Chains of Love

Book Three of the “Can You Catch My Heart” series

By

RettaMichaels

Chapter Three

Disclaimer:

If you are dumb enough to believe this story is true, please stop, shut off your computer and then go to the nearest mirror to repeatedly slap yourself back into reality. You'll thank yourself afterward, I assure you.

IF you are below the age of 18, please don't read the stories on here. Your presence jeopardizes those of us who do so legally.

Personal Disclaimer:

I am a recovering alcoholic. I do not support nor intend to support any product or brewery by these words. Please don't construe this story to be in support of anyone associated with such.

People, places, events, and locations in this story are fictitious. If you believe them to be true, please go to the first paragraph up under the disclaimer section and do so thrice.

Now, please enjoy.

Chains of Love

Chapter Three

The next morning, I was up as soon as the sunlight wouldn't allow me to sleep any longer.

In my bedroom, the wall is a bank of windows. You couldn't tell it from the outside because the house was so large, but on the inside, the size of them overwhelmed. The two adjoining walls in the corner made the two windows overpowering.

When the sunlight showed through the windows, They unleashed their wake up call upon the room and I knew there was no amount of burrowing under the covers to get back to sleep.

I got up and it was a bit refreshing to not have Conroy standing there waiting for the request of what I wanted to wear. A part of me wanted to go riding, but a larger part of me knew once I was out in the morning air, I'd wake up and then end up going over everything I wanted to do to change the situation with the barns.

Then, that would lead to the inevitable 'might as wells' that came with running a farm. I'd end up doing the feeding and releasing the animals and then, I might as well think about what I was going to do with the rest of the day because the morning would be shot.

When I was showered and dressed, I went down. Conroy was in the dining room with a cup of coffee.

He smiled and said, “Sir, I didn't know I should disturb you, or not. It was late last night when you arrived, so I wasn't sure.”

“That's ok, you have a new position now. How's it going?”

“Oh splendidly. The new head cook, Merriam, and I chatted most amicably and I discovered quite a number of the people she wanted to hire were on my list already. After we had that delightful chuckle, we sat down and spoke. I think we are going to get along like gang busters!”

“Good, any word on new hires?”

“Yes, beginning this morning, she and I will be doing interviews. She started her career as a house maid, so she knows what to do to hire them. My inexperience and her experience will teach each other nicely.”

“You've got a good idea of the way the rest of the estate works, so I needed you as head.”

He nodded and said, “Sir, did your meeting with the lawyers go as expected?”

“I never got to them. When I reached the brewery, I found someone parked in my spot and discovered it was one of Jack's bikini girls. When I got to the office, father was there to greet me and when we entered Jack's office, we discovered him with the bikini girl and my wife in a sexual trist. Jack got fired and I am now running the brewery with father.”

“Oh sir!”

“Yes, so one thing led to another and we hired a secretary and then, we went out to the West Coast.

While there, father proposed to his former wife and she accepted. So, be prepared for them to return to the house with the children. We need those servants Conroy!”

He smiled and said, “I knew he still loved her and she him.”

“Yes, and I'm really happy. The kids are really nice. Whatever you do today, we must become prepared for the arrival of their things.

We sent out Jack's plane and she's going to be sending back their clothes and most favored items.

We need one whole wing done up for them, but what I need most of all is for you to get a My Little Pony horse and get the color of paint from it's mane. It's a sort of florescent color of Pink. Then, we need a queen sized canopy bed in white and a complete suite of furniture for Jen.

Pres will be picking his own furnishings.

While you're at it, begin selling the bottles of wine in the cellar. Don't accept anything less than six thousand dollars a bottle. You might contact Malcomb Forbes and the Tavern on the Green. I know both of them are really into the fine wines.

Before you do that, you might get a complete inventory of what we have. I contacted my mother and she's agreed to give me the winery in France. I have to go over there next week, so be prepared for my absence as well as Prescott's. Father and Win probably will be gone too. I'm not sure about Jen.

When the wine is sold, send mother twenty percent of the income.”

“Yes sir. Are you sure that's a good idea sir?”

“That's the deal I made with her. We spoke yesterday.”

“And how is she?”

“She's not changed.”

“I'm sorry sir.”

“No, I've gotten over her distance and bitterness without many resentments. She's now just someone who can't hurt me more than she has. I won't let her.”

My breakfast appeared before me and Merriam gave me a warm smile. I stood up and said, “Merriam, come here.”

She came over to me and I gave her a hug. I said, “My brother, sister, and their mother are coming back. Father is getting remarried. You might need to have her show you how she prepared the meals she and the kids like, but you're to be our own personal cook. I love how you cook and father is really wanting good authentic German cooking.”

She smiled and said, “Thank you sir.”

“Merriam, no matter when, and no matter how your day is, love the kids. Show them kindness and you'll have a job here forever.

They're good kids and they've been raised as normal kids should. I want this house filled with love, joy and laughter.

That goes for you too Conroy. Love the kids!”

She giggled and said, “You've changed. Are you ok?”

“I'm wonderful. I've got my kids back and althought they're my brother and sister, Conroy will attest to the fact they were mine while they were here.”

Conroy nodded and said, “His heart was broken when they left. Now they're coming back and you're going to see a side of him that is more than a parent.”

She nodded and said, “Your father, is he coming down?”

“He'll be down shortly. We should be having guests for breakfast, so please make some of your wonderful Belgian waffles and that wonderful strawberry syrup. It's our new secretary at the brewery. She thinks this is a quaint little farm. Little does she know.”

“You didn't!”

“She's actually never been here!”

“Oh sir,” Conroy said.

“Yes, she's a nice girl. She's a lesbian, so no comments. I'm hoping to make her completely feel at ease here and hope she and her partner come often. Her personality is what we need.”

Merriam nodded and said, “I'll go prepare waffles.”

“I'm sorry I didn't get you told sooner. Also, on Sunday, the kids will be back. I'm not sure about Father or Win, but the kids will be arriving with me late Saturday evening.”

“Ok Sir, any favorite foods for them?”

“I don't know. What I do know is you need to have access to the walk in cooler and freezer for myself and the childrem. I want a box full of train shaped ice cubes for Pres and a box of My Little Pony shaped ice cubes for Jen. I'll take my usual ice cubes. And, Merriam, never yell at them for putting their hands in their ice.”

She looked at me strangely.

I said, “I told Pres we'd make it so he could put his hands in the ice all he wants. Apparently, they have a refrigerator that dispenses ice and Win won't let the kids put their hands in the ice box.

If you think it's a bit much, know I pay attention to everything the kids want and they get everything I can give them BUT, Pres isn't to have a four wheeler, Conroy.

He can drive a tractor and we're setting it up so one of his locomotives will be giving tours, but I don't want him getting attacked by any animals.”

Merriam giggled and said, “You should hear yourself. You're speaking ninety miles an hour and your eyes are looking more like they did when you were young.”

“Were you here then?”

“Sir, I worked here. I was a house maid. You probably didn't recognize me. I was in another wing than yours.”

“Oh ok. I never recognized you, but I'm glad you were here when the kids were little.”

“I wasn't here that long sir.”

“Oh ok. Conroy's been here since they were babies. One other thing, we'll need personal servants for the children.”

“I've got that on my list sir.” said Conroy.

“One other thing, I've got to find some teachers who will be able to travel with us. We're not going to be schooling the children in these infernal public schools. I want teachers who know they're to teach the kids and make it fun. If they mention the word curriculum without the word enjoyable and adventurous, then don't hire them.”

Conroy nodded and Merriam said, “May I have your leave sir?”

“Oh Merriam, dispense with that. This is a home and your position here is as a family member. Never let the kids treat you as a servant and if they do, let me know and you'll have their apologies just as soon as I can set them to straight.” Then I paused and said, “Merriam, you might do some studying and see what you're going to need in the future for my father. He has brain cancer and will most likely die.”

“Oh, I'm sorry sir!”

“No, we're going to make this enjoyable and I want everyone to know as things go, we'll be most likely be needing nurses some day, so I want those rooms prepared. He's not bad now, but I want everyone prepared.”

She nodded and went into the kitchen. I looked out the window and saw the Town Car pull up. I went to the kitchen and looked in, “Merriam, they're here!”

“Ok hon!”

“Good, I like that. Stop calling me sir!”

She laughed and I ran to the front door. I threw it open and they were walking up the walk. “You made it!”

“Little my ass! This is a fucking castle!”

“I told you it was grey like a castle!”

She laughed and stepped into my embrace. I looked over her shoulder and nodded at the girl with her. We broke apart and she said, “This is my partner, Teresa.”

“Hi Teresa, my name's Pete. Welcome to our home.”

Teresa smiled and said, “I've been here before on a tour. When she said she was taking me to the farm and was tellling me it was a small place, I was beginning to think you lived in a small house and not in this one.”

I laughed and said, “She needs to know she's now a secretary to the head of a Fortune 500 company. I wanted to surprise her. One of these days, it's going to sink in and then, I'll be in for it.”

I turned to CJ and said, “That blackboard in the sky just got another mark hon.”

She laughed and said, “This one's more like ten of them!”

I stepped back and said, “Come on in! Come on in! Father isn't up yet, but we arrived late from California.”

“How did your visit go?”

“Wonderfully. He proposed to his former wife and she accepted. Be prepared, because she's going to be coming into the office regularly.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, it's great! The reason they divorced was because he didn't want her coming and never had time for her. Now, he's going to make the time, or I'll throw him out and make him come home!”

“Ok, I'll back you on that.”

We entered the entrance foyer and I said, “This is the entrance foyer. Over there is the living room and to your left is the breakfast room. On in is the kitchen and over there is the main dining room. You'll get to know your way around, but this is the last time I'm meeting you at the door. When you get here from now on, let yourself in and give a yell. Someone will here you. We've got a hundred on staff here.”

“Man, and I thought I had to worry!”

“No, no worries hon. What we're going to do is we're going to eat and then, we'll go house hunting. Did you call the real estate people?”

“Yes sir, they're busy falling all over themselves trying to set up the tour of the houses we'll be seeing.”

