**Three months to the day prior to Billy’s rapid exit from the Founder’s Chicken employee’s only parking lot.**

Need to catch up? [Read Chapter One Here](https://steemit.com/story/@markrmorrisjr/the-bullshit-investors-club-rednecks-and-crypto-what-could-go-wrong-chapter-one): [Read Chapter Two Here!](https://steemit.com/life/@markrmorrisjr/the-bullshit-investor-s-club-rednecks-and-crypto-what-could-go-wrong-chapter-two)


“So, who’s in? We won over $700 last time, which doubled everybody’s money and I’ve got a feeling this one is going to be big.” Wendel Jackson was the plant’s unofficial lottery pool treasurer. In addition to being the most honest man any of them had ever met, his surviving a plane crash, a train wreck, a head on collision between a Grey Hound bus and a Mack truck, 14 separate car accidents, a fire, two major floods and a heart attack clearly made him the luckiest man alive. 

![](http://i.imgur.com/SWiJhIe.jpg)


Sid handed over ten ones, and Charlotte added her $5, which Wendel recorded in the official ledger of the Bullshit Investor’s Club, the name they’d given their lottery pool, a small, yellow, mead pocket notebook. There were only three pages left, but they’d won an average of five out of six times for two years straight, and no one wanted to start a new book, for fear it would break their streak. Wendel fanned himself with the cash, “Come on! I know some of you are holding out, Jim, you’re wife liked that steak dinner, come on!” 

Jim grinned and handed over a twenty, Wendel whistled, “Hey, big spender, I’m not gay, but $20 bucks is $20 bucks, you know what I’m saying?”
“I’m in for $50, but I suggest we change the game,” Howard said. Increasing the buying pool by $50 increased everyone’s odds, since any winnings were split between those that contributed, according to what they paid in by percentage. 
Wendel looked up, Howard held a crisp $50 in his hand. “I say, just this once, we give Billy a shot at increasing our money. Make this a real investor’s club, who’s with me?” 

“Yeah, I heard about that new truck Billy, I’m down, if you want to give it a shot,” Wendel said. “I only get all my money back half the time anyway, right?” 
 
“Tempting as that sounds, I don’t think so,” Billy looked up from his laptop. “Pretty sure that’s not even legal.” 

“Sure it is,” Howard was ready with a response. “The IRS even ruled that Bitcoin can be part of an IRA, hedgefunds do it all the time.” 

Tito chimed in, “What the hell, I hate the lottery, but this sounds interesting. I’m in.” 

Before Billy could respond, there were seventeen names in the book, for a total of $187.00. Wendel slid into the seat next to Billy. “Come on, what do you say? No harm, no foul. We’re all grownups, everyone agreed, same rules as lottery pool, you pays your money, you takes your chances, right?” There was a general murmur of agreement. 

“Well, we can try it, once.” Billy agreed, more from peer pressure than actual confidence. “But, understand, I’ve only been doing this for a few months, with my own money and I’ve gotten really lucky on a couple of trades.”

“It’s cool, Billy,” Tito said, “It’s not like we’re going to take our “pound of flesh” if it  don’t work out.” He laughed, darkly. 

Billy eyed Tito nervously, “Right, okay, well, we’ll need to start a bitcoin wallet. What name should we put it under?” 

Wendel stood up, “Okay, everybody, you trust me, right? I’m going to vouch for Billy here. He’s been around for almost a year and I’ll take the heat if he absconds with our millions, okay? Put it in your name brother. Just give us updates, we trust you.” 

As Alex entered the room, he didn’t know what to expect, but everyone seemed in a good mood. That changed quickly. Alex had never experienced this before. The breakroom grew dead silent, eerily silent. Every eye was on him and not a single mouth was moving. 

Typically, these kinds of meetings were filled with snide comments, snorts and other signals of the mood of the crowd, but not today. He had no idea what Tito had said to get them all here, but when he’d walked in at 1:55 every single shift member was accounted for, another thing that never happened. 

