Dispelling Myths: The Case for Immigration Reform [Enjoy your made-in-America ZOT, troll]

In his press conference on December 20th, President Obama urged the House of Representatives to support the Senate’s immigration bill, which passed 68-32 in late June. Among the concerns cited by Americans who oppose reform are that immigrants will take their jobs, drive down wages, increase criminal activity, burden the welfare system, and reshape the cultural dynamic of the country. These concerns are mostly ill-founded. The legitimate concerns have real solutions, and a more open immigration policy will be a net benefit for all Americans...

- A 2013 study by the American Action Forum states that "immigration reform can raise population growth, labor force growth, and thus growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

- In 2013 the Bipartisan Policy Center came to similar conclusions. It makes the prediction that current provisions, as included in the Senate Bill, would raise GDP 4.8 percent over twenty years.

- According to the Immigration Policy Center, immigrant males between the ages of 18 and 39 (which constitute the greatest portion of the prison population) are five times less likely to be incarcerated than are natives.

- A 2011 survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that 92 percent of second generation and 96 percent of third generation Hispanics speak English proficiently.

- A 2010 Gallup poll revealed that Hispanics attend church services more often than non-Hispanic whites.

- Since an influx of immigrants means an expansion of the labor supply, many assert that the result will be less jobs and lower wages. However, as asserted by Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, “The number of jobs in the United States is not static. It’s fluid, which is how we want it to be.”

I have a ton of stories that I might never finish. Like this one
...........................................

“May Lin”

Her first memory was waking up in a field, an overgrown pasture possibly. Not far away there was a settlement.

It was a shanty town, a third world armpit of a place. An open sewer running down the middle of the “street” and row after row of small metal and plastic hovels, sometimes with tin roofs and sometimes nothing more than plastic tarps to protect the inhabitants from the elements.

She had no memory of anything and this place still felt alien to her. She looked down at her soiled clothes and noted that she likely fit in. She did not think she was from here, or belonged here. If only she could remember who she was things could be made right.

She heard someone talking and a giggle behind her. She found that it was a barefoot girl in shorts and a tee shirt holding the hand of a small boy, dirty and naked. Her other hand held onto a burlap sack hanging over her back.

The girl stopped and said something, it took a moment to realize she understood what was being said.

“Are you okay?” The dirty girl asked. Me? She wanted to answer ‘You are the one who lives like a refugee!’

She realized, though, she looked almost the same way. Of course they would assume she was one of them. So she just said the first thing to come to mind “I’m lost”. It was certainly true enough.

“I’m Tiki” the girl said and then she waved her free hand towards the naked boy “This is my little brother Pone”

“I’m...” she stuttered a moment. She could not admit she didn’t remember her own name, so she tried to think of some kind of name quickly. “May Lin” she said, having no idea if the words sounded strange or if they meant something funny.

“May Lin” the girl repeated “That’s a pretty name. Come on...”

She followed Tiki and Pone through the village of cheap wood huts, plastic tarped hovels and corrugated metal roofed buildings. She had thought it would be full of listless, unmoving people but everyone looked busy. She recognized that there was some kind of economy here.

Some older men were making mud bricks and laying them in the sun. A few women were doing the same thing with hand-made pottery. Elsewhere she saw some people separating glass and plastic and other things from what looked like a pile of trash. She decided that they must be looking for anything useful or valuable.

“Mother” Tiki said “I have brought the maize”

The older woman sat on a mat and eagerly accepted the bundle. She had a bowl and began grinding the food down immediately. “Leave your brother here and go fetch water” the woman said. Tiki grabbed a large jug and then another, handing one to May Lin “You’ll help, won’t you May Lin?”

She didn’t know if it was a good idea but she decided to help.

She followed closely behind Tiki. At first they went deeper into the slum, and then across a railroad track. There were no walls between the shanty town and the tracks as far as she could see. It looked like a really dangerous situation she thought before catching up with Tiki, to whom this was all normal.

Tiki walked right past a water hydrant being used by others, there were women cleaning clothes and beating them against some concrete and rocks nearby. “Polluted” was the only thing Tiki said as they kept walking. Apparently they just washed clothes in this water.

The hovels thinned out and it was uphill for a bit before they reached another watering point. There was a short line. “We got lucky today” Tiki said “Won’t have to wait too long”

May Lin couldn’t help feeling bad that she was wearing shoes, however uncomfortable, while hard-working Tiki had to go barefoot. She thought about letting Tiki wear them on the way back but noticed how much her own feet hurt with shoes, while Tiki showed no sign of foot distress.

