Black Market Merchant

Chapter 108: Appearances
Nathan and Anthony were working in a storage room that had been converted to become his temporary office as Mayor. They were using this storage room because it was one of the few rooms that actually had windows in it and remained separate from the rest of the open-air warehouse. Rather than just waiting for Mrs. Smithy to return with the merchant/ Match Fighter, Lisa, he decided to organize his paperwork. There was a lot of papers scatter everywhere and he hated every second of working with it.

”Anthony can you find the paper about calculating the number of empty houses in the southern area. I found the folder that has the rest of the information.” Nathan said holding up the mentioned folder. ”I saw it not too long ago, uh, in that pile by your left foot.”

Anthony was sitting in a chair next to three opened file cabinets. Papers, notes, and documents were scattered in semi-organized piles. He had a light smile on his face, apparently enjoying the tedious task at hand. Nathan had no clue how the big guy could remember what things was where, but Anthony seemed to recall everything.

”Ya, it is.” Anthony replied as he leaned down and flipped through the stack to about halfway. Then he picked out a single sheet of paper delicately with his thick fingers. ”Ah, here it is.”

Nathan took the paper, glanced over it briefly, then put it into the folder. Then he let out a sigh, ”Well, at least we are making progress. Only about a couple thousand papers to sift through.”

Anthony nodded with agreement. ”It’s such a nice, relaxing, and quiet job. I prefer this to working on the docks for the Black Rats. They were always yelling and making me carry all the heavy stuff. I don’t really like working too hard.”

Nathan picked up another pile and was about to ask Anthony for something when he stopped halfway into asking. They had the office door open, to let in a breeze, when the sound of laughter wafted in. There was nothing wrong with the laughter, but it sounded like several people all at once, which was unusual. Nathan listened intently for a few moments. Then a second bit of laughter could be heard. This time louder than the first.

”Are the guards messing around again?” Nathan grumbled as he stood up from behind the desk. ”They really need to stay focused. The Black Rats are not all gone yet, and they could try sneaking in. Come on Anthony, let us go see what’s going on.”

”Alright, if I must.” Anthony replied with a bit of regret as he put down the paperwork piled on his lap onto an open file cabinet door.

The two of them left the room and started to crisscross around the piles of supplies and randomly assorted creates on the warehouse floor. The sound of laughing a jeer steadily grew louder as they approached the main warehouse entrance. Rounding the last pile, Nathan saw that a large group of militia soldiers were all sitting or standing in a semicircle around a table.

”Come on Wayne, you can pick it up!” Someone shouted from the group.

”Naw, he’s to scrawny.” Another voice mocked.

”Look at his arms shake! How much does that coffin weigh?” A third person remarked.

”Coffin?” Nathan thought curiously. ”What is going on?”

Nathan came up behind the militia men and peaked over their shoulders. In the center of them was a large darkly polished plywood coffin. One of the soldiers, a scraggly young man, was struggling to pick it up by a pair of straps that resembled a backpacks straps and the crowd was enthusiastically cheering him on.

”Gah! I can’t.” Wayne replied letting go of the straps. ”It’s too heavy.”

”Awe, I bet it’s not that heavy. Look at him, he’s got twigs for arms!” Someone on the left called out.

”Then you give it a try!” Wayne retorted pointing at the speaker challengingly.

”Fine, I’ll show you it’s easy.” The speaker replied stepping out from the crowd.

He was a full head taller than Wayne and thicker built too. He casually walked over and picked up the straps. He went to pick it up, yet he did not put much effort into the lifting motion, as a result the coffin showed no sign of movement. He pulled again, this time really trying. His face tightened up as he strained to lift it.

”Are you serious?!” He gasped and let go of the straps. The coffin rocked slightly, but that was all. It never even came off the ground.

”Let me give it a go.” A deep voice called from nearby from Nathan’s right.

Nathan looked over to see a short, but muscular man approaching the coffin. He rubbed his hand vigorously together and grabbed the straps. Giving a tremendous display of power, with his arms bulging and shoulders taught, lifted the coffin off the ground. The surrounding militia troops all cheered him on. Despite his efforts, the man couldn’t go any further than that. The coffin was apparently too unfathomably heavy.

”What brought this on anyway?” Nathan thought as the now growing crowd was getting riled up.

”Awe, come on boys, you lot can do better than that.” A woman’s voice called out.

Nathan didn’t recognize the voice and looked fervently around for the source. He saw a young and pretty good-looking woman sitting at a table with some of the militia troops. The woman tossed her long black ponytail over her shoulder as she leaned forward onto the table to clasp her hands together. On her fair skinned face was a playful, but slightly dangerous looking smile.

Nathan felt immediately felt his chest tighten, “Gorgeous!”

She didn’t have the same tired look and weathered aurora that the rest of the women around here had. She acted much more composed and prideful. Those grey eyes too, Nathan noticed, seemed to be holding back much more that was her outer looks gave off.