“Good. Now, I've told Merriam to cook up some of her Belgium waffles with Strawbery syrup. It that fine? Neither one of you are diabetics, are you?”

“Oh no.”

“Good. Now, do you want sausage, bacon, canadian bacon?”

“Whatever you want is fine.”

“No, I eat the same thing most of the time. I have a Southwest omelet, hash browns, and a country fried steak with a smothering of gravy over everything. It looks attrocious, but it's wonderful.”

“It sounds good.”

“I can get Merriam to cook you that if you'd like?”

CJ said, “The waffles sound good.”

“Ok, now do you want any meats to go with it?”

“No...no...no... we ate before we came.”

“Oh, well when you come out in the morning again, don't eat. We've got a cook and she's wonderful. She'll get you fat if you don't watch out.”

“Your skinny ass needs to put some weight on.”

“No, I couldn't gain an ounce if I tried and believe me, with the amounts of food I eat, you'll wonder why not.”

We went into the dining room and Conroy stood up. “Conroy, this is CJ and her partner Teresa. CJ is our new secretary. Make them welcome wherever they want on the place. I hope they'll be out often.”

He nodded and said, “I will keep that in mind sir.”

“Oh, you sound so formal hon!” said CJ.

Conroy smiled and said, “It's all the years of schooling I went to in order to attain my job as valet. He tries to get me to drop the formality, but it's not in me.”

She smiled and said, “I love your accent”

He smiled and said, “Thank you.” He turned to me and said, “I'll go get your father prepared. He's probably up there wondering if someone's going to dress him.”

He left and CJ said, “Someone dresses your father?”

“WE have personal servants. Conroy was mine until yesterday, but my wife kind of screwed most of the staff, so we had to fire them. Conroy is now the head of household.”

“Ok, so he's like the boss.”

“Yeah, but Merriam is the head cook and she only answers to me. Together, they're hiring all new staff.”

Teresa said, “What sort of staff are you wanting?”

“Maids, Personal staff for the kids, and houseboys.”

“Could I put in an application?” Teresa asked

“Sure, I'll tell you what, Can you get along with a ten year old little girl?”

“Yeah”

“Good, I'll tell Conroy you'll be my sister's personal servant.”

“What's the job entail?”

“Not much really. What you do is you keep track of her clothing. Things she outgrows, donate to charity and make sure she gets new clothes to replace the old. Make sure she has plenty of accessories and then, other than that, it's not much else except being there for her and trying not to spoil her.”

“Ok”

I thought for a moment and said, “Oh, that's going to be bad on your home life. CJ works during the day and your job will be mostly at night. Let me think of someplace else we can use you.”

“No, that's fine sir!”

“Ok, but please stop calling me sir. Pete is my name.” I said smiling. “Conroy calls me sir, but it drives me insane. He knows that and he loves the fact I tell everyone else to not call me that so it makes the word special to him.”

“Ok” she said smiling.

“How about if we give you the job of daytime hostess. The job is basicly to see the living room and dining rooms are under you. You don't clean, but what you do is you serve the meals and that's about it. It will bore you to tears, but that's it.”

She looked perplexed and said, “You pay someone just to oversee three rooms!”

“Yeah, but you could count the entry way as yours too if you'd like. Then, you can greet people at the door. It will be a handful when we have tours.”

“You tour the house? I don't remember that on a tour.”

“No, but you'll be amazed at the number of people who will try to come in and the number that will get smudges on the windows looking in. It will alarm you when you look out the window and see someone looking in at you, but you'll get used to it. If it happens, don't run them off. Go outside and invite them in to see these rooms, then show them the door. I'd rather show them hospitality than a hateful rebuff.”

“Ok, how much does that pay?”

'I'm not sure. Conroy would know, but one other part of it is going out to the gardener and getting fresh flowers for the vases in these rooms.”

“That's it?”

“Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing something, but it's not a hard job.”

Conroy came back into the room and said, “Your father will be down in a moment, sir.”

“Ok, Thank you.” He sat down and I asked, “How much does the hostess job pay?”

“Twelve dollars and hour sir. It's forty hours a week and there are benefits.”

I looked over at Teresa and asked, “Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?”

She said, “One moment, let me do the math in my head.”

I could see she was thinking and then she asked. “What are the benefits?”

“I don't know. Conroy, what are the benefits?”

“They're the same as at the brewery sir.”

Teresa looked at CJ and said, “You have good benefits, don't you?”

“They're nice.”

I interrupted them and said, “I'm aware of there not being any domestic partner benefits. Father and I spoke about that yesterday and we're going to get some. He never knew what gays and lesbians went through at hospitals until I told him. Now, he wants that changed.”

CJ smiled and said, “Teresa, the benefits are better than Denny's your pay will be less, but you'll have benefits.”

I asked, “What does she make at Denny's?”

“She waits tables and with tips and hourly, she's bringing in about forty grand a year.”

“Oh man, you must be a good waitress.”

She smiled and CJ said, “That's where I met her.”

I looked at Conroy and said, “Get her thirty two thousand an year, put her on salary and give her benefits. Then, put her in charge of keeping the sidewalk out front swept too. “

Conroy nodded and said, “Do you want the job, ma'am?”

She smiled and said, “OK, I need to give them notice, but I think just as soon as I give them notice, they'll tell me to take myself off the schedule, so that will be my last day.”

“What's your normal schedule?”

“I have Mondays and Tuesdays off.”

“Oh, well take the same schedule as CJ and if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you to do us some other favors around here.”

She looked perplexed and I said, “Conroy, that Range Rover pickup truck out there. It hasn't been driven in a while. Do you think we can let her use it as a company vehicle if she goes and gets the mail from the PO Boxes?”

“Yes sir, I can do that.”

“Do you mind if we get you that truck to drive?”

“Can I drive it home and to work?”

“Yes, of course” said Conroy, “But be sure to let me know if it needs maintainence, ma'am. He just gave you the oldest vehicle on the place.”

“That was Luis' truck. He got it brand new right before he died.”

Conroy looked disgusted and said, “Sir, he died nearly ten years ago.”

“Well, let's see if it runs good still and if it doesn't, we'll replace it.”

She smiled and said, “It's a Range Rover, it's a nice truck.”

“Yes, they don't make the pickups any longer and Luis wanted to look like he was going on Safari.”

'

Conroy chuckled and said, “The man liked to dress like it too.”

I smiled at Conroy and he looked at me. There was a twinkle in his eye and also a bit of a tear. I don't think the look wasn't escaping the two girls.

Merriam came in with their breakfast and sat down Teresa's in front of her and then sat down CJ's in front of her. She gave CJ a hug and said, “Sir, she's a keeper if she's your secretary.” She smiled at CJ and said, “She's my baby sister.”

I smiled and said, “Neat. I knew there was something I liked about you two.”

Conroy smiled and said, “It's amazing how I never noticed the resemblence until you two were standing next to each other.”

Father came in and Merriam said, “Good morning sir, I'll have yours out in a moment.”

Father said, “Good morning son, Conroy, CJ, and who's the other lovely lady?”

“This is Teresa father. She's CJ's partner and she'll be working for us as as hostess.”

“That job doesn't pay anything.”

“We upped the pay and we're letting her use Luis' truck.”

“That's truck's as old as the hills. Girl, don't let him do that to you. Tell him to pay you at least forty and then tell him to trade that heap in.”

Conroy smiled and said, “So the pay is now forty. I'll write that down.”

Teresa smiled and CJ said, “If we sit here long enough, they'll think we're family.”

I laughed and said, “Father, she's had three pay increases as she's sat here.”

I looked at Teresa and said, “If you don't find the truck satisfactory, we'll get you a new one.”

“No, I want to look at it and try it first. It's a Range Rover.”

I could tell she was impressed with the name. Luis had been too.

They ate and Merriam came bustling in with Father's breakfast. He said, “Thank you. I think this is the best breakfast I've had here in years.”

Merriam smiled and said, “I'll be your cook from now on, so if anything doesn't meet up, let me know.”

“You're going to be getting good German bread for me, aren't you?”

“I'm baking it myself, sir.”

“Good, if you need anything, let me know. Also, if you need any beers for the recipes, let me know. I've got a special stash of the dark lagers which cook up better.”

She nodded and said, “I'll need some sir, I've got about six recipes in there that call for it I was planning on having them within the next two weeks.”

“Ok, I'll bring some home with me. Do you mind if they're in a wooden keg?”

“No sir, do you want a nice tall glass when I serve you the meals?”

“I might like a nice cold glass. It's been a while since I've had the dark.”

She nodded and said, “I'll leave you to your breakfast.”

Father looked at me and said, “Would you mind terribly if I didn't go with you this morning? I've got to go be fitted for a suit and I want to wire her out some flowers.”

“I don't mind, do you two?”

They looked at me and said, “No, we're fine.”

I looked at father and said, “I'll be going into the office this afternoon. I need to speak with engineering and get going on those plans.”

“Ok, I don't think you'll need CJ, so give her the day off with pay.”

I nodded and said, “See, your job just got easier!”

She laughed and said, “I already feel like I'm in heaven.”

Conroy laughed and said, “They do make it seem like it, don't they?”

Father said, “Only for those we like. For those we love, it's a whole lot better. Con, did he pay you what you're worth in your new job?”

“Yes sir, I've taken it at the pay which was for the position.”

“Nonsense, write yourself in for an extra six thousand a year. I like you whereas that last jackass I didn't.”

Conroy smiled and said, “Thank you sir.”

Father laughed and said, “I'd give you an extra twenty to stop saying that word!”

Conroy laughed and said, “Sir, It's such a part of me, I don't think I could.”

Father laughed and said, “Well, it was worth a try.”

I laughed and said, “I'm going to go out and check on Luis' truck. It's been forever since it was started.”

I went out the front door and went over to the garage. As soon as I entered it, I went over to the box which held all the keys for the vehicles. I found the keys for the truck and went down. Through the years, someone had put a cover over the truck. I imagined it was Conroy, but I wasn't sure. Their relationship was special. I don't know the exact nature of it, but I always suspected it went beyond friendship. I do know when Luis died, Conroy needed a job and we found him his position to be over me. I grew to love Conroy in his own way.