He stepped onto a wooden box, kept around for just such occasions and cleared his throat, “Uh, I have good news and bad news. You’re all going to keep your jobs, that’s the good news. The bad news is, we’re being sold and we have no idea what the changes will look like.” 

Feet started shifting, a few swallows were heard and at least one sigh, but still not a word of comment. Alex continued. “I have no power over this decision. As plant manager, my voice only counts just slightly more than all of yours. You know me, I’ve tried to make this a good place to work. I’ve fought for every penny I could get you, even stalled my own raise to give you more. But, Mr. Johnson has decided the chicken business is about played out here, they’ve just opened the market to Chinese suppliers and he doesn’t see room for a product that requires $15 an hour plant workers, and he’s not interested in paying any less, he knows it’s worth it. So, ninety days from today, Founder’s becomes Mr. Slim’s. Any questions?”

“Yeah,” this from Sid, as he stood in the middle of the room and looked around. “We had a contract. I know we’re not a union, but we had a guarantee of three years, what about that?”

Alex wiped his forehead, was it just him, or was it hotter than it should be for May? “Well, that’s why you’re all keeping your jobs. Look, this company has been in the Johnson family for over a hundred years, it wasn’t an easy decision.” 

Howard stood up, “What do you think we should do, Alex? You’ve always been a straight shooter, you’ve met this new team, can they make it work?”

Alex tilted his head and scratched the back of his neck with a thoughtful squint, “Yeah, I don’t know. They’re hipsters with internet money. They see us moving in a bit of a new direction. Starting in August, all of our sources will be organic, and we’ll be moving into some boutique products with a little higher margins.” 

It was Sid’s turn to squint, but his was suspicion, “What’s that gonna do to our hours? That Tulsa plant last year tried something similar, they ended up working twenty hours, instead of forty-five. I don’t speak for anybody but me, but that’s bullshit.” 

“For now, they’ve guaranteed full schedules at the same pay to the end of the quarter, first of October, for training. After that, we’ll see. They’ve got one hell of a sales team already out backing you guys up with preorders. If it doesn’t work, it won’t be because they didn’t try.” Alex said. 

Sid sucked his teeth in disgust, turned and left the breakroom. “Been nice knowing you.” He said. 

Everyone else sat quietly. “Well, that’s all I know. You’re welcome to leave early today if you don’t feel you can finish your shift, no penalty. Otherwise, break’s over in ten minutes.” Alex stepped off the box and turned toward the office. Angry murmurs broke out across the room. He needed to get out of here, let everyone cool down and see what he had left. 

“Wait!” Alex turned back, Charlotte stood in the middle of the room. “I just wanted to say thank you. I know you done the best you could. You came and helped when my baby came and Mr. Johnson has been good to me the five years I been here. That’s all, just, make sure we remember, Founder’s has been on our side. Trish, they helped you when your trailer was in foreclosure, and Billy’s surgery, and Glen, you know without them paying you when your wife was sick and you had to go take care of  her, you wouldn’t have made it, so think this through, people. Whatever you decide, they’re good people.” 

The tone shifted to one of agreement. Nearly everyone in the room had been given a break when they needed it and those that hadn’t knew that Founder’s was there if they needed it. Alex couldn’t blame them for being hurt and angry, he was too. 

“Thank you, Charlotte. I’m making some tough choices right now too, everybody. Thank you for your patience.”

Howard stood up again, “What Alex isn’t telling you is that, beginning in August, he’s training his replacement. So, whoever gets to stay, Alex is out of a job come October. He’s not going to tell you that, because he doesn’t want you feeling sorry for him, but that’s one of the things he negotiated. They’ll keep all of us, but they want their own management.” 

“Shit, Howard. I don’t know how you found that out, but….” Alex choked. “Dammit. I don’t want anyone making decisions because of me. It’s okay. I’ve landed on my feet before. I’ll be fine.” He turned and left the breakroom. 

As the door shut behind Alex, Billy hit the enter key and stuffed the cash into his pocket, he’d just made the first official purchase of the Bullshit Investors Club and he hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake.