America 1982

Miami VA Administrative Center.

This office is responsible for handling all administrative matters involving veterans in the Miami area, and also manages facilities such as veterans' nursing homes, veterans' welfare homes, veterans' clinics, and veterans' charity canteens in the Miami area.

Tommy held some introduction materials and walked out of the main entrance of the management center with a somewhat pained expression. He opened the door and sat back in the car. Then he took out his wallet and counted the bills in it. After counting his own one hundred yuan, it was only five. One hundred and thirty yuan. Page saw that his face was a little ugly and said beside him:

"According to the situation in California, if you donate four hundred yuan to the Retired Police Officers Association, it is enough to receive an invitation letter at the association's quarterly appreciation dinner. If you think the change looks too shabby, I can help you exchange it for four hundred-dollar denominations. of banknotes.”

"I know it's cheaper here than in California. You can get an invitation letter for three hundred yuan, but I don't need an invitation letter for the quarterly appreciation dinner. Jeff has no ability to speak at the dinner now, and it's only four hundred yuan. The association doesn't I won't give him a chance to speak during the campaign." Tommy took a deep breath and said somewhat depressedly:

"He has no financial backers, no base, nothing, so he can't reach a deal with the rich people at the dinner party. He can only drain the money of a certain group of poor people. The only way is to turn that group into Jeff's base." Only after making sure that he has the value that other candidates in the party should pay attention to or cooperate with him, the rich people may talk to him. The most important thing is that those politicians have already thought of winning the votes of this group. The Democratic Party The third-ranked candidate, Gerald Richman, his political action committee donated 20,000 yuan here. In other words, unless we contribute more money, none of the officials or staff here at this moment will Pay no attention to us, let alone cheer for Jeff."

"Do you need me to drive?" Page didn't care about this kind of thing and just asked Tommy.

Tommy looked through the introductions about veterans' welfare institutions in his hand: "Yes, we can only use stupid methods to go to those nursing homes one by one to help Jeff raise money. There are a total of twelve veterans' nursing homes in Miami. We get at least 2,000 yuan from each nursing home. Based on the average number of residents in each nursing home of 42, each old man has to donate at least 48 yuan to us. Then we need to package Jeff, otherwise we will rely on Jeff now. Such stupid behavior, let alone 48 yuan, it’s impossible to raise 48 cents.”

"Where to go?"

Tommy threw the Department of Veterans Affairs' free introduction to its affiliated agencies into the back seat:

"Driving, we will go to the car rental agency first, then to the clothing store, then to the video studio, and also to find a haircut... By the way, Martin seems to have been a barber."

By the time Tommy finished everything and returned to Jeff's house, it was already past dinner time, but he did not go to bed early. On the contrary, the living room of Jeff's house was in full swing at this time.

The four children were happily lining up in front of the phone to make calls. They took turns urging their classmates and friends to turn on the TV and watch their father's heroic appearance. Sister-in-law Gina was also lined up behind the four children, preparing to make a call to her hometown. , bragging to those relatives that his brother-in-law has now become a big shot on TV.

For many country folk, appearing on television was unimaginable.

Jeff and his wife snuggled up sweetly on the sofa and watched the news on the TV. Jessica regretted the image of Jeff in the news and thought that she should let Jeff wear the same outfit as when they got married today. That suit would make him look more handsome, and Jeff said that the owner of the burger shop called specifically to say that he had sent him a small check of twenty yuan to support his election, and told Jeff, If he goes on TV next time, I hope he can continue to hold up his signature burger.

As for Martin, he seriously discussed with Jeff's two smart friends Zach and Allen who has better acting skills between him and Jeff.

Seeing Tommy walk in, the whole living room suddenly became quiet, and only the voice of the news anchor on the TV was left. After a two-second pause, everyone came back to their senses and went about their business. Jessica stood up and said that she would help Tommy. Mi left a portion of dinner.

"Jeff, I rented a car for you and it's parked outside. Let's try it out." Tommy declined Jessica's offer to let him taste Chinese food and tilted his head towards Jeff:

"Also, I can hear you guys yelling outside. I don't know, I thought you won the Nobel Prize in Physics for relying on the flat-Earth theory. Keep a low profile and just appeared on a few local TV news programs. "

Jeff stood up in confusion: "You rented a car for me? But we have three cars at home, why do we need to rent a car?"

He has three cars at home. One is the Ford Tempo sedan he drives, which is convenient for storing his various tools for repairing pipes in the trunk. The other is the family Ford Mercury that Jessica drives to buy groceries or pick up her children. One of them is a six-seat Chevrolet family recreational vehicle, which is convenient for their family of six to go out together on weekends.

Everyone else also heard Tommy's words. At this time, they and Jeff walked out of the house curiously, wanting to see what kind of car Tommy had rented for Jeff. As a result, after walking out, everyone seemed to be stunned instantly. He was petrified and stunned on the spot.

In front of everyone's eyes, a shabby 1979 Ford F150 pickup truck parked, and its body was spray-painted with jungle camouflage. On the front hood of the car, an American flag and a conspicuous slogan were spray-painted:

"This is America! Say no to the Cubans!"

Everyone was so shocked by the shape of the car that they were speechless. Jeff’s smart friend Zach even covered his mouth. He was so shocked that he cursed in a low voice: “Shit! Tommy, you are in a state where Cubans account for the largest proportion of the total population.” 45% of the 18th District actually drove this car back intact? Wasn’t it smashed by Cubans?”

"Go up and try. Tomorrow you will drive this pickup truck that has made great contributions to the U.S. military to the veterans' nursing home, condolences to the veterans, and give a touching speech." Tommy said to Jeff.

Jeff saw this shabby old pickup truck that couldn't even be called ordinary for sale: "I don't understand, Tommy, why do you drive this car? My Ford Tempo is in much better condition than this one. It's only been three years. The age of the car, this car has been ravaged in the swamp for at least eight years.”

"Ford Tempo? Are you fucking kidding me? You drive that kind of car to a place full of veterans?" Tommy looked at Jeff and cursed first, then rolled his eyes and looked at Martin:

"Martin, help Jeff translate. Why can't he drive his car to a place like that?"

As Tommy's mouthpiece, Martin shrugged and spoke without reservation: "Because those veterans will ask Jeff, hey, boy, when you bought a fucking car, the car dealer asked you to mortgage your balls. Is that there? That’s why you bought a car that only a woman can drive?”

"Very good, the translation is good, that's what it means." Tommy opened the door of the pickup truck and took out a large set of clothing and handed it to Jeff's wife: "This is the clothing Jeff will wear tomorrow, a camouflage baseball cap. Camouflage T-shirt, polo pants and boots."

"And~" Tommy finally took out a video tape and handed it to Jeff: "Learn how to be a tough guy."

Jeff looked down and saw that it was an old movie released in 1978, "Fist" starring Sylvester Stallone.

It tells the story of a young worker who was full of passion and led workers to strike because he was dissatisfied with the collusion of capitalists and politicians to corrupt and exploit workers, and eventually grew into the president of the Truck Drivers Union who colluded with politicians, capitalists and the mafia.

Before Jeff could figure out why he wanted to watch this movie, Tommy added: "The most important thing is, only watch the first half. The second half is not suitable for you right now."

I still owe two updates from yesterday, so I’ll pay it back today~ I came back a little late yesterday~