Once the cover was removed, I opened the door and knew instantly it was well maintained. The door didn't even squeek. When I sat in the seat and attempted to turn the motor over, it took a couple tries, but once it caught, the motor purred like a kitten. I pulled it out of the garage and knew it needed washed, but the truck only showed seventeen thousand on the odometer.

I left it running and then went back into the house. Teresa had finished breakfast and said, “May I be excused? I'd love to go see the truck. It's the British Green and they never made many of those.”

“Sure, go check it out.”

She went outside and as soon as she was seen in the windows, CJ said, “Thank you for giving her a job. It means the world to us. They run her ragged down there where she works and now, she's got benefits and makes the same money.”

Father took notice and said, “Where was she working that she made forty grand a year?”

CJ smiled and said, “Denny's”

“She made forty grand a year there!”

“Yes sir, she's one heckuva waitress.”

“I'd say! She had to really be bringing in the tips!”

“Yes sir, her mom and her grandma were both waitresses and she learned from them. They wouldn't let her wait a table until she could do it perfectly.”

From Father's tone, I knew he was impressed. He said, “That's a hard hard job. Forever having someone on you about a supposed messed up order and standing on your feet hours on end. She'll have it a far sight easier here. That reminds me, I”ve got to go speak to Merriam about this coffee. Whatever she's done reminds me of the way my mommy used to make it.”

He got up and went into the kitchen. When he came back out, he smiled and said, “That woman is making me sausages home made! I think I'm going to love her!”

CJ chuckled and I said, “Father, did you realize CJ and Merriam are sisters?”

“Really! Well, I'm glad we got her then. When you're down there today, you call whoever that asshole was in personnel and tell him I want to see him on the carpet in front of my desk on Tuesday morning!”

“Ok, I was planning on doing that myself this afternoon.”

“Good. If you let him keep his job, you tell him anymore of that nonsense and I'll personally run his ass out of there.”

“OK”

CJ looked perplexed and I said, “Hon, you ready to go house shopping?”

“Yes, just as soon as I take these plates in and tell Merriam goodbye.”

She took Teresa's and her plates into the kitchen and I could see them hugging. Father said, “She's a good girl. I'm glad we got her.”

“I am too.”

Conroy nodded and said, “Sir, are there any special requests you have for my hiring people today?”

“Get me a nurse that will act more like you. I want the person to dress me and I don't want a whole staff changing just because I'm going to be getting sick.”

Conroy nodded and said, “I'll do that.”

The obvious lack of “Sir” at the end of that statement left the room in silence. I know Father's own admission of his illness took the wind out of Conroy's sails. I got up and went behind Conroy. I patted his shoulder and went into the kitchen.

Merriam and CJ were talking and I waited to be acknowledged. “We'll be having lunch here. Someplace in the recipe files is a chicken salad that has grapes in it. Could you make that for us? I've not had it in years. They used to serve it on rye and toast it.”

“I'll have it made for you. That sounds heavenly.”

“It was good. They served it with a pickle spear and potato chips.”

She nodded and said, “I'll put that into the menu rotation Pete.”

“Thanks hon.”

I turned to CJ and said, “I'm going out and seeing if she likes the truck.”

“She's in love with it. You couldn't tell, but her voice told me she was impressed.”

“Good.”

I went outside and made sure to put on my top coat before I went. When I made ti to the door of the truck, I got in the passenger side. “What do you think?”

“I'm sitting here listening to the engine. It runs perfectly. Do you know how much I loved these trucks when I was growing up?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, then they stopped making them and I was a bit heartbroken. You may not know it, but I'm a bit of a mechanic. This truck has every option on it that's needed and it's got that paint on it which really makes it worth extra money. I don't know who the man was that ordered this, but he knew vehicles.”

“He was a man that taught me everything I know about animals. Man, I loved him. He died and since he's been gone, this place hasn't been as lively.”

“You love him.”

“Yeah, he was just like a father to me when my dad in there wasn't even acknowledging me. He was patient and kind and always had a moment for me.”

“I can tell from your words.”

“Whatever you do, treat this truck special. Conroy couldn't say no, but I don't think he wanted us to mess with it. I can't say they had anything going, but they were super close.”

“Oh, you don't think he'll have a problem with me driving it, do you?”

“No, it's a truck. As long as you give that man your heart, you'll have his. He's one in a million. Now, one thing I'll tell you about him is he has a real dry sense of humor.

One thing you'll notice is if he has a sort of a click to his voice when he finishes a sentence, it was a joke. I can't tell you anything more than that, but it took me about three years to figure that out. When I did, our relationship blossemed.”

“What do you mean when you say your dad is 'dressed'?”

“Oh that. What it means is when someone has a personal servant, they go in and they bring out clothes. Depending upon your mood, you pick an outfit. They put it over a chair and as you get dressed, they make sure you look good and all your buttons have the right threads and all of the accessories are there for you. When you're done, you're dressed and they did it.”

“Ok, I was thinking they actually put the clothes on you. It was bothering me.”

“No, not yet, but I imagine they do it when someone gets old, or sick. My dad in there has brain cancer, so he'll probably be getting sicker and will need dressed.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, it took him knowing he was going to die for us to get close and now, I'm just thankful for every day I'm getting to be with him and be his friend.”

“I can tell. Well, here she comes, let's put the truck away.”

She backed the truck into the garage in one fluid motion. I turned to her and said, “Do you know anything about diesel engines?”

“Yeah, why?”

“My little brother is going to be bringing some diesel locomotives here. What I'm thinking is rather than trains, I'm wanting some motorized trolley cars that are on tracks. The ones he has might not be running too swift as they're in a warehouse retired.”

“Let me look at them and I'll tell you if I can work on it, or not.”

“Oh before I forget, do you all have any plans for Saturday?”

“No, not that I know. I was supposed to work, but if I have a better job here, I don't have to go. Why?”

“My father is getting married and we need some girls to stand up with Win for the wedding. We'll be flying out to California and then will be going on to Las Vegas.”

“Oh man, you mean we'll be flying out there!”

“Yeah, you're not afraid of flying, are you?”

“No, I've never flown.”

“Oh, well, we have our own planes and what we'll do is you, CJ, and I'll fly out in mine and father will fly out in his. Then, after he's married, they can stay, but Pres and Jen will fly back here with us.”

“You're going to let an ill man fly a plane?”

“OH, No silly, we have pilots!”

She chuckled and said, “I was worried.”

“No, the planes we have are jets and we have pilots. Theyre' real nice.”

“Ok, I don't see any problem with it, but we'll have to ask Jack.”

“Jack?”

“Cracker Jack, you call her CJ.”

“Oh, I have an asshole brother named Jack.”

“No, I call her Jack, but I do like CJ.”

We left the garage and I gave her the key to the truck. “Treat it with care and if you ever have an accident, let us know immediately.”

“Ok, but I doubt if I wreck it. If I do, it'll be the other person's fault.”

“Ok”

We went over and got into the Town Car. I sat in front and Teresa sat in the middle. As we drove, I said, “Let's go to the real estate office first, then go out and look. When we look, you don't look at price tags and you don't look at rooms. We'll fill the thing with furniture.”

CJ said, “Why are you doing this for us?”

“I'll tell you and then I don't want to hear a word about it after that, ok?”

“Maybe.”she smiled.

“The reason we're doing it is we're buying your loyalty and service. We're a Fortune 500 company. We make money like you wouldn't even believe.

You are now the secretary to the head of the company. How would it look to your friends and family if you're the head guy's secretary and you're living in a dump? It'd look like we didn't give a fuck about you, wouldn't it? So, what we're doing is a two pronged approach. We're doing it for that reason and we're also doing it to say we're sorry.”

“Sorry? Why?”

“Because of what Father said earlier. Whoever that personnel man was is going to have his ass reamed. He sent you up to set you up to be fired. My brother was running the company and he most likely knew you were a lesbian. Now, my brother was fucking anything that moved up there in his office. The man who sent you up there knew that too and knew that just as soon as you turned down my brother, you'd be fired. What the man didn't know was Father and I are now running the company and rather than you being fired, he's going to be clinging by a thread to his job.”

She nodded and said, “The man that sent me up there was Jim Rodenbach. He hit on me when I was in that office.

First of all, I wouldn't if he was the last man on earth and the good Lord himself came down and told me he needed me to procreate and Second of all, the fucker's married and he came onto me.

So, that's why I got sent up there. I thought it was fishy, but at the same time, I thought he was willing to let things go and finally chose to get me out of Siberia where he had me sitting.”

“What do you mean?”

“Where they had me working was in an office for a department that hadn't ever had a secretary and never needed one. It's the line painting department that paints the lines on the parking lots.”

“We have one of those?”

“Yeah, two guys.”

“Do we need two guys to do that full time?”

“No, they never worked. They might do two weeks work in a whole year, but they sure never worked the whole time I was there. They thought it was a joke and they really thought it was a joke when they were thought of as being important enough to have a secretary.”

I laughed and said, “Well, I hate to tell you, but that department just got disbanded. Whoever those guys are will have to start working too. I can't believe we've been paying two guys that much money to just sit around.”

“Oh, you'd be amazed at what you don't know about the place. You could lay off a bunch of people and never have to see a bit of production go down. You have guys down there that just sit around with their thumbs up their asses all day long.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but when you leave your office, you go out and if you take a right, no one sweats. If you take a left, they know you're going into the plant and suddenly everyone's looking like they're working.”

“Oh, so what I need to do is go into the offices and then sneak out and come in a different way and catch them at it.”

“No, what you need to do is take twenty people out of Maintenance and put them someplace else. Then, you need to get rid of about four guys up top.”

“How many do we have up there?”

“Sixteen”

“And if I take out four, they'll all work?”

“No, I'm being generous to them still. Only two guys can work at a time, but what they do is they line up and they cut a bag and then they dump it. Then, after that, they go to the end of the line and they rotate.”

“Well, father and I were talking about that yesterday and we're thinking about automating the job. We can put in bins and then, pull out of rail cars and do the job just as easy, right?”