May Lin could not believe how heavy the jug of water was. Tiki balanced her jug on her shoulder part of the way and sometimes on top of her head. May Lin struggled not to show how much of a burden this was while Tiki smiled and cracked jokes that May Lin couldn’t pay attention to all the way home.

Tiki’s mother simply nodded when they dropped their load in front of her. Tiki took some of the ground maize and began kneading it after dipping her hand into the water jug and dumping it into the bowl.

“Don’t know how?” Tiki asked seeing May Lin’s gaze. She smiled back and shrugged. May Lin hated for Tiki to see how clueless she was about what was happening. “I’ll teach you!” Tiki said. Soon they were cooking the flattened maize-bread as Tiki’s mother stirred the beans or stew that was in a beat up old pot.

May Lin wondered how this would all taste but stomach was lurching in anticipation of food. It didn’t care how it tasted it was just hungry. Tiki’s mother pulled some wild onions out of a piece of plastic and started chopping it. Where-ever I am from, she told herself, we buy food from a store I bet.

She was so hungry when it was finally finished that everything tasted good, even if the maize crunched a bit painfully against a tooth now and then. She made sure not to eat more than Tiki or too quickly and to thank Tiki and her mother effusively. I do not want to be impolite to the only ones who are helping me, she said to herself, at least I’m not that stupid.

They were all a bit idle after eating. Tiki answered some questions. There was no school. School was much too far, it was too expensive to buy supplies and a uniform anyway. Then Tiki reached out and touched her ear “That is pretty”. May Lin reached up and felt, she had earrings. She hadn’t noticed that before.

She took one of them off and looked at it down on her palm. That was gold and a diamond. It looked like the cheap studs people buy for their daughters first one but she felt that this was not cheap, these were expensive. Tiki’s ears were not pierced. That was good, she wouldn’t ask to wear them.

“Where did you buy the maize?” May Lin asked, trying to sound conversational. Tiki looked at her as if she were a fool. “Montague, of course. The town down that road we met you on. You weren’t from there?”

“No” May Lin said.

“Didn’t you pass it?”

“I don’t remember, I was lost” she answered. “Oh” was all Tiki said in response. May Lin was glad she wasn’t a very nosy person.

“Is it a proper city?”

“It’s not a big city” Tiki said, looking around “But it’s a real town, not like this”

........

Here is the beginning of another story.

“Tribute”

The vessel dropped out of hyperspace and appeared into normal space. It approached the fourth planet of the star, the one where the human settlement was. As it approached it received a query about its intentions and the crew of the ship informed them that it was on a tribute mission.

The merchant vessel only carried light lasers for shooting small asteroids that got in its way, it had nothing which would have presented any threat to a warship. The Commander of the vessel did not want this mission but he dared not turn it down after being ordered. That would be risking his own neck for no purpose.

In the hold his ship carried gold, silver, emeralds, spices, food such as rice, beans, corn and wheat and young girls, all for tribute to the King of the Jaden Dynasty. He was ordered by his own King to bow down to another and present these “gifts”. In exchange the Jaden Dynasty would leave their world alone, more or less. My King bows to another King, he thought bitterly, and this has been going on for at least a century.

The Protectorate maintained armies and control of his own world, albeit they allowed it to keep its King who “ruled” in a very limited way. King Goro never upset his Jaden masters if he could help it, he never wanted to give them any pretext to topple his “legitimate” rule.

The Protectorate had divided their world into four parts and each had their own “ruler” but everyone knew the Protectorate (Jaden Dynasty) was truly in charge. King Goro had allowed his own army to be virtually abolished with a single barracks remaining, and then not even allowed into the capitol city.

Commander Tae-joon would have something to say about all of this when he returned from this tribute mission. Every seven years these missions caused consternation and agitation of the people and he planned to inflame that anger, to focus that anger and to use that anger. It might be brutal and bloody but this tributary relationship with the Jaden Dynasty must end.
…..

Open wagons displayed the tribute goods in a parade to the Grand Palace where dignitaries, functionaries and the Emperor himself could see. The Palace Guard laughed at the crying and whimpering girls being delivered to new masters.

“This is my power and this is my importance. I rule by the will of the Gods, and Kings of other worlds bow down to me” the Emperor seemed to be saying just by his bearing and facial expressions. There were more guards at this Palace than there were soldiers of his own world allowed by the Protectorate.

