Previous Chapter

Chapter 69 - Buried Treasures

Nadine returned a few minutes later.

“You know, this is unusually large,” Nadine observed. “I never thought much about its size. Manman said that it was her mother’s and had been handed down from mother to daughter. Four or five generations, I think she told me. I did wonder why she gave me my own after my kanzo, but she said back then that I’d inherit it after she was no longer active. Which happened way too soon, so when I found it in her ounfò, I never considered using it as my own. My own asson is precious, since it was Manman’s presentation to me.”

They examined the artefact and Nadine noticed that the string of beads which was wound around the gourd’s stem was attached tightly to the shell, while the other strings were more loosely wound around the body of the object.

“I think these beads might hide a seam,” she observed. “Maybe it twists off?”

She tried turning the stem, but it didn’t work. But in handling the object, three larger red beads strung together over where she thought the seam might be, seemed to move a little when she pressed on them. That was the key; pressing those beads and twisting the stem, opened the gourd.

“Clever workmanship,” she observed, looking at how the stem part fit into the gourd’s body.

A cloth bag had been stuffed inside, so she carefully removed it and untied its draw string. She emptied the bag onto the table. There was a numbered key on a brass tag which had the name and address of a bank, tightly folded ownership papers for the deposit box, and a two-page contract with a Port-au-Prince law firm.

“I recognize the firm’s name,” Nadine told Tamara. “They were one of the largest, so they still must exist. This is so exciting; let’s see what the contract says. It’s in French.”

She read it. “Very brief. It provides for the law firm to ensure that the bank maintains the deposit box even after its owner stops accessing it and here’s a file number that the law firm says gives access to instructions for the bearer of this contract. Very mysterious.”

“I wonder,” Tamara said thoughtfully. “In my dream, I told you that I recalled that Tamara’s parents had some wealth; perhaps this has to do with that.”

“I don’t know, honey, everything was so frugal for us then.”

“But she sent you to Puerto Rico for university, right? And supported you there.”

“I’m so dense. Of course; I never considered that,” Nadine sighed. “Back then, I was so idealistic and never really thought much about money. But we lived like our neighbors, very frugally.”

“Tamara wanted to fit into the community, Mom. That’s how we lived ourselves, right? Even though I now know that Dad had saved a lot of money from his Marine days.”

“Again, you’re right. Well, this gives us an exciting adventure when we get to Haiti. A bank visit and a law firm visit. Okay then, we have two weeks to plan where to fit in these visits. Let’s see where they can fit into our schedules—which are getting tighter.”

“Sure. Let me go over the parts I need to do. Many are already scheduled, like the visits to the U.S. embassy, the Economy and Finance Ministry, the Commerce and Industry Ministry, and also the Public Works, Transport and Communications Ministry. For that last one, I’m meeting with the head of the National Land Registry Office regarding potential factory site locations and land ownership. That’s a big problem in Haiti, land ownership, and that’s essential to get settled up front. I’m meeting the officials simply to just ‘show the flag,’ so they can see that it’s a Haitian national who’s behind this project. The actual negotiations and legal work will be done by professionals. I want to show my personal commitment.

“Those meetings are for the manufacturing facility itself. I’m planning for several pilot facilities which I suppose can be set up in pole barns, if nowhere else, and will do small manufacturing jobs mainly as technical training centers. This is where we’ll be training the techs and supervisors who’ll staff the big facility when it’s built. I’m figuring that these shops can be set up to make the small G-force turbines that my engineers will design that will be sized to produce 500 kilowatts to be used in small villages.”

“You were meeting with university people too?” Nadine asked.

“Right. That’s the other part of my plan, the education part. I’ve been in touch with the administration at the Universite GOC. They have several locations and my preference is to have them set up the tech training program, since I got my start at their campus at Titanyen, right next to where we lived in Aubry. But their main location is in Port-Au-Prince. I’ll meet with them and confirm my interest, but for the major negotiations and program design, I’ll leave that to the experts in the field.

“We’ll need local legal representation in Haiti too, Mom. I’ve asked my attorney firm for recommendations, but we can also check out the firm that Granmanman used. If they did a good job in following her wishes, they may be the ones to go with.”

“I agree,” Nadine said. “Okay then, let’s go over our meeting schedules and see how to align them so we won’t get too far from each other. Good security.”

“Mom, let me show you two defensive emotion projections you can try. The first one was the very first I did when I was in middle school and the second one builds on that one.”