“Yeah, then, you'd have sixteen laid off.”

“Man, this is worse than I thought. I'm glad you know these things because I don't even think my dad knows.”

“It's bad. The only people I see that really work are the people in the canning and bottling rooms.”

“What about at the rail department.”

“It's all loaded and unloaded by forklift.”

“You mean we don't do it by hand?”

“It's all on pallets, I don't think it's been loaded by hand for the last twenty years.”

“They have my dad thinking they still do it the old way.”

“Oh man, see what I mean? I was telling Teresa if I was running it, I'd lay off five hundred people and still find people not working.”

“Well, we're going to be doing things differently and we're going to increase production about three hundred percent.”

“How?”

“Over where the semis park, we're going to turn that into the loading dock. We're going to put a conveyor in that goes over the road. Up above that, we're going to put in a bunch of brew kettles.”

“Where are you going to boil it all off at??”

“We're looking at a new process that is going to really be a lot more efficient.”

“Ok, so you can boil off thousands of gallons in the new way?”

“We're still thinking on it.”

She said, “Ok, let me tell you what to do and then you run it by engineering and see if it works.

Right now, they put it into kettles and then boil it off. If you want to know, that's really inefficient. If you put in a bunch of three inch pipes and make them so they are curved and line the inside of that kettle and then are heated, you'll do a lot better on the boil off. If you look at an old percolator, you'll see what I mean, but right now, they count on bringing it up to heat before it even begins boiling. To me, it'd be a whole lot more efficient if the beer was heated to boiling before it even enters the boil off. What you're wanting is the wort anyways, so what I'd do is heat it and get it to a kettle and let the wort settle and then pull the liquid off and take it away and reheat it. As long as it's liquid in the pipes, and it's moving, the wort will make it to the kettle.”

“Ok, we need to get it to engineering. As long as it doesn't scorch, it's a good plan.”

She smiled and said, “Teresa, we're going to have someone in there that's actually going to listen to the people that make the beer. How many times have I came home and told you I'd hoped for that?”

Teresa turned to me and said, “She would come home so frustrated she'd be screaming you guys in the front office didn't know a thing. Now, it sounds like you're coming in and going to change things.”

“One thing you'll learn is I am about changing things and listening to people. Father and I are going to be putting in suggestion boxes and we're going to start getting all these ideas and start changing it so we can make beer and a lot of it.”

“Good, it's about time. One thing I can tell you is you need to do the loading of the trucks differently. Well, you need different trailers, for one thing. What I could never figure is why when you own the company that makes the trailers why you didn't make them different and then load the trucks different.”

“What do you mean?”

“You've got metal sides on trailers. If you loaded the truck from the side, you'd have a lot shorter runs with a fork lift.

In fact, if you didn't have sides on trucks you wouldn't need forklifts because you do do it all by cranelift. The machines in the pallet area are set up so they can do it, but you don't use it to their advantage. You make it so you have one pallet and that's it. What you should do is already have the pallets stacked two high and get them into the trucks that way. It'd be a whole lot more simpler and it'd cut the loading time in half.”

“The machines in will do that?!”

“Yeah, they've got settings to go and do it three high automatically. Didn't you know that?”

“CJ, I'll tell you now, I've never been in the plant and learned it. In fact, until right before you got into the office, I never even thought about running the plant.”

“Ok, backtrack and tell me why you're there.”

“My brother Jack was running the company. You know that.”

“I knew your family ran the company, but not who, but go on.”

“Well Jack ran it and he was fucking the whole string of bikini girls.”

Teresa chuckled and said, “Don't even say you don't know who THEY are hon”

CJ smiled and said, “I know who they are, I've got a calendar with them on it.”

“OK, the whole line was Jack's hoes. So, yesterday I came down because I found out my wife was fucking the whole staff out there at the house. Of nearly a hundred people, we now have thirty six. All the rest got fired yesterday for bedding her.”

“Oh man.”

“Yeah, so I came in to speak with one of the attorneys and went to the main office. When I got there, Jack was in closed session with a bikini girl...or so we thought.

Then, after a while, father and I got fed up with having to wait on Jack and called security to open the door. When it got opened, not only did Jack have a bikini girl in there, but my wife too in a three way.”

“OH MY GOD!” she laughed “Man, you had to be sick.”

“I was pissed. Father was pissed and he fired Jack.

So, father and I talked about it and we decided we'd run it together. While we were doing that, I kept going out into your office and making phone calls and then I wanted to know why there wasn't a secretary out there.

Father told me it was because Jack wanted a bikini girl as a secretary and that's when you were called.”

“Ok, so what do you do to earn a living?”

“All the animal parks and the amusement parks are mine. The aquariums are mine too.”

“Oh, I knew about those, but I didn't know who ran them, so you're an outsider, but why?”

“Because the whole time I was raised, father only groomed Jack to run it. He was the oldest, therefore I wasn't considered to be worthy.”

“So Jack's a shit for brains, and you got the job dumped on you because you were there at the time.”

“Yeah, that and the fact my other brother is thirteen years old.”

“How old's your dad?”

“Seventy six.”

“Jeez, he kept having them, didn't he!”

“He kept getting married. Jack's in his late forties and I'm twenty four. Pres is thirteen and Jen is ten.”

“Man, that was spreading you guys out.”

“Yeah, there was another, who was in between Jack and I, but he died.”

“Oh. So, you're going to run the breweries now?”

“Yeah, but only on three days a week. On the other two, I'm going to run my parks.”

“And you're going to make all these changes?”

“Yeah, because dad and I are going to work together. On days I'm not there, he will be.”

“Ok, now I'm up to speed. But still, that's going to take a lot of communication.”

“Yeah, and it's going to take a lot of people like you who are going to be telling us how to make it better, AND, it's going to take engineering to be drawing up all these new plans and actually working for a living.”

“If you don't mind, let me work on a rough sketch of how it should look. Even if you do some changes, you're still going to have problems. I think if you move things around, you'll find it will run a lot smoother.”

“Ok, but when you do it, just make sure you have your reasons well thought out.”

“Oh, believe me, I've laid awake at night thinking about this because it upset me so much.”

“Ok, but one thing you need to know is this...For every sound idea you come up with, you're going to get a bonus and for everyone else's they will too.”

“Oh man, you do want ideas, don't you!”

“Yeah, because as things get to running better, those ideas will go down and when they're a trickle, we will know we're at the top of the game.”

“That's smart.”

“Yeah, so what I want you to know is I'm going to ask you to do a lot of things for me and they're going to be really obscure. You'll need to know the company like the back of your hand.”

“Ok, like what for instance?”

“I want to know the cost of a can of beer for us to make it now and as we do these improvements, how much that cost per can went down”

“Ok, contact accounting. I'll get you that answer.”

“The next one I want is to know how long a can of beer sits on the shelves when it gets to the retailer.

Right now, our quality control doesn't reach out further than the loading dock. I want to make sure we don't have cans of beer sitting out at a convenience store in the middle of Arizona that are five years old.”

“You don't know that?”

“No, we don't keep track, but what we're going to do is we're going to be doing some changes where we get that old beer back and we'll be reformulating it and putting it back out so it's a generic brand.”

“Ok, that's a decent idea. It keeps the main brand fresh and people start seeing you caring about that when the other guys aren't.”

“Yeah, what my goal is to have is the cost of a can to be a third of what it was so we can have an end price at the retailer that's a lot cheaper than it is now.”

“Ok, and that will increase demand because everyone will be buying ours. That's smart.”

“Yeah, so where we're at is coming off a helluva brainstorming session yesterday. That's why I said we're the idea factory and you're the wizard that's going to make it happen.”

She smiled and said, “I thought you were full of shit, but now, I'm thinking you're way up there in the brilliant zone.”

“Good, but I want you to know that where we're heading is into a different territory. Some day, I want you to be sitting in one of the chairs that matter in this company and I don't mean in that outer office. I want you to be constantly looking at us and rechecking to see if we're at the top of the game.

That means computers and that means automation. It's going to be a lot of money going out, but I don't want there to be any real serious layoffs. I want to move people around so they're working, but if we've got a glut, then one thing I'll have to do is get a hiring freeze in order until we get some retired out.”

“Can I suggest something?”

“Sure”

“Hire more women.”

“I told Dad that yesterday. I told him women aren't afraid to tell us something is stupid, nor are they afraid to ask questions of why something is the way it is. You're already proving me right. I wish he was here to hear it.”

“Oh he'll hear it!” she chuckled.

We pulled up to the real estate office. As soon as we got out, CJ said, “Pete, you tell the woman what you want us to have. You know how much money you want to spend and then we'll go from there.”

I nodded and thought, 'man they have no clue...do they?”

As soon as we walked in the door, the woman came over and said, “You must be my appointment!”

“I guess, we're here to look at some houses in Ladue”

“What are you interested in?”

“Houses...”

“Ok, any particular style?”

I looked at CJ and Teresa and asked, “Do you want a two story, ranch, colonial, or....”

CJ chuckled and said, “We want three bedrooms and at least two bathrooms. It doesn't matter if it's two story, or not.”

The woman asked, “How much are you interested in spending?”

“Price is irrelevant. Whatever is nice and whatever is something they can entertain guests and feel comfortable in.”

“Entertaining as in how?”

I looked at CJ and said, “Well, she wants something to reflect her position and she wants something that will tell everyone who comes to her house for informal and formal dinner parties she's an up and comer in the business community.”

“And what is her position?”

“She's a ......um.....consultant for a major corporation here in the city.”

“Ok, will she be working from home?”

“Not often, but if she does, will it matter?”

“There are some sections which allow that and others that don't.”

“Find her something that will allow her to parking for twenty cars that's not on a busy street. Something in which she can have a tupperware party and the neighbors aren't going to complain.”

“Is she a Tupperware salesperson?”

“No, but you get my point, I hope.”

“Well, I'm not.”

“Ma'am, what houses do you have available in Ladue. If I told you I was Pete Stein of the Meister Stein brewery, you'd be shitting all over yourself to sell me a house, now wouldn't you. Well, I am, so let's see some houses.”

“Oh dear.”