As far as the masters knew, he smiled inwardly. Yes, he would bow and repeat the praise of this Emperor from his own King. He would remember and repeat the words back home, to inflame the populace. King Goro would have to be deposed, a new ruler would have to take power and throw off the shackles of the Protectorate.

After this horrible display of obedience he would receive no audience, no state dinner, no recognition that the Emperor saw his world as anything but a pathetic slum. He would only be allowed the dignity to leave with his head intact, and only because he wasn’t worth the attention to kill.

He and his small crew entered the ship from the open main hatch of the cargo hold but before they got inside a dozen armed soldiers came running.

“Halt” the officer ordered “One of the tribute girls has gone missing”

The Commander held his hands out and indicated the all-male crew “The Emperors’ slave isn’t with us, and it is not our job to catch your runaway slaves after they are properly delivered”

“They don’t have her” the officer said “We’ll have to help search the city”

Imagine the army being used to find one slave, he shook his head thinking of the inefficiency of it.

Once inside the ship, though, they found the girl. None of them understood how she could have known the codes to unlock the hatches but here she was. Dirty and naked with disheveled hair to her shoulders, hands still shackled, feet with some small cuts on them. A crew member cut off the shackles.

“Get us out of here” he ordered the crew “Get us back home”

The girl looked confused. “You won’t send me back to them? You brought me to them!”

The Commander crossed his arms as another member of the crew wrapped a robe around the girl and she tied the belt.

“Our world has been tribute for more than a century. Every seven years. We don’t want to bring you to them, we have orders from our king, who would behead us for refusing.” he explained “We did our job, we delivered you and now we are leaving this terrible place”

“Every place is terrible” she said “They came and took me from my home. They beat my father for trying to protect me, they made me a slave...”

The Commander watched the Jaden Dynasty homeworld fall away behind them. Soon they re-entered hyperspace and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“You are not a slave” he told her “What is your name?”

“Da-Hae” she said “Lin Da-Hae”

He nodded “Lin Da-Hae. It would be better for you to join my team than return home for now, the King would send you back or kill you if you are found”

Her eyes widened. “You said I’m not a slave”

He nodded. “You are not. But the King would think so. It will be safer for you, your family and me if you joined my crew and take a new name for a while. Things will change soon and you will be free to go home, if we succeed. I can promise that much”

“Commander, sir” she said, her eyes downcast in deference “I will do as you ask”

Min Tae-joon would be committing treason against King Goro.

Here is the rest I have (so far) of “May Lin”...
...........

Tiki showed May Lin where they went to use the bathroom. In was in a copse of trees on a small hillside where a little stream came out of a cracked pipe. She felt a bit exposed squatting there, looking around to see if there was a crowd of voyeurs.

Tiki shook her head “Nobody gonna mess with us unless we alone”

It was almost dark when they got back, she was finally invited inside the shanty. It was mostly empty except for some mats on the ground and shoved against one wall was an old manual-powered sewing machine. There were some rags piled up too but it was too dark in that corner to make out any details.

They simply lay on the mats and slept. She slept between Tiki and Pone with their mats laid closely together for her benefit. She was worried. There was zero security here, they were wide open to any thief or criminal that chose to attack them.

Then she wondered where all the young adults were. There were old people and children, where were all the people in between? She had seen very few of them during her trip fetching water with Tiki. Was there some mystery there? Did they all leave for the big city to look for work?

Tiki’s mother had no objection to May Lin’s presence it seemed. She helped out as much as she could when Tiki’s mother began using the sewing machine. Her foot worked a string around her toes back and forth which turned a wheel that made the needle move up and down.

Somehow using old torn clothe and a rickety sewing machine Tiki’s mother managed to make wearable clothing that she sent Tiki to town with to sell. Tiki would bring back maize and other foods if she managed to sell the items. May Lin would go with her the following day after helping to arrange and organize the assorted rags.

She also went with Tiki to the trash dump and scrounged more rags from the trash dumped there. Others were picking up cans and bottles. She saw how deft Tiki walked through the trash and not get herself cut. At the end of the day Tiki marveled that the day was so productive. Four whole shirts, somehow out of rags were shirts that looked like something you might buy at a used clothes store. May Lin was very impressed.