“Are you sure you want to reveal that? Ah... maybe I should ask if I’m ready to learn it...”

“Jeez, Mom, you’re one of the most stable people I know. You won’t do bad things with this, I promise. But you need eye contact for it to work. It’s how Granmanman gave Vanessa her heart problem. I’m sure that if she hadn’t been so weakened, she could have made it a full heart attack. But I’d never go that far; besides, it takes enormous concentration and a whopping amount of mental energy.”

“Well, okay then.”

Tamara went on to work with her mother to show her how to project confusion and fear.

“These two emotions can be created by causing the body to overproduce cortisol. I’ve shown you how to mobilize your limbic system to become sensitive to others’ emotions and that’s allowed you to learn how to do some limited projecting of them. What I’ve always thought of as ‘pushing.’ So the limbic system is the key here and I’ll give you the technical background in how it works.

“When you project, or ‘push,’ to another person, using the latent abilities lots of people seem to have—particularly those who are sensitive to spirituality of all kinds—what you’re doing is activating the amygdala, the central switchboard of emotion and memory in the brain. This organ signals the hypothalamus that the body needs to act and that organ then activates the pituitary gland. These three brain structures sit right next to each other. The pituitary gland is the largest neuroendocrine gland in the body; it has several lobes which do different things, mainly secreting its own kinds of hormones and controlling the parts of the nervous system which mobilize the other parts of the endocrine, or hormone, system.

“One of the hormones that the pituitary gland then secretes is ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and this chemical is carried by the bloodstream to the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, to alert them. At the same time, the sympathetic nervous system, activated by the pituitary, signals the adrenal glands to begin producing catecholamines, particularly epinephrine, also called adrenaline, and norepinephrine, and these are secreted into the glands’ blood supply. Those hormones prepare the muscles for violent action and they cause an increase in blood pressure and respiration.

“The ACTH produced by the pituitary causes the adrenal cortex to release the stress hormone cortisol, which also causes an increase in blood pressure and mobilizes the body’s stored energy resources, like fatty acids, to give the muscles a boost if fighting or fleeing is needed.

“And I believe that, at least in my own ‘pushing,’ I can freeze the subject to the point where they lose muscle control. I think that there’s a connection between the area of the thalamus and the midbrain area, a region called the periaqueductal gray, or PAG, and the cerebellum. I’ve read that the PAG gets sensory information about threats, while the cerebellum helps coordinate movement. What I read is that there’s a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the PAG to a very specialized part of the cerebellum and activating those nerve fibers will cause a muscle-freezing response when the brain’s central survival networks are activated during threatening situations. And this activation also stimulates the pyramidal tracts in the brainstem, which also causes increased heart rate and blood pressure.”

“My goodness, such a lecture, Tamara. You sure you’re not a neuroscientist too?”

“No, Mom. I just have the need to know how my ability works—to make sense scientifically and not say it’s paranormal or magic. These physiological reasons all make perfect sense and it’s the new brain structures which my enhanced MRI coils have detected that explain how the ‘pushing’ works. I still have to figure out a few things that don’t fit my current theories. How did Granmanman come to me, take me over, and leave her memories? How the heck do I become a translating machine when I need to do it? How does my premonition work? I’ve still got more questions than answers.

“Okay, back to how to do this. What you need to do is to make your mind clearly visualize a frightened, confused state, then focus on the target’s eyes and will them to feel that way. I know you did it with the love and happiness emotions you’ve tried; those are easy ‘cause that’s your nature. This one’s much harder but it’s much easier when you’re faced with a threat, as I’ve learned. I told you all about those times. You can practice on me.”

Reluctantly, Nadine began, and about forty-five minutes later an exhausted Nadine and a completely wasted Tamara called it quits.

“Damn, Manman, you’ve gotten almost too good at doing that!” Tamara panted as the two of them hugged.

“Are you okay now, darling?” Nadine asked. “You look almost as pale as a Caucasian,” and the two giggled.

“Yeah, now that’s awfully pale,” Tamara said, rubbing her face and then stretching her arms and shaking them. “I’m glad I’ve never had to face that kind of emotional attack before; some of it actually hurt! Mostly it was energy-sapping and pushing off the fear response was exhausting. That would be a very effective way of distracting someone who wasn’t prepared for that kind of attack, actually. You’re a good student, Mom. You look like I feel, actually.”

“Yes, you were right about the physical effort it takes, but ... against someone...?”

