FOE Family First Chapter 35 Another Poor Man Taking Risks
"Is this what you get for working part-time for four hours a day? If I were the owner of this fishing boat, I wouldn't pay you a penny." Melonie covered her nose with one hand and waved the other hand to dispel the fishy smell from the small fishing boat.
Tommy Hawke blocked his nostrils with a clip and skillfully checked the various equipment on the fishing boat, including the circuits, generators , coolant, sails, rigging, fish hoists, water pipes, batteries, spare fuel, and spare batteries. Hearing Melonie's words, he said, "Mr. Rocco Vardman originally agreed to lend me another fishing boat that I cleaned up myself for a ride, but he changed his mind at the last minute and took the clean boat out to sea himself. This is his other fishing boat, and I haven't had time to clean it. It was my job today."
"There are two policemen on the dock, looking over here, Tommy." Melonie looked around and suddenly said, "Do they know what we're going to do?"
Tommy looked up and saw two young patrolmen on bicycles stopping to catch some fresh air on the dock. He looked away and continued to straighten the rigging: "Why don't you just ask them yourself?"
"Me? Ask them?" Melonie didn't respond.
"Good afternoon, officers." Tommy stood up and waved at the two mounted policemen. He shouted in the same teasing tone as the fishermen used to say, "How about coming aboard for a ride? We're going to smuggle some American goods to Cuba and bring back two hot Cuban girls to make a killing!"
"Make more money, kid. I hope I can see you return from Cuba with a full load in my lifetime." The police on the shore waved his hand and laughed, "Also, before you go out to sea for smuggling, I suggest you clean up that wreck. I need to remind you that if this ship goes to Cuba, it will be a disgrace to Americans. In addition, Cuban women also have aesthetic tastes. They are not blind and will not board any rotten ship."
When Tommy Hawke told the police that he was going to smuggle, Melonie was so frightened that she stood still. She didn't feel relieved until the police responded: "Are you crazy, Tommy? What if the police suspect you..."
"Aunt, if the policeman believes me, he's crazy." Tommy Hawke walked into the cockpit, skillfully started the fishing boat, and headed towards the dark blue ocean. "If the smugglers don't want to torture themselves, they will never use this kind of outdated fishing boat that needs to be manually steered the entire time for smuggling. It takes us six or seven hours to get the goods. If Dennis's mother, Mrs. Herbers, who weighs nearly 200 pounds, has mastered the skill of riding a bicycle on the sea, she might arrive faster than us."
“How do the smugglers get the goods?”
"For real smugglers, time is money. Their speedboats only need two to two and a half hours to reach the processing ship from the port, and then another two and a half hours to sail back to the land with at least four hundred boxes of cigarettes. With three round trips, they can earn back the cost of buying a speedboat. The money earned in three days is enough to buy a mansion in Boston." After adjusting the course, Tommy Hawke took out a cigarette, lit it, and looked at Melonie next to him:
"After listening to this, do you think you deserve the title of smuggler? I have said it many times that we are just poor people selling cheap cigarettes and we are not worthy of the title of smuggler."
Melonie was a little nervous when she first went out to sea, but after Warwick disappeared on the horizon behind her, she realized that the surroundings were just as Tommy Hawke had said. There was still an endless stream of fishing boats, and from time to time the public channels could be heard with all kinds of vulgar jokes or off-tune singing from the fishermen. It was far from being as desolate and lonely as she had imagined, and she gradually relaxed.
It was not until night fell, when the searchlight on the ship was turned on and Tommy Hawke began to join the public channel to continuously report his position, that Melonie, who was almost suffocating, understood why the police did not believe that they were going to Cuba for smuggling. The speed was too slow. Perhaps Castro had died of old age and Cuba had completed the revolution before their ship could drift to Cuba.
"Hold on, we're here," Tommy Hawke said after finishing another call on the radio.
Melonie, who was dozing off in her cotton coat, raised her head and looked around. This time, without Tommy Hawke's reminder, she saw a mountain-like freighter in front of her. There was a huge Marlboro cigarette brand printed on the hull of the freighter. The ship was brightly lit, and people and machines could be seen moving around on the ship.
There are many transfer barges with strong searchlights on moored around the freighter. The freighter continuously delivers cargo to the barges, which then load the cargo to the ships that come to pick up the cargo. After loading the cargo next to the barges, several speedboats roared, creating white waves in the inky black sea, and disappeared into the night in the blink of an eye .
Melonie witnessed the entire process of a speedboat passing by not far from her fishing boat, mooring next to the barge, quickly loading the cargo, completing the delivery, and then disappearing from her sight.
What shocked her even more was that the other party's speedboat had disappeared, and the fishing boat she was on, which Tommy had boasted to the police was going to Cuba for smuggling, was still moving at a snail's pace and could not get close to the nearest barge .
"Now I understand why you said Mrs. Herbers could ride a bicycle faster than us, and why the police didn't believe us." Melonie said in amazement: "We don't deserve it."
Finally, we approached a barge. Several employees wearing Philip Morris uniforms and flashing headlights came over and shouted at the fishing boat:
"Hey, this is a tobacco processing ship, not a fish transfer ship. This is the second fishing boat tonight. Has your fishing company changed its business?"
They thought that Tommy Hawke's fishing boat had docked at the wrong place. Tommy walked out of the fishing boat wearing a heavy raincoat to protect against the wind and waves: "Carlo Leon, I called before, and Mr. Will from Miami introduced him."
"Carlo Leon?" The head employee heard Tommy's words and looked through the reservation information in his hand under the overhead light: "It shows that you need 200 boxes."
"It's me." Tommy nodded.
After checking the order, the employee looked up at Tommy and said, "Then you have to pay me forty thousand dollars."
Tommy Hawke handed over the 40,000 yuan that Melonie had pledged to the other party. After the employee counted it, he handed it to his colleague who was in charge of collecting the money. He gave a few instructions on the intercom, and soon two hundred boxes of cigarettes were transferred by the crane on the barge and loaded into the cargo hold of the fishing boat. No manual operation was required throughout the process, which made Tommy Hawke once again sigh for the thoughtful service of the capitalists.
"Hey, buddy, remember to increase the horsepower of your boat next time you come. The time it takes me to do one business with you is enough for me to load three speedboats." While watching Tommy Hawke leave, the tobacco company employees on the barge couldn't help teasing the shabby-looking fishing boat.
The fishing boat left the barge, adjusted its course, and began to slowly sail northward toward the Gulf of Maine. Melonie excitedly looked at the cigarettes, turned back to the cockpit, and found that Tommy, who was driving the boat, looked a little strange, as if he was thinking about something:
"What's wrong?" Melanie asked.
Tommy said: "The employee of the processing ship said that I was the second fishing boat to approach tonight."
"So? Is there something strange?" Melanie asked in confusion.
Tommy took a sip of whiskey to ward off the cold. "That means there's probably another poor guy who's as desperate as I am."
