Finding Paradise Continued
The days came and went, where things more or less calmed down into a new routine. Valerie took the long drive into San Diego and back on most days. Once or twice a week, she'd spend the night with her mother or her sisters, because she always liked to keep in touch with what was going on with them. Valerie's relatives pestered her for money all the time, even after she told them that Nick was in charge of the winnings.
Valerie was very happy on the day that she took the credit card statements from her relatives, one statement per family. She filled out checks from her personal bank account, to the tune of five thousand dollars each, and put them in the payment envelope. Most everyone in her family was happy Valerie did that, as she'd just spent twenty thousand dollars on them. They even threw a small party for her at a restaurant they all went to on special occasions.
For the next few days, Valerie closely watched her three sisters. Two of them were happy with her, now that the novelty of Nick having won the lottery had lost its initial fervor. One sister was treating Valerie the same as always, while another was kissing her butt just a little. Valerie could tolerate that as long as it didn't get any worse. The biggest disappointment was Renata, who resented that Valerie had gotten this big financial blessing and not her. The jealous Renata was spending hundreds of dollars on the lottery, she heard. Not even four days after Valerie had paid off a significant part of her credit card debt, and Renata went off on a shopping spree buying a bunch of expensive things she didn't even need. Renata was nice to Valerie's face, but behind her back she spit the most loathsome venom about her. Valerie could have thrown the messages her sister had sent to her husband into Renata's face, except she didn't want to start any scandals among her relatives, and especially not against Renata's husband and children.
The long drive was the worst part, as sometimes it would take up to three hours of Valerie's day. The stubborn woman didn't want to quit her job, even after Nick insisted that she could afford to. Valerie liked her simple duties as a maid cleaning the same rooms over and over at the hotel. She liked gossiping with the other maids about what their husbands and sons and daughters were up to. At the end of every second week, she liked having a nice little check coming to her. Before, she'd used her money to help Nick pay the bills, but now she was taking her mother out to eat, or buying little things for herself or her nephews. The children didn't care that she was Mrs. Moneybags now; they would squeal with delight over little five-dollar trinkets.
The management for The Seagulls' properties had both Nick and Valerie's phone numbers. One evening while they were walking the beach, both their phones went off at the same time.
"Code red on the highway to Tijuana." Valerie read the message. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know." Nick shrugged. "Let me give them a call."
Nick spoke with a rep for a few minutes, before he ended the conversation and gave his wife a frown.
"What is it, Nick?" Val asked. "What's happening?"
Nick too a deep breath. "I guess there are bad people dropping nails on the highway going north. They're flattening people's tires. When the cars pull over on the side of the road, these, I guess you can call them bandits, they come out to kidnap the drivers."
"You can't be serious!" Val balked. "I use that road all the time now!"
"The federal police are increasing their patrols..."
"I don't care about that!" Val snapped. "How can bandits just pull people out of their cars like that? How can the government let them get away with it?"
Nick watched his wife becoming nervous, enough that she started walking around in a tight little circle. He said, "Things should calm down once they catch the bandits."
"Do you know what they do to kidnap victims in Mexico?" Val asked. "They cut off their fingers to send them to those people's families as proof! Even after the ransom is paid, they kill most of the victims anyway!"
"We have to be a little more careful on the highway..."
"I drive on that road all the time!" Val shouted. "No, Nick. No! I'm not going through any of this shit! Do you understand that?"
"What are you going to do?" Nick asked, knowing it was out of the question to ask his wife to quit her job. He'd tried that half a dozen times before.
"I'll stay with my mother." Val decided. "I'll stay with her during my work week, and I'll drive here on my days off." She looked at her husband. "It's the only way I can be sure that nothing will happen to me. We're paying a monthly toll to use that road! There should be police patrols on the road all the time!"
Nick's shoulders sank like those of a defeated man. For the last quarter century, he'd always had his wife next to him. Thanks to this drastic turn of events, Val was going to be out of town most of the week, from that day forward.
"Let's go to the fish market." Matt said, three mornings later.
Nick had been moping around ever since Valerie had begun staying at her mother's. He couldn't even talk to his wife too long on the phone, thanks to the high international rates between the two countries. Nick dearly missed his wife.
"What's at the fish market?" He asked.
"We might see a lot of fish there." Matt laughed. "Come on, get dressed. We'll have breakfast somewhere first, unless you want to make a disaster in the kitchen again. After that, we'll have a walk through the market. Let's go!"
For breakfast, they ate Huevos Rancheros, which were fried eggs on tortillas topped off with Ranchero sauce, and generous sides of refried beans and chorizo. After the meal, the brothers went on a tour of the bazaar, which was full of Mexican blankets, ponchos, ceramics and other goods. The large fish market came next, where the catches were taken from the boats and directly to the vendor stands.
The brothers had lunch in the front patio of a seafood restaurant. They ordered plates of raw oysters and clams, mixed in with cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and jalapenos. For drinks, they had a Michelada, a sort of Bloody Mary with beer and ice. The cups were topped with chili sauce and garnished with celery and lime.
"I know investors have tried this before," Matt mentioned. "But Rosarito produces a lot of commercial goods. I wouldn't be the first guy wanting to import some of this stuff into the U.S."
"There's no market for it." Nick replied.
"Not in San Diego." Matt said. "But what about further north? Maybe people in Oregon or Washington would buy it. You know, the way people buy merchandise themed after the rural Southwest?"
"People from the Southwest buy stuff themed from the Southwest. Besides, the import taxes in moving the stuff from one country to the other will probably make your little business venture unaffordable. You saw how much money they got from us just for letting a small moving truck through."
"Yeah, the taxes will be high, I'm sure." Matt considered. "But think about it. How about a mid-size truck full of blankets and ponchos at, well, at a place like a swap-meet in Los Angeles? Or maybe I can warehouse the merchandise and sell it wholesale to people who can drive it out to the swap-meets and sell it themselves."
"People don't have any spending money in San Diego." Nick reminded him. "Not for those thick winter blankets we saw. People can buy a set of bed sheets for ten bucks."
This time, Matt took a longer time to think things over. "Not in So Cal, but maybe up north where it gets colder, or in the northern states like I said. I think I'll ask around to find out how much things cost to produce around here, and how much it will cost to get them across the border. Do you want to go half and half if I find something worth investing in?"
"Maybe." Nick shrugged. "I'll put up five grand, I guess. Are you sure you can make it work?"
"I can't tell you that yet." Matt replied. "Let me find out what it will take first. Trust me, I don't want to throw five grand into the trash either."
Valerie spent the next couple of days in the new house. She made breakfast for both brothers, before Matt went off to the bazaar and fish market. Nick would hang out with his wife, making love to her, taking her for walks in town or along the beach, and eating at places he and Matt had found previously.