“I thought that at the first sign of a question that irked the hell out of me.” I said rather snidely.

CJ began giggling and said, “Excuse me.”

She stepped outside and I could hear her laughing from inside. I smiled at Teresa and she began giggling.

She said, “Excuse me” and stepped outside.

I said, “She's my secretary. I'm buying her a house and I want her to have the best. She doesn't know that, so let's deal.”

“Oh...ok, why didn't you say that?”

“She was standing here. Now, she'll be back in and we've already took the morning off, but I have to be back by lunch. Show me the showiest pieces of real estate you have to offer and I'll snatch one as long as it can be moved into in a reasonable time. They're living in an apartment and they sure can't have dinner parties there.”

“Ok, well, we have these here. They're off Forest Park Boulevard. “

“Not nice enough.”

“Ok, we've got this one that's just off Clayton, but it has five bedrooms.”

“Ok, let's go look at it. And then show us two of the others first so I can tear them down to get them into the nicest.”

She smiled and said, “She must be special.”

“She just saved our company several million dollars and her ideas are going to put us on the map all over the world.”

“OH!”

“Yeah, I'd like to thank her.”

“I see.”

“Yes, the woman could come in and be a consultant and reap huge money, but she wants to be a secretary. My point is I want her to know she's valued.”

“That's very thoughtful of you.”

“No, it's the least I can do.”

“Let me get my coat and then you can follow me over. The houses we are going to view are immediate occupancy. That means they can move in immediately.”

“Good. I'd like to give her the day off to go shopping.”

She had her coat on in a flash. She said, “Let me tell our receptionist where I'm going and I'll be right out.”

I went out and said, “She got the point. We're to follow her.”

We got into the car and CJ was still giggling. “You were hilarious!”

“You would have done the same thing. The woman was trying to give us the run around to get us into a lower house.”

“I was begging to think she thought you were a classy pimp and we were two of your girls.”

I chuckled and said, “The next time we buy a house, we'll use that disguise.”

“The way you cut to the chase was nice. I was impressed, but you didn't mince words.”

“Well....she was bugging me.”

“I bet she just upped the prices of the houses.”

“I told her to. I told her to give us the best she had.”

“You what!”

“Yeah, I've got your house already picked out, but I want you to figure out which one it is. So humor me.”

“How much does it cost?”

“That doesn't matter. I told you we'd get you a house and we are.

This afternoon, after we get you this house, you're to go shopping and buy yourselves all the furniture for it. Then, you have them move it over there because it's immediate occupancy.”

“Really!”

“Yeah, with some luck you can have the utilities turned on this afternoon.”

CJ leaned forward and looked at Teresa. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, isn't this fun!”

CJ said, “Pete, we owe you so much.”

“No, you just be the best you can be for me and I'll appreciate it greatly.”

As we drove, I said, “When we get there, I'm going to really look for something wrong with everyone of them, so be prepared.

The one you want, you let me know and I'll be harshest on it. That way, we can knock some money off it. Whoever has it will be thankful it's a fast transaction.”

We turned off Forest Park Boulevard and followed the woman down a street. The houses were really close to each other and I said that.

CJ said, “Try living in an apartment sometime. You'll climb the walls with how much the neighbors yell at each other.”

“Oh man, I couldn't do it.”

She smiled and said, “Pete, you're lucky. You get to live in a house where your closest neighbor is half mile away.”

“Well, if I'd known they were going to put up apartments over there in that pasture, I would have bought it.”

We stopped at a house and I said, “The yard's too small.”

CJ said, “It looks nice.”

We went inside and I saw a ton of things wrong with it. I turned to the woman and said, “This is too small. Let's find something with space.”

“The next place is right up the street. It's not much bigger.”

“Ok, if I don't like it from the street, we'll honk and you just go on to the next one. Ok?”

She nodded and said, “You're not making this very easy.”

“I have something in mind and I'm not seeing it yet.”

We got back in the car and followed the woman. The house looked identical except the brick was a different color. I said, “Honk and let's not even waste our time. These houses aren't what you'll need down the road.”

“What am I going to need down the road?”

“You'll want to invite me and mine over for a bar-b-que occasionally, and we'll fill the living room. Now if you invite anyone else over, where they going to sit?”

She smiled and said, “You could have the company picnic at yours and not have a problem.”

“Yeah, but look at these driveways. If you park this car there and she parks that truck, you'll fill a garage. What happens if you get a boat, or want to go camping and get a trailer. You've got to think of the future.”

“I never thought about that. You're right. We're making enough now we can think of those things.”

“Yeah, and when we get to the next one, let's hope it's bigger.”

We followed the woman and the houses started getting further apart. I said, “Good, this is more like it.”

“Who's going to cut all this grass?”

“Well if you can't, I can think of a couple of guys who aren't striping parking lots.”

She chuckled and said, “That really irked you, didn't it.”

“Yeah, and in more ways than one. Those guys probably go home and talk about how hard they work. They don't even have to do anything but sit around all day.

Soon, we saw a sign in a front yard. CJ said, “I hope this one is it because that house is georgous!”

Teresa started jumping up and down in her seat and said, “If you don't get us this one, we're taking you home.”

“We've not went inside. It might be a dump.”

“I'll remodel it if it is and make it a mansion it appears to be.”

The house was large and beautiful. It just oozed stateliness. I did have to admit it was a pretty house.

We pulled up the driveway and I saw it was a double car drive and could hold a lot of cars. It curved up and around and as we got to the top, I could see it was a huge corner lot and the driveway went on over to the other street.

We parked and got out. The woman came up and said, “This house is one of your father's football players. He got traded and I think your father owns it.”

“Well, we'll still have to buy it since the money is going from the brewery to the football team. One thing about it is he'll definitely negotiate. Let's look inside.”

We went inside and the house had a huge formal entry. Off to one side was a living room and a dining room that were both formal. The woman led us through and when we went to the dining room, I saw the kitchen. It was nice and spacious.

As we walked through, CJ and Teresa were ooh-ing and ahh-ing at everything. I looked out back and saw the swimming pool. I stopped and said, “How much is it?”

“It's a little over four hundred thousand.”

“Ok, tell him we'll give three fifty and not a penny more. Then, put a Sold sign on it and let these girls get the utilities turned on this afternoon and go ahead and give them the key.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I'm sure. My father might not get back to you this afternoon, but I'll speak with him tonight and get him down to sign papers in the morning.”

She smiled and said, “Ok, now my commission is six percent.”

“Ok, that's not a problem. Give yourself the commission of the full sale price rather than the reduced one.”

I said, “CJ, I hope you like it. I just bought it.”

She came running up to me and gave me a huge hug. It's got more bedrooms than we told you, but it's gorgeous.”

“Yeah, that pool out there is what sold me. My little brother and sister can come over and swim.”

“Anytime they want!” she giggled.

I went over and flipped on a light switch and saw the electricity was already on. “Good, all we have to do is put it into your names.”

The woman said, “I have the paperwork here if you'd like to go ahead and sign them.”

“Ok, but put it into both their names as forty nine percent and forty nine percent. Put me down as the other two. That way, I can pay the utilities.”

CJ looked at me and said, “No, we'll pay them. You've done enough for us.”

“No, you pay the taxes and the insurance and I'll consider I got the cheaper end of the deal. Those have to be high.”

As soon as I said it, I realized the probably didn't have the money to pay the insurance. I looked at CJ and said, “Hon, I'm sorry, I'll pay the insurance for the first year. That way, you two have time to save for the insurance and all the other things that are going to be associated with it.”

She smiled and said, “I don't know why you're being so nice to us, but you're a real blessing.”

“Don't worry hon, when this merry-go-round speeds up, you'll be asking yourself how come you signed on to it.

Now, be thinking about what furniture you want and go get it. Tell whomever wherever you go that I said I'd pay it and....well, they probably won't do that.

Here, take my credit card and just use it for what you want. Now, if you two don't mind, I need to go to the brewery.”

CJ said, “Teresa, you stay here. I'll take him to the brewery.”

As we left, I told the saleslady, send word to me when you're ready for me to sign the papers and I can get them done and cut you a check.

“Oh, here's all the paperwork you'll need to sign. I'll get everything filed with the county and then it'll be completed.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, well let me sign those and then when she takes me to the brewery, I'll cut you a check and send it back with her.”

“Ok, I'll call and get you a total as soon as I get back to my office.”

“Ok, well, I need to be going, so thanks, and let me tell you it's been a pleasure.”

“No, thank you! This was the easiest sale I've had in a long time.”

“It's easy when I'm buying for someone else. Hopefully, I won't need to buy anything else for a while.” I smiled.

When we left, I turned to CJ and said, “Well hon, you got your house.”

“Oh man, it's so beautiful!”

“IF there's anything wrong, let me know and I'll get it made right.”

“Ok, what she and I'll have to do is get some time to paint some rooms and then it'll be perfect.”

“Let me get some of those maintenance men over this afternoon. Why don't you two go get some paint picked out and they can do the painting.”

“You don't have to do that.”

“Oh yes I do. For me to know those guys are standing around is pure B.S., I'll stay awake at night knowing they've been getting over on that place, but believe me, they'll work now!”

She laughed and said, “I can't believe how upset it's got you. You waste money on Teresa and I, but you won't at the brewery.”

“Oh believe me, every penny I just spent is well worth it. You're worth your weight in gold. Look how much money you've saved the brewery so far.” I laughed.

“I can't figure out why you're doing this.”

“Hon, before we're done, you're going to have several secretaries working under you, you're going to be so swamped.

Right now, you're alone and I'm wanting you to establish you're above them. I'm sorry to offend you, but I can't have you do that if you're living in an apartment.

There's going to come a time real soon I'm going to have you those girls and then, I'll say, “Oh, why don't you all go out to CJ's for the afternoon and do some brainstorming.” It'll be like I did it off the cuff, but what it will do is establish you're the head of those girls and then that won't change.

IF I don't, you know what will happen? They'll all be trying to backstab you and try to get your job. You've been straight up with me and I want to make sure I'm getting you the best cut of the cards.”

She smiled and said, “You think ahead, don't you?”

