Nathaniel #2
Nothing else was said before we finished getting out of the truck and headed toward the men waiting for us. Terrence and Lou flanked me and Samp so they could be our eyes while we took care of business.
“I take it you all have come to your senses.”
Me and Samp glanced at each other without hesitation because the reason for this meeting had obviously been lost in translation. Lou was behind us laughing not bothering to keep with the austerity they were trying to force into the moment.
“Run that by me again?” Samp took his hat off his head and was toying with the brim. He had a smile dancing on his lips and he looked completely calm. Those of us who knew him could see he was plotting.
The sun was hanging lower in the sky but there was still plenty of sunlight to cast its rays over this meeting.
There were four men standing in front of us and I’m sure to them they felt that they held the advantage.
We were standing at the line between the rest of the state and the start of Black Gold Valley.
They’d wisely stayed out of our jurisdiction.
We’d already agreed that if they tried to strong-arm us, we were laying out everything moving.
They’d come dressed for business but not the type we were looking for.
Suit and ties and a briefcase that held what I’m sure was the paperwork for the sell of the parcels of land they wanted to purchase.
“The land sale. I’m sure you all realize that this is the way of the future. There’s no way you can believe you can fight the natural order of things.”
“Natural order?” Terrence was disgusted because he’d been the person most directly affected by what they were trying to do. The idea that we were coming here to give in was laughable.
“Technology is the way of the future. You all get the money that you need for your families—”
“This muthafucka think we broke.” It was my turn to laugh because this was how you knew people didn’t do their research.
“We know that the Chisholm-Loves have been successful but with the way beef is having issues right now—”
“Bad beef. Low quality beef. From farmers that have sucked their wealth off the teat of the public for generations. That ain’t ever been something that Black farmers have done.
We’ve hustled. Saved. Reinvested profits.
How you think everyone is still able to hold their land after all these years?
See you looked at the demographics of this area and thought to target us.
Black, seemingly low income. But that’s why you should do more research instead of thinking that Black means broke. ”
Their spokesperson took a look at one of his partners.
He must have been the person who was in charge of finding shit out about us.
If I had to put money on it, they probably wanted the land I now owned and my getting it made them assume we were now cash poor.
The timeline from when they started moving in and the purchase of my place were all too close for it to be a coincidence.
“Now don’t make this a race thing—”
“I hate when racist muthfuckas say shit like that.” I glanced at T and he had his hands tucked in his belt loop. It looked innocent enough but I knew his gun was right there.
“It’s their go to.” Lou cosigned and we needed to wrap this up before somebody got irritated and bullets flew.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to leave and not ever come back trying to do anything with buying up our land to ruin it with a surveillance state.”
“Come on now. We’re offering a lot of money for people. You guys are going through issues. I’ve heard through the grapevine you’ve had strangers coming onto your land. Things being stolen.”
They were either stupid or thought we were. Neither were going to work out for them.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” Sampson’s tone was flat, making him sound as though he were sincerely asking if they had information he didn’t.
“Wish I did. But if you okayed the cameras going up around town—”
Sampson nodded at me and I happily interrupted this stupid sales pitch.
“Then we’d know that the man who was on my property is the one trying to scare people into giving up their land. A man that’s connected to you by the way.” I was grinning as I delivered the news they thought they’d kept quiet.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean what do I mean? You think we got this big by not knowing what the fuck was going on in our town?” Now they’d insulted Sampson and that wouldn’t end well.
The men glanced at one another before their designated spokesperson opened his mouth to lie again. “Now would you—”
“Samuel Jacobson. You reside at 2874 Holly Hill Parkway. Your children go to a private school in Connecticut, great way to make them hate you by the way. Your wife is fucking her pilates instructor but I don’t think you consider it cheating since her instructor is a woman.”
I was reading off the list of information on them that I’d committed to memory as Sampson leaned against the side of his truck with a grin on his face.
“How do you—”
“Doesn’t matter how we know. It only matters that we know. That and a lot more. See you thought because you were a conglomerate that you were able to come through here and offer money to some families that might not be as well off on paper as you believe.”