Young Nelson:
Agnes… I not understanding something here at all.

Agnes:
What happen now, chile?

Young Nelson:
How St. Thomas and St. John landscaping contracts coming up to $489,672, but St. Croix, with more acreage, only costing $114,430? That sounding backwards to me.

Agnes:
Baby, because it is backwards. You ain’ have to be no accountant to see when numbers doan sound right. You know what the old people say: when de pot too hot, something in there burning.

Young Nelson:
And that is what confusing me. They saying St. Thomas terrain harder, so workers got to use weed eaters and machetes instead of machines. Alright… but even with all that, how it still ending up almost four times more?

Agnes:
Listen to me… harder work does not always mean sense in the final bill. You could explain a little difference, yes. But when de gap geh so wide people does geh vex, then somebody got to answer.

Young Nelson:
Vialet sound like he wasn’t buying it neither. He basically say this thing ain’t making sense.

Agnes:
And he right. A number could tell on itself, you know. Especially when St. Croix got big campuses like Central and Complex, and those places alone got plenty land to maintain. So if St. Croix handling all that for much less, then naturally people going ask questions.

Young Nelson:
So I ain’ wrong for feeling like this math doing something strange?

Agnes:
You ain’ wrong atall. Senators calling it a drain on resources, and that is just a polite way of saying, “Ayo better come explain where this money going.”

Young Nelson:
Because from where I standing, one island cutting more grass on more land for way less money… and the other one costing near half a million. That not regular.

Agnes:
Ain’t nothing new under the sun, darling. Every time money start stretching farther than common sense, outrage does follow close behind.

Young Nelson:
So basically… everybody trying to figure out how less land turning into more bill.

Agnes:
Exactly. And until somebody explain it clear-clear, people going keep side-eyeing them contracts. As they should.