“Yeah, and if I didn't have you busy doing that this afternoon, I'd have you in the meetings I'm going to have so you know what's going to be up ahead for the company.

Those guys in engineering are going to get a wake up call it's time to work and they're going to be demanded to do some overtime. The one's that can't get me results are going to find themselves on a lay off line. The ones that do will find themselves in my graces.

It's going to be like that all over the plant. We might have a union, but I'll tell you now, loyalty has a price and I'm paying it. The ones that I'm paying now will give it in the future when I'm pulling some changes out and I want that to be known between you and I.

I'm not going to be real popular because I'm not going to do business as usual. My brother is going to be making a lot of roadblocks and I know that. What the key to the game is, is to be ahead of him changing things so much that he doesn't know what it's like in the plant anymore and be so far advanced he'll feel like a dinosaur, so what I'm going to need is some humping on your part and I want you on a first name basis with the performers in that company.

That's going to be taking a lot of so called off the clock shoulder rubbing with them at your place. I'll pay for it, but I want them to all feel like they've got a direct coneection with you. What they don't know is I'll be using you to get them prepared for what I'm going to officially be asking them. They'll feel like they're ahead of the game and they'll be giving you the credit.”

“You're a slick bastard, you know that!”

“Yeah, but this is between you and I. I want phone calls from you around that plant to be met with sounds of running feet on your end for them to run up to get the inside scoop from you. If I don't do that, you know what I get?”

“Yeah, business as ususal. That's what's so fucking slick about it. They won't know what hit them! They'll be thinking they've got an inside connection and really, what you're doing is getting them off their asses.

Your brother AND your father, if they'd used people the way you do would have had that place in shape all along, but I can see what you're doing and it's exciting as hell. It's like going from being asleep to like a bell ringing at a fire station. Everyone's going to be running.”

“Let's hope.”

“Oh, you'll get the results. I've got it figured out now!”

“Yeah, now here's the next thing hon. I'm not meaning to belittle you because you know that's definitely not what I'm intending, but I've got to say it.”

“Ok, what?”

“We've got to get you some really knock out professional business women's clothing.

Next week, Win's going to be in and I've already given her a head's up she needs to take you and Teresa shopping. I want you to look the part, BUT, there's nothing about you I want to change other than that.

You've got the personality and the vocabulary those guys understand and they're going to see you looking like you're trying to impress me with the clothes, but they'll be thinking of you as one of them underneath the clothes.

What it does, though is it gives our office a professional appearance for the big shots that are going to be coming to the plant to do business with us and believe me, they'll be coming.”

“What else is up your sleeves?”

“Oh, a yard of shit, believe me. BUT, before I can get it implemented, there's got to be a lot of changes that happen, but in two years, we'll be a publicly held corporation that is going to have a ton of money dumped into it.

When that happens, I'm going shopping for other breweries and we're going to be the biggest in the world. So, that's what you'll be entertaining and when that stock is offered, I'm going to be seeing you get some of the good stocks so you can clean up in your net worth.”

“Ok, is that for a personal thing, or is that as a way of being friends?”

“That's personal. It's going to be a payback for what you've gotten done. Then, we can sit back and think we're damned good.”

She laughed and said, “Somehow, I don't see you ever sitting back.”

“Yeah, it's a constant string of improvements. There are so many irons in the fire that I have to bide my time on some of them, but one of them is going to be with a winery over in France for my brother. It's mine personally, but I'm going to be making it into the biggest and the best so it looks like we have not only beer, but wine, and if along the way we can snap up other spirits, we'll be doing that too.

Then, when you think we're in the clear, I'm going to be going back in and really putting our balls to the wall by turning the world on it's top and taking on the soft drink market. My sister thinks we should go into that, and as soon as she asked, I couldn't believe we got out of it when we had it.”

“We had it and let it go?”

“Yeah, during prohibition, we went into soft drinks to keep the company afloat. Well, we were in a lot of things.

I'm not sure what we still have and don't, but my dad is one of the people that knows all that. His brain is like Fort Knox it's so full of the gold bullion in this company, but I've got to find out what it is before it's consumed by cancer.

The only way that will happen is if he's impressed by what results I've shown. Nothing's free with him, and it's amazing of what he's discovered with me and yet, I feel like he's put me out there to get results with this and then as soon as he sees he's gotten me moving on it, then he'll let me have an idea of what we really have. Heck, even my little brother knew some of what we had more than me!”

“Oh man, that had to have smarted.”

“Yeah, but one thing you'll see is my younger siblings and I being more like a parent and kids. To me, those kids are my babies because I was the role model that raised them. My father sure wasn't around, but now he is, and I've got to mine that and bring home the gold.”

“Oh, I sense a lot of emotions there.”

“You said a mouthful there. What you have is me who has tried to get my dad to see me and have worth in his eyes. Then, you had him not seeing me as worthy for anything except what he was willing to give me.

My brother Jack, turned into a fuck up in my dad's eyes, so he pulled in his spare which is me to run the company. He's now getting me up to speed and he's realizing he likes what he's got. BUT, at the same time, I think he was giving my little brother tidbits to prepare him in case I turned out to be as big of a fuck up as Jack.

Instead, I've thrown things for a loop by telling him I want them all to be in there involved. What he doesn't know is I've got you coming up so you're going to be letting me know if he's trying to play any devious shit behind my back. I doubt it, but still, just the same, I want to have eyes and ears where he least expects it.”

“Ok, so what you're doing is you're lining them up to be a part of the army, but you're aligning the troops so you get what you want?”

“Yeah, what I learned when I got the parks was they all wanted business to go on as usual. Business as usual was costing them the parks. They were bankrupt.

Everyone thought we'd slapped the priest when we brought in beer gardens, but what they don't know is those beer gardens bought us those parks and paid the bills. The new rides and all of that was from business cultivated from those gardens.

But, one day, I'll take you to the parks and you'll see everyone coming over and telling me how the place is running. They all think their confidants and yet, they're all hustling their asses off for me and it's gotten the business up on it's feet and running again.

What I'm worried about is leaving it to the bosses and hoping it will stay running. I think what I'll end up having to do is have you going out and playing my part for the parks when I'm not able to be there and when you're at the brewery, I want you to be the one that's playing my part. Yes, I trust my family, but I want you to have the clout. For that, I'll get you a percentage of the company.”

“Oh man. You're using what you've already learned and found has worked.”

“Yeah, but what else is there is we've got my animal parks which are my babies. They were built from the ground up and they run real smooth. Everyone knows they're a part of the apple of my eye there, so they don't dare screw it up.

Now, with the aquariums, we're in a slow growth with those. It's hard to shove a whale down the nations throats and it's growing, but there's always a thing that has the public saying, “But yeah, he has a big beautiful animal in captivity that is nothing like it's habitat and he's making it do tricks” which is a psychological thing.

Yeah, if it was in it's natural habitat, it wouldn't be a show animal, but they'd never get to see one like they do. It's a trade off. What I've got to do there is be a humanitarian and have the best and brightest on staff so when one beaches someplace, we're there in a flash doing everything we can to get the press of saving it.”

“Ok, so if I hear anything on the news about a whale beaching, I'm supposed to call you.”

“No, don't waste that phone call on me. I'm going to have you on the direct line with the heads of the aquariums so you can be telling them to move. But, what you have is a place that's in need of a lot of positive publicity and we've got to get enough aquariums around the country so our response teams aren't too far away. One thing I need to do is sit down with these people and comb files all over the place and find out where they've beached and then, open parks in close proximity of those locations.”

“Ok, what I'm not getting now is this. You're not concerned with a profit there?”

“Yeah, there's profits, but they're not real high. What we have to do is have a positive press that shows a response team with the aquarium getting publicity, but also our name getting publicity that points back to the brewery.”

“Ok, I'm getting the jest. So, like we find tourist areas nearby and mine it for the toursit dollars and yet, manipulate it for the press.”

“You got it.”

“Ok, that's pretty smart.”

“My goal is us being there and the person subliminally getting an idea formed in their head we're decent underneath. The other guys aren't doing it and we are. They're doing something else and some of it's really stinking.

We have one competitor that is in tobacco and while they're getting their customers drunk, they're pumping chemicals into their lungs and bodies. Another is into foods that are so at the ends of the spectrum with each other, you have to wonder what in the hell they're doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ok, they have a diet company that's out there telling the world they need to lose weight, but at the same time they have snack brands that's all about getting everyone fat. One competes against the other. It's like owning cancer hospitals and owning a tobacco company which the other does.”

“Oh man, so you don't want to be seen as doing that!”

“No, mine is a little slicker than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ok, my sister is wanting soda pop. I'll get her that, but the trade off is I'm going to have that stuff in labels that look a lot like our labels and the company logo is going to be there. It's going to be on the back of the bottle, but it'll be there. Also, the bottle will be in the shape of ours which may not be much, but it'll get hands to feeling the shape and not wanting to grab the other guys when they grow up.

The bottles will be clear, but they'll be the same. Now with that said, I need to get ahold of Graham packaging, and speak to them. Father has a developemental deal with them and I think it's because they're local, but he was trying to make plastic bottles.

The technology isn't there yet for those, but that doesn't mean we can't redesign the cases they're shipped in and make it so the bottles aren't banging up against each other on that trip. The soda pop guys had the right idea with their carriers, but I want something that will be good for the bottles and breakage.”

“Ok, so I need to ask a question and shoot me for being dumb, but why do you want to go into plastic when it's a hassle. The consumer will have to keep ahold of it and return it.

Does that mean we demand a deposit on the things and if so, how much does that drive up the cost? That sounds like a headache to me.

Why not just forget the plastic guys and go to a cardboard manufacturer to make a package that will allow everything to stack and not jar against each other. It seems to me the reason something breaks is because there's movement.

If we redo that so they're packed tightly together, then you have more surface area to advertise the name and the logos all over it.”

“Great idea. Let's give them a call. I'm not sure if we own any, but lets find a small outfit that will give us a good deal and then just go buy it.”

“Ok, so do you want me to make the calls?”

