Heartbreak And Hope Ch 12

Covid does not exist in this story world.

In this story, all history 2016 and after is different. Read NO political objective in this story.

Heartbreak and Hope Ch. 12

Monday, August 17, 2020

Jennifer and I were having an evening at home when her phone rang around seven. She showed me the caller ID which showed Gao Yanmei. She shrugged and answered the phone on speaker, "Hello?"

"Jennifer Simmons, this is Gao Yanmei, though I suspect you already know that from caller ID. What you may not know but suspect is that I have an executive position. I am a director at MOFCOM, The Chinese international trade ministry. I am calling to ask you specifically what you need. The list you provided us is rather generic and I have been tasked with making sure this order goes through correctly and this mess can be put behind us."

Though her speech was a bit formal, her English had very little accent and it was clear she had extensive training in our language.

Jennifer shrugged at me and with a bit of uncertainty, said, "Uh, Okay."

Gao Yanmei was very observant "I hear that I am on speaker. That is okay, but may I ask who is with you?"

I shrugged and Jennifer answered, "My husband, Joshua. Uh, Mrs. Yanmei."

Gao Yanmei lightened the mood, "Relax, Jennifer and my name is Yanmei and please call me that. In China, surnames are first. I will take little of your time tonight. As I said, I have been tasked with making sure the agreed shipments of Christmas Decorations and shipping containers are done without further incident. I am also aware that you know that the incident was never supposed to happen."

"Corruption is not tolerable and when it causes international incidents, corruption is punished. Several people have been tried and recently sentenced to decades long sentences. Those motors were supposed to be first quality and they were not. When they arrived back from The Cornwall Islands, we tested them ourselves and found them wanting. It was not directly the motor company's fault except for the fact that they did not test the motors sufficiently before shipment. The copper windings inside the motors were fraudulently labeled as pure when they were not and this caused them to overheat when under load, but not when they were briefly tested at the factory without a load. The motor company received a large fine while several people in the company that supplied the windings have received lengthy sentences for fraud."

"My call is to assure you that I am going to personally make sure the things you ask for are first-rate."

Interesting to say the least. The phone call did not last much longer after that and they made arrangements to talk on the phone Wednesday at five in the evening, our time which I figured out was five in the morning in Beijing. In other words a painful time to be up and already working. It was clear that Yanmei and the government in China were serious about getting the order done correctly.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Knowing that Jennifer was going to have a busy evening, I brought home a ready-to-eat meal from the Tesco Express near the end of our street and found my wife busily going through her laptop looking at things on Alibaba, taking notes, and paging back between web tabs and pages of similar items. I walked in the door and she did not even notice me until I knocked on the door frame of her office and she looked up with a smile, "Oh, sorry. I was just looking..."

She smiled brighter when I plopped her hot and ready Swedish Meatballs dinner on her desk then sat down on her futon and asked her about her day. That got me a huge smile as she happily told me about her day between bites of food. She was debating between certain very similar blue glass Christmas ornaments from half a dozen suppliers. Was I actually interested in the subtle differences between the ornaments? Of course not, but I got a ton of 'good listener' points and it helped settle her mind, bouncing ideas off me as she removed a couple of the possibilities.

Gao Yanmei called at exactly five and they started going back and forth, posting links and going from page to page. Jennifer looked at me, smiled, then dismissed me, "Busy! Go somewhere!"

I took this as my cue to get out and headed to The Fountain for a couple of hours of just relaxing in a place I knew I was welcome. Lisa was bartending and gave me a bit of side-eye of why I was alone. I explained and she looked a bit skeptical. I knew she would somehow ask Jennifer about it to check up on me. It's all good because she has my wife's back and I have no problem with that.

I got home around eight and Jennifer was still on her call. Ugh! Jennifer ended the call after FIVE HOURS as they went page after page on the Alibaba website selecting...

Everything.

Finally, just after ten, she came out of her office and into our bedroom, kissed my cheek, and sat next to me to fill me in. Damn! MOFCOM was serious about the order. China was going the extra mile to ship the containers with the roll-up doors already installed, the side door opening reinforced, precut, and framed along with some windows pre framed waiting installation of the sliding Lexan panels. The roof kit was to be pre-assembled and in two ten foot long sections to fit inside of each container.

She had a long list of Christmas decor in her hand which she showed me but did not make me read.

Thank heavens for small miracles and thought tired. Jennifer looked satisfied with herself that she had done good for her project which put her in an amorous mood. Being tired, she wanted our session soft and lazy. That look as we made love as she looked up with a happy content smile and an "I love you, Joshua."

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Jennifer had a conference call that evening and this one included everyone involved in the Christmas market as everyone including Charles Hall wanted to know the results of her phone call the previous night. She wanted my company so had it on speaker as she leaned on me, taking my hand and putting it across her stomach in a from behind, loose embrace.

Charles complimented her but took a bit of the wind out of her sails when she mentioned she liked Gao Yanmei. Charles cautioned, "Jennifer I love your enthusiasm, and your work has been exemplary. That being said, remember that Gao Yanmei works directly for the government of China and everything she does has everything to do with advancing their interests here. She may be nice, but she is not your... or my friend. It does sound like good news as far as getting the items we need in a timely manner."

I think Jennifer felt a bit played, but understood and Charles read her well then followed up by complimenting her work again, saying everything looked good for the launch of The Christmas Market and that it was looking to be the best ever. That was the way Charles ended the meeting and left my wife smiling.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

The peak hurricane season started in earnest and Movie Max was taking no chances in scheduling major activities. We met the shuttle van at eight that morning to head to a nice place on the edge of West Park named Ernestine's which had a pretty mundane menu and only stuck out because it had a private back room for parties and the quality of the food was very good as usual.

Jay was our host that morning and started with the usual greeting, "Good Morning Couples!"

He continued, "I know the recent adventures of late have been modest and this is by design. The grander adventures take a while to organize and hurricane season can mess up weeks worth of preparations. We have another rather low-key adventure today at a remote beach noted for its beauty and good waves for surfing."

It was one of the 'sex highlight' video mornings for the month. Nick and Hannah received extra bonuses for a rather intense session while she was in ballet dancer position which followed some intense bent over the half wall shower sex. It was certainly vigorous, but looked too much like commercial porn, but without the bleached hair, plastic tits and too much makeup. You could see there was no connection; not love or hate. Just intense determination. Movie Max thought it was a hit... I guess.

We got back into the shuttle van, taking an hour and a half long trip to the southern part of the island. Another picture postcard scene at a beach perhaps a mile long between areas of higher rocky cliffs both East and West on the south coast of the island. Two distant tropical storms were churning up waves along with a pretty stiff wind from the south. This was the first time we heard about the 'Twin Storms' Henry and Ileana.

We met our surfing coaches Jack, Lewis, Nathan, Bradley, and Liam who gave us a brief tour of the beach, explaining why the beach had the perfect topography for a surfing beach. I sort of understood because of my engineering background, but nodded along as if I truly understood to be polite, figuring they knew what they were talking about. We were paired up with Jayson and Cara and had Liam as our coach.

If you have paid any attention to my tale, you will be zero surprised alpha chick Cara was up and riding the waves on her own the quickest which frustrated Jayson a bit as he didn't quite seem to figure out the balance thing quite right. I'm not weak, but I'm more 'Men's Fitness' and he tended a bit more 'Muscle Mag' and being a bit more on the muscular side he was top heavy and that exaggerated any mistake he made. It took me a bit longer than Cara, but I was the second to figure out the balance thing and had a great time then helped my wife as Liam helped Jayson who finally figured out how to use his strength to maneuver the board as he needed. Liam shook his head that the method was not correct but Jayson did not care as it worked for him.

What a fun day! A few hours later, we were all under our own beach shelters having lunch followed by more surfing. Most of us had figured out the balance thing by lunchtime and would head out with our spouses throughout the day then come back, talk with friends and just enjoy the awesome day.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

The day was spent rock climbing on a very large rock wall created from a rock wall in an abandoned quarry an hour south of town. It was fun, but you likely don't want to know more about it other than I did fairly well once they explained a few techniques to me and with what they had taught me, I could see the hand holds they spoke of once I knew what to look for.

