“Yes, of course there is money to be made in the sale, but the idea behind structuring the sale of the Ludlow Bubbly and the Ludlow Historical Soda Division is not value for money.”
“Wait, what?” 16-year-old Tom Stepforth said as he nearly broke his neck on a double take, hearing his uncle, Sgt.Vincent Trent talking about the sale that was going to make three families beside his own a whole lot of money.
“Come on, cuz,” 21-year-old Melvin Trent said. “Now, we each have the same Stepforth grandmother, but you know your uncle's mom is a whole Jubilee-of-the-mountain, and you know Jubilee-type of people don't are nothing about money.”
“Which is another thing, and I had to wait to be 16 to ask, but, how do we even have the same Stepforth grandmother?” Tom said. “How in the world did your dad convince our shared grandparents to let him marry my aunt, your mom?”
“Because Jubilee-type of people don't ever marry for money, so, since our Stepforth grandparents knew my dad's pedigree, it was all good even though he was just a buck private back then,” Melvin said.
“OK, so, how do Jubilee-type of people even get along in the modern world, though?” Tom said.
“The same way we've been getting along since Hubert Jubilee became the Shooting Conductor in 1854, modified for peacetime, more or less,” Melvin said. “We don't get along with the world. We are passing through on our way to Heaven as free people, and anybody who has a problem with that is going to find it in their best interest to get out of the way.”
“Are y'all even employable?” Tom said.
“If we want to work the job,” Melvin said. “If we can learn something that will help us stay free and free somebody else, sure. Ain't nothing wrong with some good honest money, and our shared grandfather likes to say that if people are willing to pay you to invest like they are doing with the value of what you create, then do that.”
“Oh, OK, this is the Stepforth translation,” Tom said. “Your family and the Ludlows are selling your part to families just like yours who will be working for themselves and building up their families like you have built y'all selves up, and Pop-Pop is helping for the same reason.”
“Right – it's the people value and the future value,” Melvin said. “Doesn't hurt to get paid, but still: like if I sell Team No-Sleep, I'm not going to sell it to the highest bidder because I'm filling up my little brother's college fund and your little brother's college fund and yours too, and also some other young folks – I need to sell to somebody who wants to do the real work in addition to just using and renting the beats, or, I will just sell it to the next person in the family on good terms who has the gift when I'm ready to do something different.”
“Because you are a Trent-type of person who is also a Jubilee-type of person and a Stepforth-type of person,” Tom said.
“Yep,” Melvin said, “but basically because I'm old enough to remember who did well and who had to go through it to get their lives together. The Jubilee Trent model always worked, and the Stepforth model won later on when it came in line with not thinking money is it.”
“This is true,” Tom said. “Some things are inherited, but you can get a long way by just paying attention and doing the right thing.”
“Yep,” Melvin said.