“Tomorrow we both go to Montague” Tiki said as they were laying their sleeping mats down after moving the sewing machine was moved against the back wall. Tomorrow I have to try and find out who I am and how I can go home, May Lin told herself.

On the way out of the shanty town on the dirt road to Montague she looked at the field where she had woken up. The center of it had a large depressed area, even though it had been two days. It was much larger than a girl though, what had caused that depression in the high grass?

So many things bothered May Lin about not remembering things. Everything seemed suspicious. Tiki didn’t remark on it, or even seem to notice it. May Lin guessed she had more things to worry about than something that was probably trivial.

“Four shirts” Tiki said “That is a lot of maize and some vegetables too” she said happily. “If we get a good price we might be able to give some money to Ranger on the other side of the village for a chicken. I haven’t had meat in a long time”

Tiki talked about things sometimes but she wasn’t a talkative person. Most of their journey to Montague was in total silence. This suited May Lin fine although it bothered her not to have anything at all to talk about with Tiki.

Montague started out with neat rows of clean houses, real proper houses with electricity and probably real plumbing too. The streets were paved and the main road was lined with shops. There were vehicles on the road too. “Nice, right?” Tiki said “My dream is to live here”. These weren’t mansions but they might as well be compared to the hovels in the shanty town.

There was an outdoor market of sorts in a wide open lot. People were selling wares of all kinds, old and new from stalls, shaded and unshaded tables. It was actually more crowded than May Lin expected but there were police and security guards too. Hopefully thieves were not tolerated.

Finally at the back of the lot were those sitting on the ground with their few items for sale arrayed in front of them. It looked a bit pathetic to May Lin at first, then she remembered her own fortunes. Soon she was sitting next to Tiki on the ground with the clothes in front of them.

The customer traffic in this part of the market was much less than at the front where there were proper stalls and piles of merchandise. It took hours but they finally managed to sell all four shirts. Tiki handed over the last of the maize-bread they had made the night before. This was lunch. The thought of carrying food back while she was so hungry was not very comforting.

The few dirty coins and paper bills they had earned was soon transformed into a sack of maize, some potatoes and a few carrots. Tiki seemed to be overjoyed to have a couple of coins left over. She said she was going to save it. May Lin dreaded the journey back, followed by the trip to fetch water again.

While walking past the shops she noticed one said they bought and sold jewelry.

“Wait here” she told Tiki and before the expected protest she was inside. She walked past the glass displays to the back where a tall bald man was looking over a terminal. “Can I help you?” he said before looking up and then dismissively said “You can’t use the bathroom”.

“No, I have these earrings” she said “I think they might be valuable”

The man looked at it absently at first “Looks like a normal starter stud”

“It’s not though” she told him. He sighed and took out some sort of eye piece and examined the earring and then the other one.

“Where did you get these?” he asked, curious or maybe suspiciously.

“They are mine” May Lin said, then she noted her dirty appearance and said “I’m lost. I look like this because I am really lost”

“It’s a bad idea for you to be carrying that much money around, especially if you are going where I think you are going” he said looking at the front door where Tiki was leaning against the doorway.

May Lin thought about it. “How about one right now and one later?”

The man rubbed his chin in thought. “That could work, if you promise me that you will definitely sell it to nobody but me. I’d like to be able to sell matched pairs”

“Okay”

The man went into the back and returned with a small purse-like pouch. “Keep your money in here, it looks cheap enough where thieves won’t know you have a lot of money”. He showed her there was a small lock on it, nothing that couldn’t be broken but enough to keep out a curious peeker.

May Lin wondered how much they were really worth if the dealer was going to give her so much for one earring. He had to be able to resell them for a profit, and sold separately the value for him was diluted. These must be really expensive, she told herself.

Who am I?

Knowing that she had to pretend not to have a lot of money she didn’t even smile when she left the shop. Tiki gave her a questioning look, as if thinking “This had better be worth the wait”.

“I sold one” she said pointing to the ear without decoration. Then she dragged Tiki into the next thrift store they passed and bought her a pair of tennis shoes. Then she bought a shirt and shorts for Pone from the used clothes racks.

Tiki was amazed. “How much did you sell it for?”

“I still have enough for a chicken” she answered and thought to herself and a lot more after that.

“Really?” Tiki asked “Wow!”

The journey back didn’t seem so hard with the small “toy” purse strapped over her shoulder. She imagined using the money to find her real identity. She would have to go to the city. Not Montague, it was a small suburb, but the real city with its millions of people.

