Trader Among the Flock

Chapter 1

Joe Gillespie, president of the traders club, gushed when he saw Ivan. Ivan, it’s good to have you back.

Ivan knew he was lying but did his best to seem appreciative, Yeah, well the Feds were wrong. They knew it. They didn’t have a case so they got smart and let me go.

We knew all along the charges were trumped up. What, c’mon, senior citizens taking cash under the table for property? Give me a break! It’s not going to happen.

Yeah, I know. It took a little convincing but the Feds finally realized it themselves. I’m sure after they talked to some of the seniors, they realized that they were decent people who might have become a little confused, didn’t really understand the fine nuances of the transaction. Had the case gone to trial, jurors would have felt tremendous sympathy for these people, many seeing in them their parents and grandparents. I’m sure the more the Feds thought about this, they realized that their whole case could crumble, so they dropped the charges. They realized that trying to convict seniors and putting them on the stand was a huge mistake.

I certainly could understand that, than again, you’re not the kind of guy who would go around trying to rip off seniors.

Of course not, Ivan said, both of them lying through their teeth, and knowing it!

The president was happy when one of Ivan’s sleaze-ball buddies walked up to him, slapped him on the back and said, Good to see ya’. Glad you’re back. Hey, we never doubted your innocence. We knew all along this whole thing would blow over.

Yeah, well, they had my attention for a while.

What’s this we hear about a bird? I never knew you had a bird, a talking one at that.

Yeah, I kept it kind of quiet. Actually I’ve had him since I was a kid. My parents gave him to me, kind of a present. I didn’t have too many friends, so they got him for me.

Not too many friends, hell you’re one of the most popular guys here. That certainly has changed. The bullshit was getting pretty deep now. Both of them realized it. How to end the conversation was the issue. It was soon solved when another member realized Ivan was back.

Ivan, you old son of a gun. Good to have you back! Hasn’t been the same around here since you’ve been gone. Kind of quiet actually, though we’ve all been riveted to the news.

So how come you didn’t come and see me in jail?

You know how it is, Ivan. I don’t feel comfortable going into those places.

You’re not worried someone will recognize you? Maybe keep you there?

No, c’mon, nothing like that. He didn’t like the direction the conversation was going, so bowed out, said he needed a cup of coffee, and left.

Ivan stood awkwardly by himself; the room was filling up, but most were keeping their distance from him. Thankfully the President was about to call the meeting to order, which would break the tension in the room. Ivan’s presence had the ability to create that!

With Ivan there, everyone forgot it was political season and the club had invited the least of all desired guests--a liberal democrat. Obligated to give all parties equal time, they were forced to listen to some dimwit none of them would vote for.

The President addressed the club: Fellow traders, it’s my honor at this time to introduce John Kearney, democratic nominee for mayor.

John knew he was wasting his time but decided to give it his all--if nothing else, it was good practice for when he addressed those a bit more open-minded. Trekking into the halls reserved for conservative thinking didn’t really lend itself to his particular brand of ideology, but what the hell.

Mr. President, members of the real estate exchange group, I appreciate the opportunity to speak this morning. I know I’m not high on your list of candidates but the fact you’re allowing me to address your group reflects your open-mindedness, for which I am grateful. Many of the traders were thinking, C’mon jerk-head, let’s get this over with so we can get down to business.

When you look at our country, do you come away with the impression that we’re perfect? That our way of life is perfect, our government is perfect, and everyone in the world wants to be like us-type of perfect?

Everyone was wondering where he was going with this.

"If we’re not perfect, than what are we? Try ‘struggling.’ We’re struggling: to make mortgage and rent payments; to keep our marriages together; to comply with demands at work (to keep from getting fired); to keep our kids on the straight and narrow; to control the urge to cry out because of inequities and unfairness of the world; to understand why it’s okay to kill, maim, and destroy other people’s kids by bombing their countries; to understand why others hate us; to understand why billions are spent on the military yet much less for education; to understand why we’re kept at a high level of fear by our government; to understand why we’re becoming a second-rate nation,

"To understand why we’re exporting jobs to other countries at the expense of our own people; to understand why corporate executives earn millions while ‘ordinary folk’ barely get by; to understand why those at the top are idolized while those at the bottom are derided; to understand why people in occupied lands turn to ‘insurgency’ (surely we wouldn’t, would we?); to understand why we live in a nation that’s quickly becoming one of Have and Have Nots; to understand why the ethical standards once considered essential in business are now cast aside in favor of greed; to understand why corporate executives have no trouble lying to improve the bottom line; to understand why company owners hire new presidents to ‘carry out the dirty work of laying off employees;’ to understand why people at the bottom have the ‘screws put to them;’ to understand why there are those who will use our ethical standards against us by putting us in compromising situations; to understand why there’s no fairness in our court systems; to understand why ‘victims’ are again ‘victimized in court;’ to understand why so many kids in our country are cast aside instead of cared for; to understand why kids go to school hungry; to understand why we’ve gone from being a country that’s respected to one that’s not; to understand why others see our imperfections while we can’t--or don’t want to.

Yeah, we’re not perfect, folks. People in other countries see it, but we don’t. At least our leaders don’t seem to, or do they? One wonders if they’re in denial of what goes on; or are they too busy manipulating facts to create the picture they want--to even care. Our system as everyone knows is based on the ‘bottom line’--those at the bottom toe the line--while those at the top do as they damn well please.

