The Inheritance of Dust

The Buyback

We have 10 houses up now with lights on, and batteries trucked from Reno at $4k diesel each. We had already pressed first lithium brick in Elko from our own 4,000 acres and put it in House 11 for Ms. Carter.

That video is what changes everything. Sloane sent it to DOE, Margaret sent it to Tesla and Ford.

At 8 PM that night, after House 11 lights on, Margaret gets a call on speaker in trailer office, we all hear, Vivian, Chase, Mike, Luis, Jamal, Tommy Jr., me:

Tesla: "Margaret, we saw on-site press video, DOE forwarded, you pressed in Elko and powered house same day, closed loop, no Reno trucking. We want 100 tons next month, $50M cash."

Ford: 10 minutes later, same speaker: "We saw video, we want 100 tons too, $50M, can you do it?"

$100M cash waiting for 200 tons of dirt, which is 200 holes 4x4x4 on 4,000 acres, nothing.

Margaret looks at me: "Jack, $100M is $100M, you have $600M cash from selling your 15%, plus $200M DOE loan Brown got after I cleared lien in Greenwich Country Club, but we have 90 houses left to build, 90 x $280k is $25.2M. If we sell 200 tons now, you have cash to build 100 houses and more."

I say: "No. Houses first, dirt second. But we can use Tesla's $50M as loan."

Brown, on phone from Stamford in sweatpants, hears loan: "Jack, Tesla doesn't give loans, they give offtake agreements, but I can make it a loan, $75M prepay from Tesla, $75M prepay from Ford, $150M total, secured against future lithium, 3% interest, you keep 100% of dirt, you don't sell more dirt, you borrow against it, like mortgage but for lithium."

Tesla says yes in 2 hours, because they need lithium and they saw closed loop video proof we are real, while Ford says yes in 3 hours.

At midnight in Elko, 102 degrees even at midnight, we have $600M + $200M DOE + $150M Tesla/Ford prepay loan = $950M cash, and we still own 85% of $2.1T dirt, 15% owned by Juniper Ridge.

Margaret in trailer, t-shirt JUNIPER RIDGE BATTERY, navy blazer off finally: "Jack, you have $950M cash, you could build 100 houses, 200 houses, 500 houses. What do you want?"

I put rusty box on table in double-wide and looked at Margaret.

Me: "I want to buy you."

Margaret: "Buy me?"

Me: "I sold you 15% for $600M, and you bought my family for $4.15M total, to get leverage on $2.1T. Smart. Now I have $950M cash, clear title, 10 houses lights on, first brick pressed here, Tesla and Ford offering $100M, loop closed. I don't need leverage. I want my 15% back and I want your whole company."

Margaret: "My whole company? Juniper Ridge Holdings LLC, Juniper Ridge Capital LLC, Juniper Ridge Battery LLC, with big house, with Hawthorne Custom Homes LLC, with $5M line of credit, with press, with permits, with Tesla contract, worth $600M plus your 15% which is worth $315B at $2.1T? You can't afford me, Jack, you have $950M, not $315B."

Me: "I don't pay $315B, I pay what you paid plus profit. You paid $4.15M to buy my family plus $50k for fake note, $4.2M total, plus you gave me $600M for 15%, so you are in $604.2M. I give you $900M cash for 100% of Juniper Ridge Holdings LLC, Capital LLC, Battery LLC, plus you keep $100M profit, you walk with $100M profit in 20 days, your LPs love 2x. You also keep job, CEO of battery division, $500k salary, because you know Tesla, I don't. But I own 100% of dirt again, plus the big house, plus the company, plus the battery LLC."

Brown on speaker from Stamford: "Margaret, $900M for company you built for $604.2M, you get $295.8M profit in 20 days, plus $500k salary, plus you don't have to manage Vivian's QuickBooks and Chase's shovel anymore, Jack does."

Margaret looks at the whiteboard 100 HOUSES - 100 DAYS? with question mark, at 10 houses lights on outside, kids on white oak stages reading, batteries humming, at Vivian in office trailer who finally entered $360k correctly, at Chase in yard hard hat LABORER who built stage that holds 220 pounds and doesn't fall down for first time in life.

Margaret: "Why? Why buy the big house that you grew up eating in kitchen for 15 years, why buy the company that built the pool house that fell down?"

Me: "Because if I don't buy the big house, someone else buys it and tears down Dad's workshop again, like Chase did. If I don't buy Hawthorne Custom Homes LLC, someone else owns the name that built houses that fall down. If I own it, Mike runs it, builds houses that don't fall down, $280k, off-grid, white oak stage. And Vivian and Chase work for me, and I can promote them or fire them, but they don't go back to Stamford with $1.304M and no job and no house and Uber deactivated. I ate in kitchen 15 years, now I own a dining room."

She looks at me and nods, then signs it.

Bill of Sale: $900M cash wire, 100% of Juniper Ridge Holdings LLC, Juniper Ridge Capital LLC, Juniper Ridge Battery LLC, including the big house in Greenwich ($3.1M), Hawthorne Custom Homes LLC ($100k + $5M line), battery press, permits, Tesla and Ford offtake, and 15% of Hawthorne Holdings LLC back, so I own 100% of my dirt again.

Wire at 1:20 AM, $900M, from $950M cash, leaving $50M to build 90 houses.

At 1:21 AM, I own 100% of my dirt again, plus whole Juniper Ridge Company, plus the big house, plus company that built the pool house that fell down, plus battery company that pressed first brick in Elko.

At 1:22 AM, Vivian gets email: employer changes from Juniper Ridge Capital to Hawthorne Holdings LLC, you now work for Jack, $75k office manager, QuickBooks, same trailer.

At 1:23 AM, Chase gets email: employer changes from Juniper Ridge Holdings to Hawthorne Holdings, you now work for Jack, $22 an hour laborer, shovel, same trench, but boss is Jack, not Margaret, and hard hat now says HAWTHORNE not TRAINEE, because Mike writes HAWTHORNE in Sharpie.

At 6 AM next morning, we have 10 houses lights on, 90 left to build, $50M cash left, $200M DOE loan, $150M Tesla/Ford prepay loan, 100% of $2.1T dirt, big house in Greenwich, company, battery press, Tesla contract.

And rusty box in trailer office, open, new paper on top: Bill of Sale, Juniper Ridge, $900M, 100% owned by Hawthorne Holdings LLC, 100% owned by Jack Hawthorne.

I buried Tyler tape when Margaret deleted it in Greenwich Country Club, Vivian free, condo free and clear, but now works for me.

The day ends with power flip: 20 days ago I sold 15% to save Vivian from foreclosure and jail, now I buy whole company back with Tesla loan and own everything, including dining room where I ate in kitchen for 15 years.