Tiki mentioned that there was a weekly shuttle bus from the shanty to the city. Actually it connected the city and Montague but it stopped momentarily at the shanty just in case of a paying fare. That was the way out of this place, May Lin told herself, the way back to where she likely came from.

When they arrived Tiki happily unveiled the fruits of her mothers labor plus the chicken that May Lin had purchased. The woman was a bit stunned but very thankful. Tonight would be more like a feast than they had seen in many years, she said. Pone took his clothes and sandals very eagerly, as if this was what made him a big boy.

Pone tagged along on the trip to get the jugs of water. He didn’t carry a jug but he acted as the most important person in the group. Boys are probably always like that, May Lin said to herself. On the way back from the hydrant Tiki took a different route and stopped at a shanty store with a cow in a small pen.

She came out with a small jug of milk and made sure that Pone understood to be careful carrying it home. He carried it like it was a treasure. Now May Lin knew what Tiki did with those coins leftover from buying the maize and vegetables.

Dinner was excellent. Tiki’s mother was a very good cook, or maybe May Lin was just especially hungry that day. The anticipation caused her to ask questions about the bus to the city, how much it cost, when exactly did it stop there?

Later she and Tiki went to the copse of trees to relieve themselves, she was asked “So, you really want to go to the city?”

May Lin knew she hadn’t hid it very well. So she explained her situation. “I need to find out where I belong, I don’t know anything right now”

Tiki said “How in the world do you think you can do that in a city that size?”

May Lin didn’t know. She did know that she had to try. She would not be able to forgive herself if she did not try. “I know I’m not from here, I have a feeling and I have to give it a shot”

Something moved in the trees, May Lin gave a short scared squeak. Tiki threw a rock “Pone, what are you doing”. May Lin breathed again, it was just little Pone.

May Lin lay there awake half the night. Tiki was right that she would probably be lost in the big city, how would she find where she was from? Surely there was a place a missing girl would be able to get help going home again. A police station, possibly.

The bus would not come for a couple more days. There was at least one more trip to Montague, she could sell the other earring while she was there.

This day though she was searching for rags through the trash along with people looking for plastic and glass and things. There was an old man and a boy pulling out some old cardboard boxes. Probably to patch up walls or floors or to use as sleeping mats. Tiki said they could also be used to make insoles for old shoes, but she was still happily showing off her tennis shoes.

Just outside of the range of the field of trash she noticed cats, they looked quite feral for the most part. Tiki told her they were waiting for the mice to run out of the trash. “They know that when people walk around in this, that scared mice might run right to them. Easy meals”

Not many rags or torn up clothing was found that day and what they did find was all different colors and fabrics. If they had nothing to sell, would they still make a trip to Montague? May Lin didn’t think that was likely.

“I need to go back to Montague” she told Tiki “I must sell the other earring so I can buy a bus ticket to the city”

“That is a long walk though” Tiki responded “There isn’t another way?”

May Lin thought of the money still in her little “toy” purse. She didn’t want to make Tiki think she had been holding out on them. They had been so gracious and shared everything with her, after all.

“I’ll have enough to buy more food” she stated “Isn’t that a good enough reason? I didn’t want to walk alone”

Tiki crossed her arms. “I guess so”. Tiki’s mother was understanding, which was a relief.

When they finally reached Montague May Lin almost got ahead herself and barely caught herself from running into a store before she ever sold the earring. That was stupid. If Tiki had seen this, she gave no indication of it. May Lin could breathe again.

There was the same jewelry exchange store from last time. She peeked in the window and the same man was at the counter. This was good.

“Hello” the man said hearing the bell on the door chime, he hadn’t even looked up from the gem he was examining through an eyepiece. There was no other customer in the store though.

“There you are again” he said when he finally looked up “I’ve been waiting for you”

She was surprised, she hoped he didn’t want his money back. “Why? You wanted the other earring sooner?”

“No” he said “That isn’t the reason at all. Actually there was a microdot on that earring you sold me the other day. An identification mark, did you know that?”

She shook her head, she hadn’t known anything about that.

“You are Sarah May Ling?” he asked her “That is who it identifies as the owner”

Was that her real name? Had she pulled May Lin not as out of the air as she had thought, but from somewhere deep inside of her mind?

“Yes, that is me” she said as brightly as she could muster.

“Well, then you would want to know that there was an address on there too” he said, remembering that she had explained she was lost.