“Yeah, you head up that and I want that to be your baby on the side. Get me that and I'll see you get the credit. That way I can point at it and say, “See how much that's revolutionized the industry and for that, she got that house!”

She laughed and said, “That house is worth more than a cardboard box.”

“No, but you have no idea how much breakage we have going on. If you want to have a clue, follow one of our trucks down a cobble street and you'll be amazed to find a good bottle left in it with how much leakage comes out of it. I'm amazed we've not had drivers arrested.”

“Really!”

“Yeah, so when you say it's just a cardboard box, it's not that. It's the reduction in breakage.

One other thing, before you start on this project, I want to know what is our percentage of breakage? Somewhere, we ought to have that information.

Use that as your guideline and then, have all those figures to show at a moments notice after we do the switch. It'll make you look like Einstein.”

“Boss, it's not going to be cheap. We'll have to have a whole new set of machinery up in packing.”

“That's ok, because I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to start advertising idea generators for our company. What I mean is we'll have those boxes out there pulling ideas in, but the good ones that really cause changes, I'm going to be doing a set of commercials in telling the consumer, “Hey, we care enough to change the company for you and change our packaging. Meet CJ, she's the bosses secretary and she had the idea for the cardboard box you now see all over the world.” And then, you'll be the star of the commercial.

One thing that it will do is it will get you some income from the commercials as they run, but it gets us being hand in hand with our employees, but what the public will see is a company that's changing and they're benefitting from it. What they don't see is our profits going up from the ideas. IF they do, they're still saying, “Hey, why can't my company I work for do that sort of thing and about the time everyone's making those commercials, we'll be on to something different.”

She smiled and said, “SO you want to be a trendsetter.”

“Yeah, it's positive publicity.”

“Ok, it's about the publicity.”

“No, it's about the dollars going up in the accounting department!”

She laughed and said, “You're funnier than hell. I'm learning you're on so many levels it's scary.”

“What your learning is what it is that makes me tick. No one else gets that and you're getting it.”

We pulled into the brewery and I said, “Hang on a second. Here's your parking area over here. That's the executive parking lot. What we're going to do is we're going to be putting up a new executive office building up here and what you don't know is there's going to be a parking garage that's under the thing. Those idea people who are in those commercials? They'll be parking here and those that are in the army will be parking here too some day because those that are loyal will be going up....believe me on that.”

She nodded and said, “I need to come up right?”

“Yeah, we got to get that check out there for the house.”

“Ok, I've got a question on why you did something. Why did you put the house in our names like you did?”

“The reason I did was incentive. Teresa is going to be your partner, but she's also going to be giving up time she could have had you alone. Her investment in time has got to be so she can see it on the deed to that house. It might not mean much to you, but I want her to know there's a payoff for her too. It's not going to always be easy being your lover when you're boring her to tears about your latest project.”

“Ok, I understand now.”

“The part of my interest is so as an owner, I can keep the bills in my name. The brewery is going to frown about paying the bills on that house, but as long as I can point to it and say it's in my best interest to keep the bills paid, they'll do it.

Now, what I don't want is for you to think I'm buying you. I'll pay the insurance this time, but you'll have to pay it from here on out. The plus side of it is you're going to be getting a lot of friendship back for your investment hon and Teresa doesn't know it, but she is too. I couldn't give her the job as the kids' assistant because it'd tear you two apart, but I sure can get the kids over to be at your house and that will get them closer to you guys. I just want you two to be sure to drown them in love. They're a part of my heart and that's something you really need to know. My dad isn't going to be there soon and I want their loss to be lessened

by all the other people that love them.”

“Ok”

Next week, I have to do a walk around with you and get you up to speed with the changes. I also want you to give me your ideas for changes too. One thing I want you to be thinking about is what we're going to be doing with the space in the main building when we evacuate it into the executive tower and who exactly should go over there and who should be left.”

“Ok, you're counting on my knowledge of the place there.”

“Yeah, and you have a better idea of the traffic flow.”

“Ok”

We walked into the building and then rode up in the elevator. I was really quiet in the elevator since I didn't want our conversation to be overheard and a part of the rumor mill.”

When we went into the office, I noticed the door had been removed from the hinges and another desk had been placed in the Presidential office. I nodded and said, “You did a good job.”

“Thanks”

“Could you come into the office with me?”

“Sure”

When we got into the office, I said, “CJ, I think it goes without saying some of the things we discuss aren't to be discussed in front of anyone here. I don't know who is allied with Jack and I don't want an errant comment to get out.”

She nodded and said, “I picked up on that. Your lips shut tight and for you that speaks volumes.”

“Yeah, I hate it when I can't trust people, but I'll put up with it for now. Could you call accounting and get them on the horn so I can get you that check cut? I'll get on the other line with that lady to get the figure.”

I dialed the phone and the woman answered on the third ring. “Hi, this is Pete Stein. Do you have a figure for me?”

“Yes Pete. Your total is going to come in at four hundred and sixty thousand three hundred and forty eight dollars.”

“Ok, one second”

I told CJ the total and her eyes bugged. I said, “I need that address so I can get the bills put into the accounting department.”

She gave me the address and I told CJ to tell accounting the bills for the address would be coming in and they should be paid. She told them and they in turn asked to speak with me. I got on the phone and said, “This is Pete Stein, Who is this?”

“This is Marsha Light.”

“Marsha, whenever CJ, my secretary calls you in the future, you pretend she's a direct link to me and be sure everyone down there knows it.

For me to have to second what she tells you isn't going to fly with me. If you're not the supervisor down there, put that person on the phone and I'll make sure they understand that in the future.”

“But sir, you should have a memo requesting the check and that's got to be filed with the check number.”

“Listen, you file that memo yourself and if you have to have a signature on it, then tell your supervistor to put on it that the directive came from this office and that will be as good as a signature. Also tell anyone that if any forgeries happen and it's used in that manner, I'll drown your asses in paperwork. What I'm trying to do is ease up your jobs. If you can't see that, then we really need to get to understanding each other better.”

“Jack always wanted it that way.”

“And Jack wanted a lot of things that got him put out the door. I'm empowering you to earn your pay and make a few decisions.

Now, in the future if CJ calls you and asks you to cut a check, know I'm well aware of what she's asking. I've got a plant to run and if I have to constantly look over her shoulder and yours, I'll find two people who can get that job done. Right now, she knows what I expect of her, I'm hoping you do too...now.”

“Yes sir.”

“Ok, now what we'll do is we'll have CJ only contact you. That way you can look like you've got a direct hotline to our office up here. Ok?”

She giggled and said, “I don't have the figure for that sir.”

“You might have not, but Marsha, I'm not Jack. I'm not going to expect you to bend over a desk. I'm expcting you to work the hell out of the top of it in a different way.. OK?”

She laughed and said, “Thanks Pete. I needed a good laugh.”

“You got it hon, now here's CJ back.”

I handed the phone back to CJ and she smiled and winked.

I picked up my phone and dialed the head of engineering. The phone rang and his secretary answered it. “Hi, this is Pete. I need to speak to the head of engineering. Tell him to bring me four guys up here who aren't busy on projects and tell them to expect to spend the afternoon with me.”

“Ok sir, they'll be up, but my boss has appointments this afternoon.”

“Ok, tell him I understand that, but I still expect those four guys up here. IF they're not, tell him I'll be looking for a new head of Engineering.”

“Yes sir.”

I hung up and CJ said, “You axed that all to hell. I was about to tell you the guy is notorious for being busy and not doing a thing. What you just did was made him take his feet off the top of this desk and I bet you they'll be up here in about five minutes just out of curiousity. Should I stay around?”

“No, go have fun and here's my credit card. When you find the paint you need, give a call back and I'll get the crew over to paint the house. Ok?”

“Sure hon, you try not being too rough on the place while I'm gone.”

“I can't promise that. What we're going to do is turn the place upside down. What falls out is going to have to be swept up. Be ready to tell me who's in charge of clean up.”

She smiled and said, “Ok, I'll stay in touch.”

“That's going to be hard. You're going to be on the move and so will I. We'll play phone tag. Try to call and if I'm in, I'll answer. If I'm not, I won't, but I'll try calling you too.”

“We don't have a phone yet.”

“Oh man. Let me call the phone company. I'll get someone over there this afternoon.”

I picked up the phone and said, “Who the hell do I contact?”

“Let me contact our people. Engineering is on their way up and those are the people who contact the phone company. I'm sure they have someone they contact regularly for our work. I'll contact their secretary and have that number dialed so we can get them out there.”

She got on the line and sure enough, five guys walked into the office.

“Fellas! I'm glad to see you could make it. What I'm not glad to see is none of you thought to bring a clipboard as to write. Would one of you go get you all one because this is going to be a busy afternoon.”

The supervisor told one of his guys to go get it and then said, “What's up?”

“Well first thing I need you to do is contact the phone company and get another phone line put in up in this office for that desk and another for mine. Then, you need to call them and tell them this address needs two phone lines installed this afternoon. I want the numbers sequential.”

“That's an adress outside of here. They might not do that.”

“Tell them if it can't be done, I'll find the company that can and I'll move all of our service over to that company. I gave my word that house would have phone service this afternoon and I'd appreciate it if it was sooner than later. Tell them I want the full treatment of phones in every room of that house.”

“What makes it so special?”

“First of all, I asked for it. Second of all, it's her house and I'll need to have contact with her. She's not going to be here this afternoon, so I want to have that contact.

What we are going to discuss is going to be a lot of changes around here and I'll tell you I'm expecting results so whatever overtime you have to put in, I'm telling you now, I'm wanting results like yesterday.”

“Ok, what are we talking about?”

“First of all contact the phone company and make it so she can get out of here.”

He nodded and then turned, CJ had the phone held out and said, “Your secretary has already linked us through. Just ask for the person and you'll be ahead of the game.”

She smiled and said, “I'll see ya later boss.”

“Ok, I will probably drop by. I don't have a car here, but I think I can scrounge one up.”

She laughed and then headed out.

The guy got off the line and said, “They said they'll try to get it done.”

“Call them back and tell them to do more than try. If it's not in, I'll try to get another phone company to serve us.”

