America 1982-Chapter 38: Only Family Comes First
"So, do we smash your ass and drag you to America’s waters, or do you scram, Canada? Or maybe you wanna try a little US-Canada naval skirmish and see which side’s rotten Coast Guard can get here faster?" Rocco Waldman, who was no stranger to such scenes from years at sea, took over from Colin Hawk and shouted through the loudhailer at the other party.
Colin Hawk, holding a double-barreled shotgun, with several of his co-workers and partners behind him, now revealed himself on deck.
Faced with the current situation, the Canadian Augusta fishing vessel didn’t hesitate to turn around and leave obediently. After all, Rocco Waldman’s K.K.S. was nearly the same size as theirs, and they wouldn’t have the upper hand in an actual conflict. They were just trying to scare and gain an advantage, not to give their ship away cheaply to the Americans. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"Wise choice, Canada," Rocco Waldman said coldly as he saw the other vessel turn to leave.
Tommy had been looking grimly at the approaching K.K.S., but as the ship drew nearer and he saw the cargo stacked aboard, his expression slowly changed from gloomy to astonished.
"Seeing me seems to have put a strange look on your face, son." Colin Hawk threw a rope over to Tommy and said with a smile.
Tommy caught the rope and secured it as the two ships slowly drew alongside each other. Without waiting for the gangplank to be set, Colin Hawk jumped from the KKS onto Tommy’s side.
"Haven’t had time to go to Canada yet?" As Tommy Hawk took a good look at the mountain of cigarettes on the other ship, he asked his dad with a look of pleasant surprise.
As long as the goods were still on board and they were currently in international waters, even if the smuggling squads of the coast guards from both America and Canada appeared fully armed and surrounded them, it wouldn’t matter. At worst, they would tell them that their dad had picked up a pile of cigarettes on the ship and was planning to hand them over, or throw them all into the sea if they felt like it; they could only watch helplessly. Daring to board the ship without jurisdictional rights in international waters to stop them would mean the coast guards decided to kill them all and take some cigarettes, or it would perfectly provide dad with a legal opportunity to extort the government.
Colin Hawk shook his head, "According to the original plan, we should have been in Canada by now. But I always remembered what I said to you that night: you’re still a kid, Tommy. Until you go to college, you can be reckless. And the premise for your recklessness is having your old dad by your side to watch over you. I can’t let my son have even a slight problem while being a reckless kid, so..."
"So, you’ve been sailing out to sea till now, and we’ve been nearby protecting your boat like it’s guarding Ronald Reagan, like the President’s bodyguards, kid! F*ck you, Colin, less of the cheesy talk, you haven’t done a damn thing since boarding! Yet you’ve eaten the most food and drunk the most booze!" Mr. Wilson, with a full beard, came over to secure the gangplank and chimed in to Tommy Hawk: "You’re really cut out for university, Tommy, I never knew that selling so much smuggled goods actually means no worries about jail time. You know, I once stole a few tires from Roger’s place to sell to the garage and the cops were on my doorstep—nice work!"
"Members of the Hawk Family have always been full of wisdom; it’s a talent, Wilson!" Colin Hawk, beaming with pride at Wilson’s praise for his son, said, "Tommy is just like me. Remember, I was once the person who knew the most words among you guys. That’s the inherited wisdom of the Hawk family, never-ending. Otherwise, the union wouldn’t have sent me to lead you after your unemployment."
Bald Mr. Morin, swaying with a bottle of whiskey in hand, walked across the gangplank, "Shut it, Colin, the gap between your shitty plan and Tommy’s is like the gap between the length of your d*ck and mine—there’s an Eiffel Tower’s worth of difference! You even suggested we sell smuggled cigarettes to those nicotine freaks protesting cigarette price hikes right in front of New York City Hall! For f*ck’s sake! If we’d gone with your plan, a bunch of us would now be squatting in a cell in the New York Police Department helping the cops clean their d*cks!"
As Mr. Morin passed by Tommy, he didn’t forget to pat Tommy’s shoulder: "Good job, young Hawk!"
"So, you guys aren’t planning on taking the risk to continue to Canada? Mr. Morin? Mr. Wilson?" Seeing everyone’s reaction, Tommy’s surprise grew as he asked Morin and Wilson aloud.
Morin took a swig of liquor, turned his head to look at Tommy, and shrugged, "Of course we won’t go. We’re poor Americans, not f*cking idiots, are we? Did I just compliment you, Tommy? I take back my praise. You could have avoided asking such a moronic question. Obviously, you need to stay the hell away from your old man; two minutes talking to him and your IQ seems to nosedive like a crashed plane."
"Really?" Tommy Hawk couldn’t believe what he was hearing as he looked at his Dad, "Not going to Canada? Even Mr. Morin and the others would agree?"
Colin Hawk nodded and said with a smile, "Of course, no one wants to land themselves in prison, Morin said it, they’re not idiots. Besides, I’m the major stakeholder in this deal, only Thomas can pose some threat to my decisions, but that guy can only cast an abstention now. So, we don’t need to give a damn about any crap the minority shareholders say. If anyone disagrees, we just dump their stuff into the sea and let them swim to Canada for the trade."
"So, you are willing to accept selling at a lower price here..." This moment, Tommy felt that Alida must be blessing his family from heaven. There couldn’t be a better outcome.
Colin Hawk continued where his son left off and looked around, "Yes, right here, sell it to those three lucky Italians at the price you’ve negotiated."
"Why, I really appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, the wise decision you’ve made, Dad. But why?" Tommy looked at his father, unable to hide the joy in his eyes.
Had his father really resisted the tremendous temptation of money? He didn’t go to Canada to earn more money quickly in order to bring Bessie back?
Colin Hawk shrugged and bowed his head in silence for a few seconds before he lifted his gaze to meet his son’s eyes and smiled, "The Hawk family is going to have its first college graduate, you know. There happens to be a guy who went to college on this ship, and from what he said, it seemed like a pretty good university. I spoke to him about this, and he seriously told me if I don’t want my child to be treated like trash at college, it’s best not to cause trouble for him. He said my son is smart, realizing that transacting in the international waters near Canada is indeed legal, so as not to breach any laws. This is why I’m not planning to continue to Saint John, Canada. Of course, I’m going to choose a plan that makes money without any trouble. I can’t risk a little extra profit and send myself and these friends of mine, who act like idiots, to a Canadian prison, to let my hardworking, smart son get treated like trash at college."
"To be honest, I didn’t think it would be for this reason... I imagined many terrible scenarios, even worse, no scenario could be worse..." After hearing Colin Hawk’s words, Tommy Hawk was somewhat unprepared and stared at the man in front of him, at a loss for words for a moment.
He had prepared himself to face the worst possible scenario, firmly believing it would happen, but now, he didn’t have to worry.
In that moment, his disheveled father had a carefree smile on his face, touching his head with a rough palm, his gaze tender.
"Do you remember the conversation we had when we came back after visiting Bessie, the one I didn’t finish? Tony interrupted me; he was afraid I’d say something that would make you suspect. Actually... I wanted to say, if your mother were still here, with her intelligence, she would have warned me long before, instead of leaving me to realize it after so much time. I told myself, Colin, what you need to do now is not to prepare a check for Tommy, not to bring cash back for Bessie, but to go find Tommy first and tell him: I’m sorry, son, for making you wait outside so long before I thought of you. Now, Dad’s going to take you home."
Under the boundless starry sky, Colin Hawk placed his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, gently touched his forehead to his son’s, and whispered:
"I couldn’t because I needed money to bring back my daughter, end up losing my son first. Money is important, sure, but family is everything."