“Oh yes, yes I do!”

Then his expression darkened. “Before I tell you and you scamper off...”

“You want to buy the other one?” she asked

“No, stop interrupting me. This is important” he said “I looked up your name on the electronic exchange and you really are a missing person”

“My parents must be very worried” she said, hoping it made her sound legitimate.

The man smirked and rolled his eyes. “You aren’t fooling me. You don’t have parents. You were reported dead by your caregiver, your Governess. She is also claiming your entire estate as inheritance from you”

She was really confused. What did that mean? Something in her memory was nagging her but none of what he said made any sense.

“You must have been wiped” he said and sighed “They report these kind of things on the news occasionally but this is the first I have seen of it in real life”

“I really don’t understand” she said, on the verge of tears, scared “I don’t understand anything”

The man rubbed his bald head. “You are a very wealthy girl, your parents died a long time ago and you were being taken care of by your staff. As far as I reckon, your staff conspired to wipe you and dump you in the middle of nowhere and claim your fortune”

It was too crazy. Could this be the truth? She was shaking like a leaf and fell down but Tiki was there holding her. How long had Tiki been in the room? Tiki was trying to console her.

“If I go home they will try to kill me, won’t they?”

He nodded “What do they have to lose after what they did to you? The penalty for what they did is so harsh it even makes logical sense for a bad person”

Tiki looked at the man with a scowl. “Leave it alone. She shouldn’t hear this so suddenly”

The man shook his head “Better to get it over quick. I can contact some people, people we can trust to look into things. The people who did this might have paid off the police and some politicians and judges”

Tiki looked mad “So she might never get her own life back?”

“That is what I want to find out”

“Do that then” May Lin said “Thank you.”

“Lets get out of here” Tiki urged, pulling her arm. May Lin put up a hand “I still want to sell the other earring”

Not only did the man not want the earring, he gave the other one back and then her a lot of money. He said that when she was back in her own house she could pay him back. She took Tiki shopping, buying clothes and a lot of food. Even some chocolate for Pone.

“Are we going to carry all this home?” Tiki asked. The bald man found them and gave them a ride back to the shanty town. He showed her a news clipping he printed from the web. It was about her disappearance and said the staff was asking a judge to have her declared dead.

“I’ll give you an update when my contacts report back to me. For now, Sarah, just lay low and pretend you belong there” he advised her. “Let us not inform the bad guys that you know what happened yet”

“So they probably paid off that judge already?” Tiki scoffed

“We will know soon enough” the man answered.

The bald man’s name was George M Walters. He gave May Lin a business card and a pre-paid phone that he said was hard to trace. He would contact her when he had some information.

“Let’s not tell your mother any of this, okay?” May Lin asked “Try not to call me Sarah, either”

“I have never called you that” Tiki said “You will also be May Lin to me”

The man did not get out of the car. She and Tiki were loaded down with bags as they stumbled back into the hovel. Tiki presented her mother with a new dress and shoes. Pone was surprised to see new clothes, including boots. He was more interested in the chocolate they gave him though.

May Lin started putting the boxes of crackers, noodles and canned food on the shelf in the hovel, she wondered if they ever had enough food to store any before? Tiki made them all a salad from the vegetables they had bought while the meat was thrown on a grill above the fire, held up by rocks.

Tiki’s mother was overjoyed but soon she started asking questions. Tiki said that the earrings had been worth kind of a lot. Her earrings were now safely stashed inside of her little purse along with a small phone and a wad of bills. May Lin wondered how long it would take to make everything right, or for the bad guys to find her and end it their way.

The next day they were on their way to fetch water again, Pone tagging along, when they stopped at the Shanty “store”. The inside was pretty bare, of course they wouldn’t have a bunch of things to sell in this place. Basic things mostly.

The old woman did have a radio running while they were there. It was a lively tropical-type of music that soon ended. The news came on. They reported on a drought, city finances and crime. Then her and Tiki froze at the sound of: “Court officials say they lean toward granting the determination that heiress Sarah May Ling is dead, which would clear the recipients of her will to receive their inheritance...”

They looked at each other, stunned. “Crooked judge” Tiki whispered.

They bought some unchilled orange soda for the three of them. The little phone vibrated in her purse, she unlocked the top of it thinking. Yes, I already know Mr. Walters....

“Just as we feared” he told her on the phone “It looks like we will have to get the federal authorities involved in this mess”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.