The 'Cousins'

Part Twenty-Four: The First Trade

Timeline: Evening, Thursday April 19th. The internet satellite connection is installed, the air-con unit bought to trade. Sales lectures are done; Greg and Jess set out to make their first trade.

Greg took Jess’s early arrival as a sign of enthusiasm for their projects following the previous evening’s lectures and it added to his delight in seeing him waiting outside the chalet.  

But Jess’s listless movements, as he brushed the aircon unit with the cloth, his general languid attitude and lack of a smile rapidly dampened this belief.   Greg felt a spasm of annoyance swell inside him as he watched Jess. The boy just sat on the bench without speaking or offering a greeting.  He looked miserable  making only a feeble attempt to  clean the air con unit.

‘This is not how it should be. After all I am doing this for you.’ Greg thought.  He had expected the boy to rush over to him and show his gratitude.  Impatience mixed with self-pity boiled in Greg’s stomach . He was about to erupt in exasperation and wanted to yell, ‘What the hell’s the matter with you now?' 

Fortunately he managed to stifle that impulse by biting his lower lip, It also subdued his own sense of affront at Jess’s casual indifference.  Greg had no knowledge of how Jess’s day had passed or of the boy’s remaining underlying fear fuelled by Felix’s glib and plausible arguments that still gnawed at his vitals; in spite of Greg’s constant protestations to the contrary, it remained at the forefront of Jess’s mind- ‘Was Greg really and truly for real?”

Greg calmed down rapidly and put Jess’s mood down to pre-first sale nervousness. He forced a smile to hide his own feelings waving casually as he called out.

‘Good to see you here so early, Jess. We’re in plenty of time for our appointment with Mr. MacKendrick.  You can help me unload this stuff from the truck.’

Jess sauntered over, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched forwards and head hung low. Greg ignored the negative behaviour, climbed into the back of the truck and passed down packages for the boy to stack on the verandah.

‘What are they,’ Jess asked, showing a glimmer of interest?

‘They are the beginning of our Bio-diesel operation.’ Greg said with a chuckle and while they unloaded the packages he told Jess about making test batches of bio-diesel from clean oil to familiarize themselves with the process and gain confidence in carrying it out before they tackled dirty oil. ‘These, young man,’ Greg said, proudly standing on the back of the truck in a Napoleonic posture, with his fingers tucked inside his shirt, ‘are the valuable pieces of equipment to help us do it, we have plastic bottles, dustbins, funnels and scales among these treasures.’ 

Jess laughed out loud at Greg’s silly pose and claims of value in everyday, cheap household items.  He began to enter more into the spirit of the endeavour, putting his melancholy behind him. Jess was back again to his normal, cheerful and enthusiastic self.  Greg was relieved he had restrained his impatient impulse of a few moments ago to strike out verbally at the boy.

They carried the packages inside the cabin and Greg brought him up to date with his positive visit to the mayor and his offer of a free loan of one of the old stables for their refinery.  ‘Best of all Jess, he’s going to buy all the oil we can make for his school buses.’ 

That called for a ‘happy high five’ a lot of  yelling and bouncing on their feet for a few seconds after which Greg spoke about his trip to Larksville and of his buying the truck .

Jess was astounded. ‘You mean you handed in the hire car and bought that truck, just to help in this waste oil business.’ 

‘I certainly did, you can’t get much waste oil in the trunk of a BMW can you?’ Greg chuckled.  He did not mention finding out he was nearly a dollar millionaire on paper.