America 1982.

Chapter 36 Business in Progress

"CQ, CQ, CQ! This is the Otilia fishing boat, calling Tony from Missouri."

The starry sky was clearly visible overhead, and the silver waning moon was reflected on the dark blue sea. Tommy Hawke drove his fishing boat into the high seas near the Gulf of Maine and began to communicate according to the channel Tony had left behind.

Melonie was not sleepy at all at this moment. She was staring at the microphone on Tommy Hawke's dashboard with a nervous expression. After all, she thought that this business had reached the most dangerous moment.

After the fishing boat entered the Gulf of Maine, Tommy Hawke called several times but received no response, which made Melonie more nervous.

"CQ, CQ, CQ! What the hell is the Otilia, Tommy? Shouldn't you be driving Mr. Rocco Waldman's DTF? I'm Tony, my coordinates are 43.423312, -66.534485 in the Gulf of Maine. You'd better remember to turn on the searchlight and don't ram this ship from behind." Finally, Tony's voice, accompanied by a hissing sound of electricity, rang out in the radio.

Melanie breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down.

"Got it, Captain Tony, latest instructions, ram your ass." Tommy Hawke said with a smile after receiving Tony's radio response.

"You haven't told me what the Otilia is?" Tony asked curiously on the radio.

"My instructor gave me some extremely precious gifts. To thank her, I decided to temporarily name Mr. Waldman's ship after her..." Tommy was originally laughing happily and joking with Tony on the radio, but then he was stunned. When he spoke again, his voice had become as calm as before a storm:
"You're not supposed to know that I drive Mr. Vardman's fishing boat, the DTF, Tony."

"I guess... I saw that boat at the dock." Tony paused there, then said with a smile: "Down to Fuck, right? Well, brother, save some power for your boat, see you later."

After finishing speaking, Tony hurriedly ended the call. An expression of effort slowly emerged on Tommy Hawke's face. He grabbed his hair with both hands, took two steps back, and kicked the console hard: "Fuck! Fcuk! I should have guessed that he would tell Dad about this! He said last time that he couldn't reply to me right away and needed to think about it! He called me as soon as I got back to the apartment! Fuck! According to his character, it shouldn't be like that! He used that time to tell Dad! It must be this... NO..."

Melonie was so frightened by Tommy Hawke's sudden madness that she took two steps back: "Tommy, what's wrong with you? Calm down, OK? If you kick the rudder and break it, we..."

"Wait, wait, when I went to the dock to find a part-time job, Dad went to see Mr. Wadman, and I didn't know about this business at that time." Tommy tried to calm down from his initial anger at Tony for breaking his promise to keep it a secret. He kept talking to himself, trying to piece everything together: "Mr. Wadman decided to lend me this DTF this morning..."

Although it was unclear what Tommy Hawke was angry about, Melonie still decided to speak up and comfort him: "Tommy, no matter what happens, you have to believe that Tony will not hurt you. He will never do that."

"He is now causing this matter to have unpredictable consequences." Tommy turned his head and looked at Melonie, and said with sharp eyes: "And the unpredictable consequences may hurt me."

"for example?"

"For example, when I apply to colleges, I may need to write that I have a stupid, alcoholic, self-proclaimed loving father who is a criminal on vacation in prison! Then those colleges will worry that I will follow in my father's footsteps in college! They will print a PASS on my application!" Tommy Hawke said in a low voice, almost roaring. Melonie heard Tommy's words, glared at him, and said sternly: "If he really did do the cigarette business, I believe it was because he loved this family, Tommy Hawke! Show due respect to your father!"

"Damn Italian family values, huh?" Seeing Melonie's expression, Tommy Hawke laughed sarcastically, then turned around, turned on the radio, and continued to drive towards the designated location. It was unclear whether he was talking to Tony on the radio, or to Melonie, or just talking to himself:

"That guy wanted to get money and bring his daughter home. To do this, he persuaded me to drop out of school and took away my hard-earned money. He never considered me. I didn't make money selfishly to earn tuition. I just wanted to help him bring Bethea back. I could do this, but Tony told him... If I could tell him, of course I would tell him myself, because I know that guy, for Bethea, he can't resist the temptation of money. He will die of greed like Hugh Spade."

This time, there was no response from the radio station, nor from Melonie.

At 2:27 in the morning, Tommy Hawke finally saw the fishing boat that came to pick up the goods. It was even more dilapidated than his own boat. Melonie nervously grabbed a harpoon and looked at the approaching fishing boat. After all, as shown in the movies, when two parties are doing a transaction, there will always be someone who wants to rob the other party.

As a result, four people came out of the fishing boat, two men and two women, all of whom were Italian-speaking compatriots. Aside from Tony, the only remaining man was over sixty years old with white hair. The older of the two women was his wife, and the one who was throwing the rope to him was his daughter.

"There are no intelligent machines here, so we can only move things manually, Aunt Melonie." Tommy Hawke moored the fishing boat next to the other fishing boat, laid the planks, and said coldly to Melonie who was standing on the deck with a harpoon in her hand: "Let go of that harpoon before the other party thinks you're an idiot."

This incident seemed to make him completely disappointed with everyone in this family.

Tony walked towards Tommy with a wry smile. Tommy stared at his brother and said, "Where are Daddy's people? Tell me while I still consider you my brother."

"Things are not what you think, brother, calm down." Tony took out a cigarette, handed one to Tommy, then put his arm around Tommy's shoulder and walked towards the bow.

At this time, Melonie threw away the embarrassing harpoon, greeted the Italians on the other boat, and then the four of them began to work together to carry the cigarettes.

"Dad and I have been planning to do this kind of business for a long time. We had already planned it before you told me, but not as carefully as you did. He heard about this opportunity when he was helping to repair speedboats at the shipyard to make money, but we couldn't find that kind of speedboat, so we could only use fishing boats. That's why we found Mr. Wadman. It was the day when you first went to Mr. Wadman's part-time job. Dad was so scared when he met you that he didn't even dare to look you in the eye, for fear that you would see what he was hiding from you." Tony put his arm around Tommy's shoulders and whispered.

Tommy said irritably, "Where's the principal? The minimum order is 100 boxes. Dad has mortgaged the house? If something goes wrong and the house is taken away, there's no way Bethea can..."

"Calm down, brother. There is no mortgage on the property. I proposed this, but Dad rejected it. He thinks the house should be left to you and Bethea. This way, if he and I really have problems, you won't be homeless, and Bethea won't want to see the bank take away her house." Seeing that his brother was about to get excited again, Tony immediately explained, "But I don't know where he found the money. Maybe he borrowed some from Ruby or someone else?"

Tommy Hawke exhaled, "So he and Mr. Wadman had already started this kind of business before tonight?"

(End of this chapter)