By this time every one was wondering what the guy was running for? Surely it couldn’t be mayor. The idiot’s a socialist, some type of commie. You talk about bad for business. This clown wants to raise the lower half’s standard of living rather than appeal to the elite. Cross him off. He’s bad news. Why did we invite him anyway?

Mr. President I don’t want to take up much of your valuable time, but did want to share some of the concerns I have, as I believe these issues affect all of us. Only by addressing many of these concerns will we improve the quality of life in this town. With that he ended. The response was paltry but he expected it. Convinced he did his best, he showed himself out.

As soon as he was out the door, the comments began to fly.

You have to be goofy to make statements like that! Homer Atherton declared.

Damn right, said Don Maloney.

No businessman in his right mind would vote for that jerk, Billy Zimmerman said.

Just goes to show you the democrats have their head up their ass sponsoring a guy like that, Judy Hardnut said.

He talked about struggling—hell, I was struggling just listening to him. I wanted to throttle the dumb son of a bitch. So what’s a little struggle, we’ve all struggled, that’s how we got ahead. He wants everyone to have a free lunch. That’s not how things work in this world, Paul Bishop said. Paul, it should be noted, used every welfare benefit he could get his hands on, figured it was his right. So what if he didn’t qualify? He figured survival was for those who went out and got what they wanted.

Homer spoke up again, "I read where this dumb son of a bitch wants to change our legal system to where if you go to prison you pay for it. Can you imagine that, here we’ve had a system in place for years and he wants to change it, giving as a reason that people go to prison for being irresponsible, but the responsible, hard-working citizens like us pay for it. You know right away the attorneys aren’t going to go for it because the question automatically becomes who will pay them? Certainly they don’t want to rely on their clients; they prefer that it come from the government.

There’s one more dumb idea this guy had. You won’t believe this. He thinks prisoners who are sentenced to life in prison (no getting out) should have the option of being put to death by lethal injection. Here we spend all this money putting the guy in jail and he wants to give the jerk the option of ending his life rather than serving out his sentence. Where’s the suffering in that? He’s just too far out in left field to be in office. I’m not voting for him!

Can’t we just invite good, solid conservative politicians in the future? John ‘Horny’ Toad asked the President. Horny, as you can imagine, was the brunt of many jokes.

We have to give equal time to all candidates; otherwise we run the risk of being ridiculed in the press, he said.

Screw ’em, said Horny, don’t they know we’re just wasting time by having jerks like that talk to us.

Probably do, but we still have to do it. If we invite one, we have to invite all.

Good grief, Horny said, let’s just get on with the meeting.

All agreed.

Many of the people who brought properties to pitch elected not to, because they were afraid Ivan would bid on them and they’d have to deal with him. Rather than take that risk, they thought they’d hang low for a while to see if he continued with the group. His recent experience tarnished his reputation to make it even worse than it was before, and it wasn’t good then. Everyone knew he was bright as could be and slippery as snot. Dealing with him was maddening, as nothing was sacred (other than his needing to come out on top).Rules, laws, agreements meant nothing to him. He was snake oil personified. Correcting him or calling him on something he had reneged on often sent him off in a tirade. And he liked nothing better than to rant and rave because anger was his drug of choice. Rage surged through every pore in his body to where he couldn’t get enough of it.

No, many of the savvy investors thought they‘d bide their time and see what Ivan was going to do before opening themselves up to an inquiry from him. What they had working against them, however, was the economy. It was in the pits. The country was up to its eyeballs in debt. Interest rates were high, bankruptcies and foreclosures common. The mindset of the people was apprehensive and fearful. Opportunities were abundant for those willing to take a risk—however, you had to act quickly. As an investor you didn’t want to hang on to a property long unless there was a positive cash flow; otherwise it was too risky.

The demands on the almighty dollar were many. First in line was the military industrial complex. Sporting an insatiable appetite, they were experts in keeping the nation in a state of fear. Masters at inflating budgets, they kept their nose at the trough, always having a justifiable reason why they needed more of everything. After years of endless wars resulting in huge debt and a tremendous loss of life, the enemy turned out to be not another country but a religion. More specifically, a religion that reasoned that if you didn’t support their particular brand of worship, they had the right to kill you. Unsure of how to fight this kind of enemy the President and Congress spent billions on think tanks. The bottom line: the country was in trouble, the people knew it yet still needed jobs and a place to hang their head at night. Thankfully, food and housing were coming down in price to the point where they were more affordable.

Chapter 2

Tina was totally shocked when she learned she was being set free for lack of evidence. In her mind, the evidence against her was overwhelming. She argued with her attorney over telling the truth. She definitely wanted to purge the guilt she harbored--come clean if you will--but her attorney argued against it. Save it for the confessional or couch was his response, it’s not how the legal system works. The prosecution has to prove you’re guilty. It’s not your responsibility to incriminate yourself. By keeping quiet it enables me to throw every obstacle I can in the way of the prosecution. That’s how the game is played.

Not sure, confused, torn internally, she realized maybe the best option was to buy time, keep quiet until forced to admit her role in the scam. Oh, how she wished it could be simple again like when she was a child. Then when she made a mistake she admitted it, was punished but felt good afterwards because the truth was out. The