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“Well, I graduated early. That’s why I’m in town. And I’m here at Dr. Sonya’s because Marcus said that he was making his chocolate croissants today,” he said with the hint of a smile.
“I heard they’re good.”
“They are.”
I stared at Claude for a moment.
“You know, out of everyone who got out of this town, you were the last one I thought would come back.”
“Same,” he said looking down in thought. “But, my mother’s here. And she’s been needing a little help, so here I am.”
“And what are you doing? Are you working?”
“Do you have a computer that needs repair?” he asked leaning forward with a smile.
“You repair computers? Here?”
“Yeah, well, there’s not a ton of call for it. But when there is, there’s no one else. And I’ve been slowly convincing a few of the businesses to switch to electronic data management, so you never know.”
I laughed. “You mean, to get this town to move into the 21st century? Good luck with that.”
“Thanks. But what about you? I thought you were at East Tennessee?”
“I am. I’m just visiting for the day.”
Claude shook his head in acknowledgment. “You know, I’ve been meaning to get a hold of you.”
“You have? Why?”
“You give tours of the falls to tourists, don’t you?”
“I mean, I have. Why?”
“Have you ever considered that with the right support, it might make a great business? Maybe it could be more than just tours. Maybe it could include some camping or river rafting. You could sell packages for it. I’ve been crunching the numbers. It might take a while, but something like that might be quite profitable.”
I looked at him shocked. “Yes, I have. All the time. Why? Are you thinking about setting up something like that?”
“I was thinking about it. But, I’m only one guy. And I would be much better at the business side of things. If I had a partner, though.”
“You seem to be forgetting one thing. You’re not gonna get anyone in this town to go along with something like that. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“You’ve tried to convince people. But have you considered just doing it yourself? You don’t need permission to go after what you want in life. You just need to know what you want and then not stop until you have it.”
“Claude? I thought I heard you out here. Did you come for more of the croissants?” Dr. Sonya said bringing out my order.
“You know I did,” Claude told her with a smile.
“Well, there are only two left, but I’ll let you have them if you show me how to do that thing on the computer again. It’ll just take a second.”
Claude looked at me with a smile that told me that it would take longer than a second.
“Of course.”
“I’m sorry to keep bothering you about it. My computer technician is off flagging footballs,” she said before fake crying.
“No worries. I’ll show it to you now.” Claude got up. “Think about it, Titus. What is it that you want?”
I watched the two of them enter the house and then gave Claude’s proposal some thought. I had considered starting up a tour business many times. I never knew where to begin. That was probably why I was so focused on convincing people to open up the town. I thought that with it would come opportunity.