Just as we finished up, I received a text that at eight that evening, I was looking at possibly having my movement restricted late the following week. The storms, Henry and Ileana had both strengthened to category one, but were ten or so days out from us if they hit us at all. At that point it was a courtesy call so I could warn Jay who nodded and explained the next several weeks were all easy to cancel or move dates around. They had long figured hurricane season could cause problems.

Saturday, August 29, 2020

The shuttle bus took us an hour South and a bit West of Somerset to a hilly, almost mountainous area and into a smaller town where we parked along the main street and holy shit! Another place so cool it seemed unreal. Harrisburg was nothing like its namesake in Pennsylvania at ten blocks long and about three blocks deep along a river valley with the main business street, Kenneth Road, laid out along the shores of Wood Lake. Two and three story Victorian style buildings lined one side of the street while most of the other side was a city park along the shore of the lake which was formed by damming the Wood River.

Jay had a giant smirk as if saying, 'I have no end of cool places to show you.'

Jay waited for us to assemble on the sidewalk then began, "Good morning couples! Today, we have a treat for you for breakfast then we are headed back to the North end of Somerset to put you to work!"

Yeah, that was a surprise, but I knew there was a catch or something unusual as I could not see them taking video of us picking up litter.

"First, we have another adventure for breakfast at Wood Lake Dam Restaurant which has great food and the view... Wait until you see!"

The town was designed to charm and like pretty much everything else built on the island, everything was a facade over reinforced concrete. Still, the mix of Victorian styles from Tudor to Queen Anne gave the town charm with small businesses, mostly restaurants or food places like bakeries or those serving the farm areas to the North, occupying the first floor while the floors and above held apartments. We walked a half block East of the main part of town then walked across to the street to what looked like a very large Queen Anne style home, complete with turret on the left front corner.

We did not go up the front porch stairs at the center, but rather up a newer stair at the left side of the porch near the turret. We went back and into a door on the left side where Jay talked briefly with a woman at a podium. Once he had checked in, we were taken through a couple of smaller dining rooms to a set of stairs down an all glass rear addition looking over... FUCK!

Wood Lake is the result of damming the Wood River which is in a rather deep gorge which had been scoured out during ancient hurricanes inside the shallower valley. Wood Lake Dam Restaurant was on the downstream side of the dam so the view was of a gorge with a surprisingly large river two hundred feet below us. Someone had quite deliberately planted the far side of the gorge with mostly pink and purple flowering trees and bushes, making the view stunning.

Jay was quite smug as we took in this too perfect to exist view then took us down the stairs and out a door onto a deck overlooking perfection. He gestured grandly at the landscape behind him, "Welcome to the home of Sir Edward Harris, the 9th great-grandson of Sir Kenneth Harris who settled this area in the very early 1700s, coming from the Edinburgh area of Scotland in a story of war and religion and more war that would take a year to tell."

"After rebuilding this new home in 1948, Sir Edward Harris died without children in 1950 and willed the land to The Cornwall Islands. This area of The Cornwall Islands is ideal with lots of hills and rivers and of course, rain. Lots of rain. This part of St Ives Island is at almost three thousand feet in altitude and no matter what direction the wind blows, the air cools, clouds form and it rains every day or three. One river or another catches that rain and we have rivers depending on wind direction. We dammed most of the rivers in the 1930s to form a dozen lakes. As a bonus, each dam generates power which provides a bit over thirty-five percent of the electricity for The Cornwall Islands."

I have to admit I was surprised that The Cornwall Islands would have dams, given that a hurricane bringing a foot of rain was not unheard of so me being the engineer, I raised my hand.

Jay looked at me, "Yes, Joshua?"

I asked, "What about hurricanes?"

Jay just shrugged, "Every dam in The Cornwall Islands was built with a spillway to one side or another. This was done before the big 1946 hurricane as it was long known the island could get enormous amounts of rain in a short time."

