Easy Money: Chapter 7, The Big Deal

A couple of days latter, Tom sat sipping his coffee in the living room. He had left the task of selling the coke to Jim as agreed; he would see Jim every once in a while talking to a group of hostel residents, probably offering them coke. He talked little to Jim during that time; Jim told he was working on it, and that he had been visiting all the other hostels (there were a few of them in this neighborhood), trying to find new clients for their new merchandize, and that he things were going well. He also told Tom that the clients were quite satisfied with coke, some even saying it was the best they ever had.

Tom was joined by a group of new comers, and they all sat around one of the antique wooded tables in the living room. All the others had just arrived the day before to the hostel; Sean, Lisa and Adam, the former two were English the later an American. The population of a hostel is one of those ever changing things, every day there are new faces around. The exception to that being those few who decide to stay in the city to study or work; they usually rent an apartment, but never the less still show up at the hostel to socialize and meet new travelers. “I want to get some coke guys; I heard its dirt cheap here. Do you want some too?” Sean asked the others. That caught Tom’s attention, until that point he was not paying much attention to the conversation. “How much is it?” Lisa replied, “I heard it is 15000 a gram” Sean replied. “That’s about 3 Pounds, I paid 50 Pounds back in England” Lisa exclaimed. “That’s like five US dollars, sure I’ll buy some” Adam replied. “I’ll join too” Lisa added. “We’ll get 10 grams then” Sean suggested, looking at his friends, who seemed to nod in approval. Tom was now attentively listening to the conversation, and started thinking: “Why not offer them some of the coke he and Jim had, that way he could help Jim in selling the stuff; and the sooner they sell it the sooner he can leave for the coast”. “I can get you some Charlie if you want, I know somebody who has some very good stuff”. He said it, surprising even himself, but the words have already gone out of his mouth, and he kept his nerve. “Who do you get the stuff from?” Sean asked, “Some local dealer I got to know, it is very good stuff, I assure you” Tom replied, “Alright, we’ll give you the money and you get it for us” Sean said, looking at his friends for approval; “Fine by me” Lisa said, “I don’t have a problem with” Adam replied, and they each reached for their pockets and handed Tom 50,000 Pesos each.

Tom pocketed the money, and went to see Jim at his apartment, which was about fifteen minutes walk from the hostel. He knocked on the door, and a few seconds later he heard Jim voice from the other side, asking who is it? “It’s me; Tom”. Jim opened the door, “Come on in mate”, he said. They both went into the living room, there on the table in front of couch was an open bottle of Ron, and Tom could smell the Ron from where he was standing. The TV was on; it was showing a porn video of two Latin women having lesbian sex. “Cheap pirated porn, 3000 pesos for a movie”, Jim commented. “How about a sip of Ron”, “Sure” Tom poured some Ron into the bottle’s cap and skulled it. “I need 10 grams of coke, I got a buyer for it” Tom said in an apprehensive tone; this is not something I am used to doing after all. Jim looked a bit surprised, but then smiled and said, “I didn’t think you had it in you mate” patting Tom on his shoulder, “Give me a second” he added. Jim went to his room and came back with one 10 gram bag coke, and handed it over to Tom. Tom pocketed it in nervously into his pocket. “I’ll see you later then” Tom headed out. He found his buyers still waiting for him in the living room. He handed Sean the 10 gram bag, “You can’t do the coke in the hostel though, it is best to do it in some club” he advised them.

Now that the transaction has been successfully executed, Tom sat down in the patio contemplating his actions. He felt surprised by himself, even a little afraid, as one would when venturing into new grounds. Until two days ago he would not have imagined himself dealing drugs. They were going to do it anyway, and if I did not provide them with the coke, they would he found it somewhere else, he thought to himself. Then he decided he would go see Jim and tell him about the successful deal.

He went back to see Jim in his apartment, he found him still watching porn. Tom sat down at the couch next to Jim, and poured himself another shot of Ron. “How did it go?” Jim asked. “It went well; I got 150,000 for the 10 grams”. “Well done mate, well done”, Jim said grinning. “How is it going with the rest of the coke?” Tom asked, “Well, I managed to sell about 200 grams, and made about 800 Pounds. I am running out of clients to sell though, I could wait for some new comers to sell them, but it is a slow process, and it could take us three weeks to sell all this stuff, if we are lucky” Jim paused for a moment then added: “But I have an idea, I am thinking to sell 1Kg of this stuff straight to this dealer; the one I used to buy my coke from, Pablo. The street price for that is 1000 Pounds; it is less hassle and we get rid of most of the stuff in one go”. Tom thought for a moment; what is the sense of staying here for three more weeks to make the money, it would be no better than giving the English classes. “Sounds like a good plan”, Tom replied. “I am going to look for Pablo later today”, Jim said. Tom lay back in the couch, and watched the porn.

A couple of hours later Tom got back to his hostel, and Jim went to find Pablo. Tom hanged around in the living room, reading his book; a Spanish novel by some obscure Mexican writer. His Spanish was good; especially the speaking part, but he still struggled when reading Spanish novels, even with a dictionary. But he was determined to make the effort to improve his Spanish, no pain no gain, he told himself. An hour later Jim showed up with a satisfied look in his face, “It’s done, I managed to get 3.5 million pesos for it”, he said. “That’s about 900 Pounds, not bad”, Tom got up from his seat, they shook hands and followed it by a warm hug. “Let’s go to the apartment and I will give you your share of the money”. They went back to the apartment were Jim gave him a large bundle of 20 and 50 thousand peso notes. Tom held the large bundle of money in his hand, he had crossed a line, he would not have thought he would before, he was feeling uneasy about it in the beginning, but now that feeling was being overcome and replaced by a different feeling, that of triumph and euphoria; he had overcome his fears, taking a risk, and was now rewarded with a reward, a reward he was now holding in his pocket. He looked at Jim, and they both grinned, “You want a beer” he asked Jim. “Sure”. “This one is on me, Lets get back to the hostel and have a beer there” Tom said. They went back to the hostel, where Tom went and grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge, and wrote it down under his name. He handed Jim the cold beer, they looked at each other, “To us” Jim made a toast, and they both took a few gulps of their beer before putting them down. “I say we go get some good food tonight, we earned it. How about some Sushi? I heard there is a really good Sushi place up in Zona Rosa” Tom suggested. “I am not a big fan of Sushi, but I am sure I’ll find something good to eat there” Jim answered.