”Do I have to show you that’s it’s not heavy?” The woman asked giving a light mocking chuckle.

”There’s no way you can lift that!” The short muscular man retorted, shaking his head.

”Sure, she can.” Wayne replied. ”She’s the one that carried it in here. You just didn’t see it is all.”

”I’ll believe it when I see it.” The other man that tried picking up the coffin called out. Several others around him murmured in agreement.

Nathan couldn’t help but agree with them. The slim woman didn’t appear to be all that overly muscular, just really well toned and fit. Surely Wayne had to be just joking around.

”Fine, don’t believe me.” Wayne scoffed. ”Show them, miss!” Wayne said gesturing to the woman.

”Ok.” The woman said with a shrug and started to stand up.

Nathan was surprised to suddenly realize that the table that she was sitting behind was covering her true height. She appeared to be taller than he was. He then watched curiously as the tall, graceful woman walked up to the coffin.

”Look guys, it’s not heavy.” The woman said grabbing a strap with one hand. Then lifting it effortlessly up on to her shoulder, like a normal school backpack, she gave a victorious grin. She even took a few unlabored steps to fully prove her point.

The onlookers all were in shock, Nathan included. There should have been no way that three grown men couldn’t have barely budged it, but she could. There had to be a trick to it and Nathan wanted to figure it out himself.

”Let me try. Bet it’s not really all that heavy.” Nathan called out over everyone’s talking. Anthony looked at him questioningly but didn’t try to stop him. Nathan continued, ”I want to see if it’s really that heavy or are you all are just pulling a prank.”

The crowd seemed to like the idea and some of them egged him on. The woman also seemed obliged to let him try. She put the coffin down with a light thud and motioned for him to come over.

”Here you go. See for yourself.” She said giving a confident smile.

To many of those watching they were surprised to see that Nathan had stepped out from the crowd and was coming towards the coffin. Someone in the crowd then shouted, ”Hey, the Mayor is going to show us how it’s done!”

”Come on Mayor Dees, show us why you’re the boss!” Another shouted. Then cheers flowed from all sides.

Nathan grabbed the straps with both hands and gave a slight test pull. It felt as solid as a rock and just as dense. Inwardly he felt like he might have made a mistake. However, he couldn’t lose face. The people under his charge were watching him and he had to put in his all. Sitting around doing paperwork all day did not feel like the right way to lead, it had to be through actions.

Taking a deep breath, he lifted hard on the straps. The coffin was ridiculously heavy and he barely lifted up off of the ground. Yet he couldn’t stop there, he had to beat the woman. The sounds of everyone’s cheers drove him on. He kept lifting and reached a height equal to his knees. Then slowly and laboriously dipped down to get his shoulder to get it onto his back. Somehow, he was able to do it and finally stood there with the massive pressure on his back trying not to buckle.

”Well, well. Seems like he wasn’t all talk after all.” The woman remarked to the enthusiastic militia troops.

Nathan couldn’t hold out anymore and dropped the coffin on the ground as his knees nearly gave out. Its solid heavy thud could be felt through the concrete to everyone nearby. He panted heavily and slipped out from the straps to rest his hands on his knees.

”T-that’s actually very heavy.” Nathan said looking up at the woman. ”How are you that strong?”

The woman was about to reply when she was interrupted by another person’s shout.

”Lisa Cunningham?! What are you doing here already?” Everyone looked to see Mrs. Smithy pushing her way through the troops. Gillian was following close behind.

”Ah, Mrs. Smithy. Sorry I didn’t come find you right away at the river.” Lisa said apologetically. ”I actually didn’t even come by boat, but rather walked the long way around along the cliff.”

”You walked around that long cliff!” Mrs. Smithy replied with a surprised look coming to a stop. ”That’s nearly thirty kilometers!”

”Yes, I know that now.” Lisa said giving a laugh. ”I wanted to see if there was a way down it. I was considering building a road or pathway down towards the town from the dam.”

”We can talk about this later.” Mrs. Smithy replied waving her hand in the air and glancing at the troops around them. ”Now is not the time. And you, Mayor Dees, what are you doing? Messing around like this when you should have been negotiating with Miss Cunningham.”

”Oh, we hadn’t made our introductions yet.” Lisa said before Nathan could reply. She even started to casually put back on the coffin while speaking. ”I was just waiting for you to come and having a bit of fun while waiting. In fact, I didn’t know he was the leader around here till you said so moments ago.”

”I see. Well, let’s get the rest of the Council personnel and start this meeting. We have a lot of work to do before dark.” Mrs. Smithy said with a huff turning to go.

”Alright. Everyone back to your posts!” Gillian’s voice boomed out. ”You all should know better than to slack off, and you four.” He said pointing at Wayne and the three with him by the table. ”Go inform the council members.”

The four of them nodded and quickly left the building to scatter in the directions of where the members might be. The crowd then grudgingly dispersed as Lisa, Nathan, and Gillian followed Mrs. Smithy to the back to the others side of the warehouse. It was time to do some negotiating.