He pointed at a large rock outcropping covered in purple flowers, "Behind that outcropping is a large open spillway and yes, every dam has held, even in the 1946 hurricane. The water simply overtopped the spillway and the enormous flood of water went down the far side of the dam wiping out a couple of small villages along the river that were never rebuilt."

He smirked at me, "Any other questions?"

The whole country was designed by engineers then the concrete ugliness was covered by artists and designers. Makes sense to me.

Jay continued, "So The Cornwall Islands took possession of his house and divided it. Originally it was turned into a small inn. Eventually they divided one side into a restaurant and turned the other side and the upper floors into an apartment building. Seven lucky families have the ultimate perfect view out their rear windows."

Jay laughed, "Enough history. Let's eat!"

We had a railside table with a view of... Well, I just blathered at you for a page about it. The food was a typical Cornwall Islands mix of UK and American. A lot of culture went from the UK to the US and vice versa and The Cornwall Islands were a big mish-mash of both. I had a couple of pancakes while Jennifer had a waffle with clotted cream. We managed to finish breakfast while taking a bazillion photos with our phones and you know damn well my overlong list of favorites on the CIS app grew by one yet again.

Once we had completed breakfast, Jay got up, "Okay couples! Today you are going to give back to The Cornwall Islands."

Movie Max had set up a thirty-two inch TV on one of the tables at the far end. Jay hooked his phone to it and brought up a picture... Damn, why didn't I get to live near one of these when I was a kid? Imagine a good sized play structure with slides and bridges and platforms in a typical city park.

Then multiply it by twenty.

Exeter Park is roughly three miles directly south of The Central Fountain and along Stephens Road and the Southern tramline. The 1946 hurricane pretty much wiped out The Cornwall Islands and when they rebuilt, they mostly rebuilt to a grid plan. Near the harbor and within say a couple miles, the roads were very much a grid. As you got further South, only the main streets held the grid and the neighborhood roads began to look more like US suburbs though the lot sizes were kept smaller.

After the 1946 hurricane, the random tangle of roads from the late seventeenth century were removed and all land was expropriated under the post-hurricane declared emergency. Everyone lost their land. There were almost no structures standing or for that matter, trees, so they lost only the land.

Everything was pre-planned and everyone received land in exchange in the new layout. They lost in the short term, but the modern cities of Somerset and Devon, were born. A lottery draw was set up and yes, previous landowners were in the first set of draws and the most valuable land owners were in the first part of the first group.

I know that would never fly in the US, but in The Cornwall Islands, they forced the plan into existence and because of the much smaller scale, at the time only around seven hundred fifty thousand people across both islands, the plan worked. Every family in 1948 in The Cornwall Islands, was a landowner. EVERY family. It was probably just a lot and may not have had a home yet built and some did sell later, but EVERY family got something under the plan.

The net result was of course, the rich guy with a center downtown lot was still the rich guy with the center downtown lot and the poorer renter ended with a residential lot a mile from the center. Still, a decade before, he was now an owner when he had been a renter. I know I blather, well, distributed all nice and neat under the plan, were a good number of parks. One hundred acre Exeter Park was one and that is where we ended up.

Fuck me, they were creating the play structure under the theme, 'Go big or go home'. They made a sixty foot high hill out of harbor dredgings that was perhaps five hundred feet long and a couple hundred deep then put the play structure to end all play structures on top of it. There was a slide that went from the top platform all the way to the bottom and close to a dozen more of varying heights. Platforms and bridges and monkey bars and... Eh, you get the idea.

We got out of the shuttle van and Jay gestured behind himself, "Welcome to Exeter Park!"

We were pretty much silent and I would imagine everyone else was pissed they didn't get such a play area when they were kids.

Jay pointed behind and said, "As you can see, we have quite a project. With the surgegates complete, this year's St. Alexander Island Navy Base payment is going for parks and recreation. This is one of hundreds of projects. Exeter Adventure is the play area being constructed and you are all going to help."