“Oh, you don’t need to keep going. Less than a minute will definitely stop most people. Maybe only twenty seconds. There’s a way to up the intensity, but you shouldn’t try to use that. It could give a heart attack. Remember that Kovacs guy? From the child slave cartel?””

“Oh yes, That scum...”

“Manman! Such language!”

“I would have used worse but for your sensitive ears... What about him?”

“That was the same projection I showed you, but he had a congenital heart issue. The burst of cortisol he got from my ‘pushing,’ together with the stress Dad gave him with that choke hold, made part of his heart muscle stop working. Same thing as I just showed you how to do.”

“That’s an uncomfortable power to have, darling,” Nadine demurred.

“Not if you consider the offensive skills lots of people have, Mom. Dad can kill with his hands alone. So can people who know other martial arts, like Kevin or Jeremy. Even little Amelia. Jeez, all you need to do is to have a gun and think of the damage that someone like that causes... school shootings and lockdown drills, all that crap. A deranged person, motivated by racial hatred or political or religious intolerance, or just someone completely unstable, can cause untold misery. The ability I showed you is mostly only effective defensively. You can see that, right?”

“Yes, I can now. Thanks for reassuring me, darling. Ah, can we finish up? I need to get into my office in ninety minutes for a staff meeting.”

“Sure. Peter’s coming by soon to pick me up. We’re going car shopping today, remember?”

“That’s right. So you’re finally going to do your own driving now.”

“Only when I have to,” Tamara pouted. “I like being chauffeured.”

Nadine snorted.

