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Grift, by Michael Roberts

11/6/2021

 
I’m nervous, if you want to know the truth.
I’m in a shady part of town, surrounded by a lot of people I’d rather not be surrounded by, truth be told.
I’m sure some of them are probably friends of the guys we just robbed.
For some reason, our pickup guy got the wrong street and now we’ve got a dozen blocks to walk through, before the guys we robbed let their friends know what we did and they come looking
And I’m carrying about a million dollars in seeds in a baggy.
Yeah, you heard that right.
Swazi Black.
Well, Swazi Silver Black to be precise.
If you’re not into smoking weed, you’ve probably never heard of it but it is the holy grail of Cannabis, the last of the legendary land-race cannabis strains to be actually found.
Travis McGee supposedly smuggled them out of Swaziland in the early 70s, inside a couple 35mm Black and White film canisters.
Rumour is that the silver in the film tainted the seeds’ genetics but made it super potent.
Supposedly Travis wanted to try it out and grew one plant, as a test.
The weed that came from it was supposedly the best weed out there that summer.
Even Jagger and Richards supposedly wanted to get some.
I’m using the word ‘supposedly’ a bit too much you say?
Well, I have to because we’ll never know for sure what went down that summer.
We know that McGee partnered up with Marty Davis, a weed grower up in the mountains.
We know that the Feds got wind of what Marty and McGee were up to and raided their ‘office’.
Marty went one way and McGee the other, right into Federal Custody, where he served 20 years, before dying of cancer in a federal hospital ward.
Marty disappeared, along with the seeds.
And Swazi Silver Black disappeared off the face of the planet just like that.
Until a couple years ago.
Legalization brought a lot of people out of the woodwork.
The internet gave them a forum with which to discuss their love and expertise of cannabis.
And to run a con.
The guy we stole the seeds from?
Connor Davis, Marty’s grandson.
So he says.
He could be lying, like I am about being McGee’s son.


The plan was simple, really.
Get to know Connor, convince him that I’m McGee’s grandkid and that resurrecting the McGee-Davis partnership would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, meet up with him, steal the seeds in Nebraska, where cannabis is illegal and sell them to a grower in Colorado, where it’s legal.
Davis can’t say shit about it without getting busted for possession.
And who cares?
He’s a little punk who got lucky because he’s sitting on a gold mine that his grandfather stole from ‘mine’
Do I care about the real McGee?
Not really.
I just appreciate the opportunity this gives me.
It’s a great con, if I do say so myself.
Jim link
12/6/2021 08:15:31 pm

Not much honor among thieves, eh? The "supposedly" might be a good title here as well, though Grift pretty much covers it. Who to believe?
Does he make it out of the shady neighborhood? Riches beyond his wildest dreams? Or just off to another con, looking for that quick buck, or pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Quite a story.
Take care
Jim

Sue Clayton
13/6/2021 06:06:00 am

Great insight into the characters of these two con men.

William George Sells
13/6/2021 05:21:31 pm

Loved the buildup on this and the insight like Sue says. Great story, Michael!


Comments are closed.

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