The Fraudulent Contractor

The Fraudulent Contractor

by

Austin Mitchell

         Miss Lela put her two hands on top of her head and uttered a shout. Then she started crying. Weston Morgan, a contractor, had gone with two week’ lunch money for her. This wasn’t the first time contractors were robbing her. Weston was a contractor who built stone walls. Miss Lela is a woman having a lunch kitchen on the road-side in the district of Nelson.  She sells breakfast, lunches and sometime dinner too. Another woman, Mervis, also sells lunches too but is not as generous with her credit as Miss Lela. Weston had been building two retaining walls along with another contractor, Willis Redman. Redman had credited his supplies from Mervis.

            “I can’t believe it, Mervis. Look how the man promised me that as soon as he got paid, he was going to come and pay me.”

            “That’s why I don’t trust any of them. As for the one Weston, you see how fast he talks and how small his eyes are. I could never trust somebody like that.”

            All of the day laborers had come and settled their bill.

            “That man is a wicked man. It’s the little money, I was waiting on from him to finish paying off Mr. Chin for the goods I took from him.”

            “I should  never let him owe me so much money. Imagine he owes me for twelve day’s worth of lunch and breakfast.”

            Meanwhile Weston was in another community five miles away and he was drinking and celebrating with his friends.

            “Weston, I hope you settled with Miss Lela," a man named Wilson warned.

            “Wilson, you know how I and Lela live already, she knows that everything will be all right.”

            “She’s different from Miss Mervis. At least you can get things to credit from her,” a young laborer named Lobban opined.

            But Weston never went back to settle his bill with Lela. She had to go into her savings to pay off Mr. Chin the things she had credited.

            Over the next six months, Weston got several contracts. He never got one in the community where Lela operated.  He was up to his usual tricks. Laborers and suppliers were the ones who felt the brunt of his dishonest behavior. Many times he got paid and didn’t turn up to pay his food bill for the last two or three weeks.

            His last contract was in a community three miles away. When a contractor gets a job apart from making sure that the materials are delivered on time and in the right quantities he has to make sure that the laborers are fed.  Only one cook shop was near where the wall was to be built. The nearest shop was about a mile away.

            Weston went up to the cook-shop and peeped inside and got a shock. It was Miss Lela!

            He pretended that he didn’t know her.

            “Lady, we are about to build a stone wall. I want to arrange some credit with you.”

            Lela came out of the shop.

            “Weston, is so your memory short? You don’t remember me, or you never expect to see me up this way?”

            Weston looked at her. But he showed no signs of recognition.

            “My sister is in the hospital, so she begged me look after her shop for her. One of my daughters is taking care of my shop.”

            Weston shook his head, he didn’t remember this woman.

            “If you are not willing to give us credit I will go elsewhere.”

            “Weston, if you say you don’t remember me, you are a wicked man. Every one of the workers on the site says that you told them that you paid me.”

            “Weston, what happen to Mr. Redman? Don’t tell me that you don’t know him?”

            Again Weston shook his head. He didn’t know anybody by the name of Redman.

            “I am going to bring Mervis down here and you can tell me if you don’t  know her too,” Lela said and went back into her shop.

            Materials started dropping on the site. The cement was stored nearby at a man name Desmond Jones’ house. By the next week the work started. Men from the district were hired as laborers. Weston brought in two masons and a local woman, named Pauline to do the cooking.

            Lela’s sister was out of hospital and at home recuperating from the operation.

            By the end of the first week, Pauline quit the work. She had run out of cash and neither Lela nor the shop, were willing to extend credit to her. Weston was not due to get an advance for work done until the end of the third week. The job was slated to last six weeks. Pauline gave Weston her bill before she left.

            Lela agreed to credit the workers their lunch but refused to have anything to do with Weston.  Weston had to bring his lunch with him or eat dry food. If he brought lunch with him he had to eat it cold because Lela refused to heat it up for him.

            One day when Weston wasn’t around, Mervis came to visit Lela. She told all the workers on the site about Weston. Even, Pauline who had stopped to talk to the workers heard the story. They all expressed shock at what he had done and said that they didn’t trust him.

            When Weston returned, he noticed the attitude of the workers towards him. Nobody wanted to say anything. He went over to Lela’s shop and she told him that Mervis had come to look for him the day before.

            Weston still declared ignorance of whom this Mervis was.

            “You are a wicked woman. Imagine, you feed all of the workers and just because you hate me you prefer to see me starve,” he told her.

            “All right I will credit you until you get pay, but I’m not going to let you run away with my money.”

            So Lela started cooking for Weston. At the end of the third week, Weston got paid and he paid her. Pauline came and he settled his bill with her. He also paid the workers.

            The second part of the work had now began.

            Lela became worried. Weston wasn’t due to get pay until the wall was complete.  Both Mervis and her sister, Corine, told her not to give him any more credit.

            When she told Weston about their reservations, he balked.

            “I’m not a dishonest person or else I could never be getting these contracts.”

            She made him sign an agreement which was witnessed by one of the masons.

            Lela was still apprehensive however. She had credited the foodstuff from Mr. Chin’s shop. She knew that the laborers would pay her but would Weston honor his agreement.

            So Weston was once again getting his lunches on credit from Lela. Several of the workers had their doubts about him. Based on what Mervis had told them they wondered if he wouldn’t try to run out on them.

            Anyway the three weeks passed and the workers made sure that they went to where Weston was being paid. There they collected their money. They warned him about not paying Lela. He told them that it was none of their business. They returned to pay Lela. They told her where to find him. At five o’clock that evening there was still no sign of Weston and Lela called Mervis.

            The two women went to the bar where the workers had told Lela that Weston was.

            They barged into the bar. Weston was shocked to see them. Willis Redman was also in the bar.

            “Weston, I come for my money and the balance that you owe me,” Lela declared.

            Willis looked at Weston.

            “You mean you still owe Lela after all this time?” Willis asked.

            Other contractors were looking on.

            Weston took out some money and gave Lela.

            “This is not all. You know Mister Redman, Weston told me that he didn’t know me. He said he didn’t know you or Mervis.”

            “What, Weston don’t know me or Mervis?”

            Weston pulled out some more money and gave Lela before stepping out of the bar.

            “So if I never came here, I would never get back my money,” Lela said.

            “What a dishonest man. I will never credit him anything again,”she declared.

            Willis and the other contractors were shaking their head. Contractors had to be tough, but Weston was taking it a bit too far.

            Lela decided that she would never credit anything to Weston again and she would warn her sister and several of their associates about him. The End.