Tamara had finally given into Peter’s persuasion and agreed to get a driver’s license.

~~~~

Tamara was getting a car. She was ambivalent about it; it seemed to be a huge responsibility. But she had done just fine in her driving lessons and didn’t lack confidence, but she felt very secure being driven around by other people. She could even get work done during that down time. But she agreed with Peter that having her own car would make her much more independent and less subject to other people’s schedules. It would give her an additional freedom which she didn’t have.

She had decided that she wanted a car in the SUV configuration and wanted one from a U.S. manufacturer. The current Chevrolet’s Electric Utility Vehicle seemed to be a good choice so she had checked with a few engineers at the APL about its specifications and range. The latest model had a number of upgrades from the models of several years earlier and its 70 kWh battery pack and 250 horsepower, all-wheel-drive electric motor gave it an approximate 250-mile range.

One month earlier: April

Emma had heard Tamara talking to one of the engineers about her car plans.

“I say, Tamara, the EEC Energy auto battery division is developing their EV batteries using that Chevy model and a Vauxhall SUV,” Emma said. “We’ve got three Chevys and eight Vauxhalls and they’re driving them all continuously now in destructive testing to run them to battery failure. So far, the battery performance has been brilliant.”

“Tamara, on that spec sheet for the Chevy, what’s the battery there?” one of the engineers asked. “And charging time?”

“Um, it’s 350-volt lithium-ion battery, 70 kWh, and weighs 1,074 pounds. It says it gets 268 miles. About seven hours to full charge when close to empty.”

“Emma, what about your company’s battery?” he asked.

“We’ve developed one that, together with its integrated controller, outputs 350 volts but has way better specs. It’s 210 kWh and only weighs 280 kilos—ah, that’s what? Six hundred pounds?”

“About 615. Damn. What’s the range they get?” he asked.

“The average of all the cars is, erm... let me think. It’s way greater because of the much lighter battery and greater energy density. About 1100 kilometers, I think I recall.”

“That’s over 680 miles. Jesus. What about charging time?”

“Now that’s where Tamara’s invention really shines,” Emma said, putting her hand on Tamara’s shoulder. “The accumulator doesn’t store power by making a chemical reaction happen; it works basically by just pouring electrons into the device. And there’s no internal heating either, or conversion losses. So to go to a full charge from 20 percent, it only takes about five minutes—the same as filling a tank of petrol.”

The group looked at Emma and then Tamara in awe.

“No shit, that’s a world-changer in cars,” one of the other listeners said.

“There’s another benefit to the new accumulator,” Emma said, smiling. “It has the ability to pick up power from the environment, so the accumulator is always charging using induced power from atmospheric static electricity and power line radiation. Now then, Tamara, if you do decide to get a compatible auto, I’ll get one of those accumulators shipped here and you can have it installed. Do you...”

“Oh, for sure, Emma! Absolutely,” Tamara exclaimed.

So that was arranged. The accumulator would arrive in three weeks, a week prior to Tamara’s Haiti trip.

Back to the present

Tamara and Peter entered the dealership’s showroom. Tamara had made an appointment with the general manager, a Mr Noland. The receptionist showed the couple to his office.

“When you made the appointment, you said that you were in the market for a car,” Noland told them after they greeted each other. “Why didn’t you want to deal with my salespeople?”

“Simple,” Tamara told him. “After what we tell you, you’ll see. It’s because you’d have gotten involved anyway.”

He looked at her, mystified.

“The reason’s pretty simple. I want to buy an EUV, but there are special conditions attached.”

“Really? We certainly can negotiate on price and features...” he began.

“Not that,” Tamara grinned at him. “Special conditions, ones you’ve probably never have dealt with before. A company I’m associated with has developed a new kind of battery for EVs...”

Noland was nodding, “I’ve been reading about that.”

“... and I have one of the new batteries. Actually, I invented the technology they use...”

Noland looked at her in surprise. “You’re the inventor?”

“Right. So the conditions of my purchase are this. I’ll tell you the model and options I want and you’ll get the vehicle and prep it, installing the improved battery, and crediting my purchase for the original battery set you remove. The new battery’s provided with the proper hardware to be mounted in the battery compartment for proper load distribution and stability, all calculated by engineers in the company where these batteries are being tested right now. You can bill for your service department’s time to remove and install the new battery. That’s the special condition.”

“Ah, Miss Alexandre, you know that we really can’t do that; the liability alone...”

“I have a release of liability that I can give you,” Tamara said. “It covers any battery performance and vehicle stability issues. Since the battery is sized specifically for this model, the warranty on the drive train and electronics will remain.”

“I still don’t think that I can do that. You could buy the vehicle and have your own mechanic do the replacement, you know.”

“And void the rest of the vehicle’s warranty. I checked; that’s what would happen. I don’t have to make the purchase from your dealership, you know. I’m sure that I can find one that would cooperate, after they made certain that any legal issues were addressed.

“Here’s a carrot; maybe it will help persuade you. My battery will give the vehicle a 680-mile range and the charging time from 20 percent to full is about five minutes. Think what that means. There’s going to be a huge demand for these new accumulators when they hit the market in about two years. I can get your dealership a contract to purchase a dozen of them and you can upsell the vehicles that they’ll fit. Think about being one of the few dealerships in the world to have access to that technology. Call your legal people and your district sales manager. Here are copies of the contract and waivers my lawyers have prepared. Call me within the week to let me know your decision.

“We’ll go back on the showroom floor to look at your stock now and get with a salesperson to decide on features. We’ll have a sales order ready when we’re done, so the next part is in your hands, sir. Thanks for listening.”

“Hell, never had a reverse sales pitch like that, Miss Alexandre. Okay, I’ll see what we can come up with. Good meeting you; I’ll be in touch.”

While they were looking at the cars, Peter whispered to Tamara, “Jeez, sweetheart, you sure know how to talk tough!”

