contracts looked similar to the ones that he had drawn up twenty years prior with Edward. Except instead of trying to monopolize one region through one major port, Reginald was trying to out do the larger ports by linking the smaller ones, and thus capturing a market that was difficult to capture through places like Boston.

“As you can see,” Reginald continued, “each city has its own exclusive trading rights through my company in their own region. Portland and Salem are hoping for New Hampshire. But I thought that I would give you a chance to jump on before I start sending my ships elsewhere.”

Richard looked sharply at Reginald and thought, How dare he blackmail me like this! Even with the economic conditions as bleak as they were considering the outfall of the war eight years before, business was good for Charlton. And as it currently stood, ships from all over used it as a supply port at the very least. Were his ships already avoiding Charlton? What would be the consequences of losing his business? What was his business anyway? Finally he spoke up, “Just how many ships are you talking about Reginald?”

“Funny you should ask that,” Reginald said with a smile. “I myself only have ten ships. Certainly not enough to pull such a stunt is it? That is where this final contract comes into play. You see this list of companies?”

Richard studied the companies on the list. All of them he recognized and most had done business in Charlton at one point or another. In fact, four had recently sold their warehouses on the waterfront back to the city. They were still sailing in, but doing much less business than they had been doing prior to selling their local stock. So how many ships does these companies have combined then?

“Look,” Reginald said, “you do not have to join up. But I will get Charlton as a port one way or another and you can profit it from it or lose out. There are fifteen companies here and over one hundred seventy-five ships between them. All small companies willing to join to together to share business with the hopes of expanding their markets and lowering costs. Why bring a shipment of tobacco from Carolina to Boston when you can unload it in Baltimore knowing that you will easily sell your stash and make your trip shorter?”

“But you don’t have Baltimore here.” Richard pointed out.

“Nor Boston nor anything in the Carolinas,” Reginald continued, “just yet. Already we are shortening trips in the northeast. A merchant from Mystic travels to Salem and exchanges his shipment with another merchant who is going from Salem to Portland. The better we can coordinate this, the more profitable we will become and the greater distance we can cover.”

“So what is in it for Charlton?” Richard asked.

“Guaranteed business,” Reginald answered. “You will have a guaranteed transfer position with Portland and Mystic, and maybe Yarmouth Nova Scotia when it comes on board. But you have to sell me your warehouses. You can keep one or two, but I need four at least. And you need to supply the labor. This neighborhood, Marnie, cannot be in the state it is now.”

“That was not me,” Richard said.

“I know,” Reginald agreed, “I was there when the decision was made to crack down.”
“And you could not warn me?” Richard shouted. “I would have been more cooperative had you let me know this in advance!”

Reginald frowned at Richard and asked, “Would you have? It seems to me that you have little choice but to work with me, now that your enemy here in town has started to take your long earned power away. I could have said something, but this is a much better position to be in do you not think?”

Richard sighed. He walked to the window that Montgomery used to enjoy looking out of when he was mayor. The ships in the port were few, only three compared to the normal five or six that rested in the harbor on any given day. Activity down on the pier was minimal. Most of the porters had failed to show up to work and that meant the ship’s crew were responsible for loading and unloading all of the supplies themselves. Things were definitely moving much more slowly as a result of the riots. He then looked at the seven warehouses that dominated the waterfront. Four of them belonged to Edward and Coleman, and Coleman managed the shipping accounts at the bank. To get the bank and Edward to sell them would be a great break, he thought.

“I have some other news for you,” Reginald interrupted, “Edward is looking to move out of Charlton. He wants to move westward to help open up new shipping lanes beyond the Appalachians. He may be willing to sell. Buy who knows?”

“But how do I convince him to sell a warehouse when he knows I already own three and am trying to resell them?” Richard asked. “He is sure to be suspicious. And I doubt that Coleman will let the bank sell to me. He would stop that just to spite me, even if he had no suspicion himself.”

“Edward is a good businessman,” Reginald replied. “Not an overly honest one, but he still makes sound decisions. He might sell just to get himself some cash. If you go through him then Coleman will certainly be told what to do. But even if that fails, I really think that Coleman will find a way to hang himself someday. He might just need a little push.”

Richard agreed with this assessment, and thanked Reginald for the information about Edward wanting to leave town. He then asked Reginald to give him two days to think things over, which was agreed upon. And then Reginald left Richard standing by the window. A new chance to rebuild what went wrong all those years ago? Richard thought. I hope so.