Things have quieted down a bit, so I have a little time to make this journal entry. A lot has happened the last couple of days, so I wanted to make sure to write it all down so I don’t forget it.
Like I said, yesterday was a big success. I think most of the guys agree with me, things are definitely looking up! Especially after what The Boss did with L on Saturday! Wow! I still haven’t figured that one out yet. If it were prearranged, I would’ve known about it, but how he pulled that one off is beyond me. However he did it, it really played well. Great optics!
So, after the whole deal with L, we stop at their house for dinner, all of us. Now I don’t know these people very well—suffice to say, they’re special friends of The Boss. Anyway, we’re sitting down for dinner, making small talk and what not, then all of sudden this woman, I guess she’s L’s sister, comes up to The Boss and douses him in this really expensive perfume!
It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen but that’s not all. Right there in front of everybody, this woman gets down on her knees—I’m just looking around at everybody else wondering what the hell is going on—and, so help me, she wipes his feet with her hair! I kid you not! Her hair. I mean I’ve heard of country hospitality but this is just waaaaay over the top!
Now, let’s forget for a minute how outrageous this whole scene is. There were some leaders from the capital visiting in the area, okay; if they had seen any of this going on, it could really cause us some trouble down the line. But I’ve got to tell you, the thing that really pissed me off, wasn’t the ridiculous display, it was what The Boss said afterward.
I got a look at that empty bottle of perfume. It was the top of the top-shelf stuff! Do you have any idea how much that goes for in the market? Let me tell you, as the moneyman for this operation, I could’ve gotten enough scratch from that single bottle to finance us for a whole month!
Well, I know The Boss isn’t going to listen to that, so I bring up his favorite subject instead: the poor. I merely suggested that we could’ve sold that perfume and given the proceeds to the poor. Again, great optics. Wasteful extravagance, bad optics. No brainer right? So what does he say?
He bites my head off!
He told me to leave her alone, that she was preparing him for burial or some such nonsense. And then, here’s the kicker, he says, “You’ll always have the poor around, but you won’t always have me.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Where’s he planning on going? And more to the point, if he is planning on bailing, don’t you think he should let us in on it? I mean, without an organization, nothing gets done. It’s like he’s purposely trying to sabotage what we’re trying to do here. I don’t get it.
I’ll tell you one thing: if he starts getting cold feet or tries to back out, I’ll cut my own deal with the leaders. We’ve come too far, and built too much to risk it all to a leader with feet of clay.