Tamara giggled, “This was just a training exercise for when I have to meet with the officials in Haiti. They’re typically not the most polite people and many have no respect for women at all, so I’m gonna have to talk tough with them.”

Tamara saw what she liked and did wind up approving a sales order, subject to the battery swap.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti: June

The trip to Haiti in June was mostly uneventful at first; the two women got most of their meetings done and had reached most of their planned goals. The big surprise would come as their trip came to a close. They both felt secure with their ever-present DSS agents and had no problems with their personal safety. However, there were several major issues, two of them disturbing, that Tamara encountered during her two weeks there. First, she learned a lot about dealing with bureaucrats and other official types who only were concerned about their self-interest. Untruths and evasive language were a major part of most of their dealings.

Okay, she thought, I know how to handle this problem. I know how to enable people to become sensitive to lies. When we set up our cadre of people here, I’ll have Mom work with trusted manbos to show them that skill.

Then, in meeting with some of the government ministry officials, she sensed that there were a few who were involved in some way with the gangs that were troubling the cities. One of those assistant ministers was actually an official whose ministry supervised the country’s police. This was a problem which needed quick attention, but all she could do right now was to plant suggestions in the offenders’ minds to become ill whenever they attempted to do something that benefitted the situation with the gangs.

Possibly use the manbos we train as lie-detectors for the new police force we will build? Tamara wondered. Maybe I should talk to Greta about that.

It was only during the final four days of their visit that the two women could find the time to deal with the safe-deposit box and the law firm. Nadine and Tamara did encounter a little resistance from the bank’s officials when they presented their key and the box ownership records. However, the intervention of a DSS agent helped to smooth the way, after a brief but intense discussion.

I could have used my ability and avoided that crap, Tamara mused when the bank official finally allowed their access. But that would mean using it for personal gain and I refuse to do that.

“Sexist idiots,” Tamara mumbled to Nadine as they entered the vault anteroom with an attendant.

“We both need to unlock the box together,” the attendant told them in Kreyòl. “Come in to the vault and I’ll show you where your key goes.”

The access to the box was by opening a large door, about ten inches wide and six inches high. The attendant inserted a key and turned it and told Nadine to insert and turn her key. The lock retracted, the attendant opened the door, and pulled out a covered metal box, about two feet long. From the way he carried it, it appeared to be heavy.

“We’ll go to a cubicle and I’ll leave you alone to open the box,” he told them.

When they were alone, taking a deep breath, Nadine lifted the cover and looked inside. The two women gasped at what they saw. There were six gray velvet cloth bags inside, but one had split along a seam and a number of coins had slid out. They looked like they were gold. Below the bags, they could see currency—it was obviously U.S. currency but the notes looked unfamiliar.

Nadine began to reach in but Tamara stopped her.

“Mom, wait. If that’s what I think it is, touching the old paper could leave a stain and hurt its value. Look on the left side of that top one—see, it says ‘Gold Certificate.’ And the bill is for 5,000 dollars. I never knew that bills came in amounts that high. Jeez, I’m glad the cell phone I got to use here includes a data plan. Let me get more info about that bill... let’s see... okay, there’s a date on it... series of 1928.”

She entered the data from the note in her phone and while she waited for the page to load, she asked, “It looks like there are a bunch of notes under there, right, Mom? We’ll need to get some latex gloves to handle them.”

A few seconds later, the page opened and she read the information to Nadine.

“Okay, it’s a Gold Certificate from 1928 and this page says that none are known to be in private hands; the U.S. government has just one, it’s serial number one and kept in the Smithsonian Museum but it says here that it’s not on display. The image of the bill on this web page has a comment that reads, ‘One of a few known or unique. Example note has a repaired tear. Profound rarity.’”

Meanwhile Nadine had taken a handkerchief out of her handbag and used it to shift the bill to the side and a number of similar bills were revealed.

“Looks like there might be at least twenty here, they all look like 5,000s,” she whispered.

Tamara glanced over at the box. “Can you push the coins aside a bit? I want to see the serial number of the note. Okay, an ‘A’ followed by seven zeroes, then a six, then ‘A.’ So that’s number six. The Smithsonian has number one. Jeez, think of the value of these bills; they’re virtually unique!”

Nadine slid the notes aside a bit more. “I see numbers eight, nine, and ten. I won’t disturb them any further. What about the coins?” she asked.

“Let me check them, one sec,” Tamara said and checked several coins. “Those are gold $20 coins and the years are different. Let me check a few.”

She went back to her phone browser.

“Okay, the coins are called double eagles and are somewhat rare too, some years are, anyway. Looks like typical prices range around $2,000 but some are up at $10,000. How many coins do you think there are?”

Nadine pushed the spilled coins around a bit.

“This bag has maybe thirty to forty. Six bags and they look similar, so 180 to 240 of them, perhaps.”

“That could be maybe a half-million in coins alone,” Tamara gasped. “Your mom’s family had some wealth, indeed. But back in the 1920s and 30s, this money was much closer to face value, but still, it was a fortune even back then.”

“I know. I had no idea. We’ll have to close all this up and lock it up again. Later this summer, I’ll get Wilson to come back with me to secure this fortune. Take a few photos, will you? We’ll need to get U.S. legal advice about this, you know.”

Tamara took some photos of the open box.

Then she said, “Let me look up everything’s face value to get an idea. Call it twenty currency notes and 240 double eagles...” She typed a bit on her phone. “The newest coin I saw was 1930, so the buying power of this money back then was close to 2 million dollars, Mom. For yucks, let’s check who the richest people were in 1930.”

She fiddled with her phone a bit more. “John D. Rockefeller. In 1930 he was worth 1300 million. This hoard is 2 million. Grandmanman’s family was really rich.”

They closed up and got the attendant to lock up the box again.

~~~~

They had an even more surprising experience at the law office. Indeed, Cabinet Toussaint, Leblanc and Baptiste was one of Haiti’s largest and most respected. Nadine and Tamara had made an appointment with one of the senior partners when they arrived in Haiti, and on their twelfth day in the country, they met with him. Nadine handed him the contract from her mother’s asson.

“Ah, I see,” the attorney, Pelex Leblanc, said after he read it. “This was from, ah, 24 years ago? Yes. Nobody remains here in the firm from then. Let me have the file brought. It’s in our vault; that will take fifteen minutes, perhaps.”

He made a phone call.

When he disconnected, Tamara asked him, “While we wait, I have a question that starts with a preamble. My mother and I are Haitian citizens but we also are U.S. citizens now too. Mom is a diplomat and I’m a student, but I’ve made some inventions that I will be commercializing and I want to do some of the manufacturing in Haiti—it was always my wish to help my birth country. The company that I’ve formed will need Haitian legal representation. Would your firm like to be considered by us to represent us here? I will be getting other suggestions from my stateside attorneys as well.”

“Indeed, I know about you, Dr and Mlle Alexandre; I had checked into you and your status when you called for this appointment. I have established, Dr Alexandre, that you were known as Cassandra David and had married a U.S. serviceman, one Jonas Bernard and the Bernard name is well respected in Haiti still, as is that of the David family.”

Nadine nodded. “That’s very impressive, sir. Is your firm always that thorough?”

“We try to be,” Leblanc said. “With our country’s weak laws and jurists who are less than reliable, it’s essential to have accurate information about our clients, their affairs, and their history. Ah, here’s the file; good. That was quick, thanks,” he said to the person who had brought the paperwork.

He turned to Tamara. “Indeed, we would be honored to be considered as your Haitian representative. But now, let us review this file. First, I saw from the pages you gave me that your mother had a contract with my firm to continue to rent a safe-deposit box in... ah, I see you nodding. You know of the box.”

“We’ve been to the bank and checked it. All is well,” Nadine told him.

Leblanc nodded and opened the file, read the first page, and looked up. “Good. Your visit is quite timely. The instructions here tell us that should Mme Tamara David not appear in these offices after 25 years, we are to contact you, Cassandra David, or your next of kin. Since it is just 24 years, you have saved us the trouble and expense of tracking you down.” He looked sympathetically at Nadine. “But I now recall the news from a year ago, I believe, that Mme David perished at the hands of an evil person, many years earlier, so I am truly sorry for your loss, even after such a long passage of time.”

“Thank you,” Nadine told him.

“You have received your compensation that the government arranged from the witch’s estate?”

“I have, and also the property that was stolen from my mother’s ounfò.”

“Excellent. As a solicitor, I’ve seen and heard things that the public or even the government never learns about,” he went on. “So I’m aware of the David family history and reputation, even prior to the 1950s when this firm was established. They were a wealthy family but hid it well. Are you aware of that?”

“Not until very recently. My mom was always frugal, but I also recall how generous she was to people in need. Now I know she had the resources to help others,” Nadine told him.

“Yes, she did have an excellent reputation, both as a religious leader and as social reformer, from what I’ve learned from other clients. Do you wish to know about the source of the family’s wealth?”

“Ah, not illegal, I hope?” Nadine asked tentatively.

Leblanc chuckled. “Borderline, I suppose. The family engaged in shipping, trading, and acting as trade facilitators. Likely smuggling was involved too; that was quite common for shippers. They were shipping agents and handled trade between the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe—mainly France. I’m sorry to say that some of your more distant ancestors may have even been involved in the slave trade—don’t object; some of the Africans who came to the Caribbean in the eighteenth century were, in fact, somewhat involved with slave trade. Possibly parts of the David family were; it’s a reasonable assumption given their family business and how influential the family was in the nineteenth century. Ah, pardon me, I’m getting somewhat away from the topic now.

“This file contains the information about your family’s holdings; that is, the part that came down to your mother from her parents. Right around the beginning of the twentieth century, a major portion of the David family emigrated to Liberia, following the American freed slaves from about forty years earlier. Actually, Liberia isn’t all that distant from Benin and Togo, the area where most Haitian slaves came from. The David family emigres departed, taking much of the family’s wealth with them, but your grandfather’s branch stayed and kept up the trade agent business. They were very leery of the Haitian government and rightfully very distrustful of the Dominican Republic too, so their accumulated cash and investments were made in other places, notably the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. My firm has been the stewards of the David family investments for the past sixty years or more. Let me tell you about their holdings.”

Nadine and Tamara were staring at him in shock. How much money could Nadine’s grandparents have accumulated? They waited in anticipation as the lawyer opened a large envelope.

Next Chapter            Return Home

Copyright © 2023 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.