He nodded and I turned to the guys and said, “Hi, Pete Stein. I hope you guys are ready to work because the projects I'm putting you on is going to be your full time jobs for a while. You guys are available, right?”

The nodded their heads and once again I was amazed at how many people weren't working here.

I said, “One moment, I've got to call Maintenance and get someone over to paint that house.”

I picked up the phone and said, “Could you get me head of Maintenance?”

“The switchboard operator got me patched through and I said, “Hi, I need to see about twelve of your guys up here and get me those two guys that paint streets up here. I need to have a house painted this afternoon on the inside and they'll be ready in about two hours. Put whatever overtime you need in, but it's to be done tonight.”

“That's not possible. We all go home at four.”

“Ok, then I'll need to see you and your assistant up here in about five minutes. Tell your assistant to bring his name badge and you bring yours.”

“What's up?”

“Five minutes. If I have to come looking for you, I'll be coming with security. As I said, Five minutes.”

I hung up and said, “Gentlemen, what you're about to see is what happens when I get told something can't be done in this place.

That man has a whole crew down there standing around and can't get a house painted. He's about to find out he's unemployed. So we'll wait around until I can give his job to his assistant.”

We stood and I said, “You guys are going to be burning the midnight oil. You're salaried and I don't care how much work it takes, I'll tell you now I'm expecting results within two weeks.

So, how many people are in your department that don't have assignments? I'd suggest you make what we're going to talk about priority one.”

“Would you care to let us know what you've got in mind?”

“Sure, what I've got in mind is a bunch of construction and revisions of this place. I need the plans drawn up and ready to go to the City Engineer's office in two weeks for the whole bunch of projects.”

“That's not...”

“Who's your assistant?”

“Why?”

“Unless you want him to have your job, it's possible. You need to understand I don't care how many hours it takes, I expect results. You don't even know what i've got in mind and you're already telling me something can't be done.

Now, if you can't get it done, then I'll know that in two weeks and you really need to be looking for work starting tonight if it's not done by then because you'll be out of jobs if it's not. The person that gets their project turned in will keep their job. The one that doesn't, won't and I don't care who the person is, or isn't. So, get every available man up here and be ready to work.”

The Head of Maintenance came in and said, “My assistant is on break.”

“Ok, well, go back to your desk and clean it out. You're laid off and tell him he now has your job. Tell him I expect people out there and I expect that house painted tonight. Now, since you can't get that done, tell him I need to speak to him and get those guys moving. I'll let you know I know you've got guys standing around down there that don't work. I'll also tell those guys if they don't want to paint a house will be on the lay off list right next to yours.

And sir, don't expect a call back on that lay off. I expect people to work for a living here. And by the way, send those guys up that paint the street. They'll face me directly because the main reason you're history is the guys you have standing around, but those guys are the biggest reason you're out of here.”

He looked at me and said, “The union will hear about this.”

“Yes, I expect they will. I'll tell them anyone that's not productive around here will leave as you can see, I've got a crew of guys here that is going to be designing a lot of changes around here, but they're also going to be designing another brewery. If you don't think I'll shut this one and put a new one up out in St. Charles county, then you really got me confused with someone that won't.

Good luck on finding a job sir.”

“Wait, I'll get someone out there to paint it.”

“Sir, if I give you your job back, I'll let you know now I expect some staffing cuts in your department.

Ship all the extra guys out of your department and get them to personnel. We'll use them where they'll work. The ones that work in your department I suggest you keep and I mean the hard workers. I'll be down there personally taking a look at your hours and man hour sheets to see if there's wasted use of employees.

My suggestion is you get rid of the twelve that are standing around and the two that paint those streets. You have no idea how that has me pissed.”

“Sir, I've only got a crew of twenty guys.”

And if twelve are standing around and the two are sitting that are to be painting the streets, I'd say you only need six guys. So, cut your staff and I'll check your hours and if you need some more, I'll call some back, but I'll also tell you now, if you slow your guys who are being kept, I'll see your assistant doesn't when he has your job.

Now, what I'll do is I'll let you keep of those guys provided they're available to me for projects I see around here that are needed like sprucing this place up on the exterior.”

“It's not the season for that sir.”

“Sir, this place looks like a dump. You have people standing around that could have gotten it done in good weather. Now, you're losing those guys and you just told me something couldn't be done again. I'm telling you it can.

If I hear the word can't come out again sir, I'll throw it back at you as to why you CAN'T have your job back. I hope you understood that. Now, you're wasting these guy's time and believe me, they're going to need every spare second they have. Tell your guys to report to personnel on Monday for an assignment change.”

“Yes sir.”

He left the office and I said, “Ok, now, you see I was lenient. I think he believes Jack was in this office and not me. As YOU can see, he isn't, so let's go do our tour and I'll show you what I want done.”

We went out and did our walk around. I started with the street closure and explained what I wanted. The supervisor looked at me and said, “The city won't let that happen”

“Sir, the city is going to be shitting all over themselves to keep this brewery down here instead of St. Charles county. What they don't know is I plan on building that brewery anyway. So, that will be another project is to have the plans of the brewery updated so they coincide with what changes we have here. Any ideas you have for improvement, then be sure to draw in, but have the other set of plans kept for a fall back plan. Now, over here in the executive parking lot is another project....”

I went over and outlined the project for the executive parking lot. I was asked how tall I wanted the building and I started throwing back questions as to how tall I could build a building and what the bedrock would support under it.

When I began asking them questions on terms they knew, they realized I knew the obstacles they were facing. One guy said, “We'll need soil samples and to do some tests.”

“If you don't have that done for all over this place, my suggestion is to get it done. Once we have the brewery out in St. Charles County, this one is going to be rebuilt. You guys really should have had those samples.”

“We have them, but they're not up to date.”

“How up to date do they need to be when it's bedrock? It doesn't change! Now, if you have them, use them and if they're wrong, then I want to know who did them and I'll dig them up asking for the refund on the lawsuit that company will receive. Use them.

Now, we've got another matter over here in shipping.”

We went over and I outlined what I wanted and then took them over to the parking for the semis and told them what I expected including the larger diameter piping and the ideas CJ had about changing the boiling in the kettles.

Once again I was looked at in a dubious manner and I told them, “Guys, making beer isn't rocket science. It can be made better, cheaper, and faster.

Use what technology resource companies you have available and then tell those companies to push the envelope and get me results as to how it can be done better, cheaper, and faster. Tell them their future business with us is dependent upon that and believe me when I say I've got plans to build more breweries all over this planet.”

“What are your size requirements?”

“Find out how much land we have down here including streets. If need be, include the tunnels and the city mansion. I'll tear the damned thing down if I have to. That should tell you what I hold dear when it's separating me and a bottom line that I can live with.

We've got to increase production and we've got to get the overall cost down. I'm going to expect to do it with less labor and more automation.

Now, look up top there and find a way to get a bin up there and conveyors up there to fill the bins. Automate the valves that control it and don't tell me the union's going to shit themselves blind when they're told those people up there aren't being productive.

I know they aren't and that's my next appointment this afternoon. The only request I have is you to make sure this place looks the same as far as period of architecture, but that doesn't mean it has to stay the same on the inside.

Also, I want a plan drawn up as to what the space will be used for once the executive offices are vacated. I'm not sure who's staying and who's going, so find what main supports there are structurally, and plan around those and plan on gutting anything that isn't a support. If you can do that, in two weeks. I'd appreciate it.”

“Sir, it can't be done.”

“Sir, it CAN be done.

Now, I'll tell you to your face how to cheat me some time. You go out and you beg, borrow, or steal plans for that office building. You copy the motherfuckers and you put it on my desk as yours.

That loading dock. You fudge it and you put that design that's changed up there into it and then put an exterior that looks like the main brew house on it. That should cut your time.

Then, you fill your saved time with showing me how to automate everything you can think of in this place. You've got two weeks and I don't care what the hours you use to get it done. IF you can't get it done, then be looking for employment because you'll need that job at the end of this two weeks.

Divide up the jobs amongst your guys and the teams that come in with results will keep their jobs. The ones that can't, won't. I realize you're down there with an over abundance of personnel too, so use them and keep them.”

He looked at me and said, “Guys, we have work to do.”

He walked off dividing up the assignments.

I went back to my office and called the Up Top supervisor into my office. He arrived and I told him to get his crew cut to four guys and that included himself. All the rest needed to report to personnel. Any that didn't think they could work outside of the job should be notified they would be laid off with no expected call back.”

He looked at me and said, “You can't do that!”

“Yes, sir, I can! Missouri is an At Will work state. That doesn't mean I have to keep you if you're not productive to me.

Your union states I can do what I can to get production, but they don't ensure you keep your jobs in that area if there's an abundance of man hours versus the amount of work. That whole process up there is going to be automated here within the next few months, so my advice is if you want to remain a supervisor, you get the cuts made and I'll deal with the number of people I have coming into personnel.

Believe me when I tell you your department isn't the only that got told to cut people this afternoon and sir, if you slow your guys down, I'll know it instantly and I'll have women up there working and you all will be fired...not laid off...fired.”

He glared at me and said, “Sir, you'll have to get my assistant to do that.”

“Good, that was honest.

Now, I'll be honest with you. Go to personnel and get your check for today and your final check for next week. Tell your assistant I need to see him down here.”

“Tell him yourself. I don't work here any longer.”

“I'll consider that a quit then.”

“Whatever.”

“Ok, see your way out and I'll call your assistant lead to come down.”

“Jack said you'd fuck this place up. I can see you're going to take the fast way of doing it.”

“Your opinion mattered when you worked here. Tell Jack hi when you're at the employment office. Now sir, security is being called to get you to leave my office.”

I picked up the phone and said, “Get me security up here. And call the city police as we have someone who is trespassing on our property.”

“I'm leaving”

“Cancel the police but keep security on their way.” I looked at the guy and said, “For your information, you can tell Jack this whole place is changing and most of the jobs of old are getting automated. If I'm fucking it up, I'll do so with less staff.”

“The union won't let you.”

“Sorry, but my concerns with the union aren't yours. You quit remember? And, for your information, I'm building another brewery and transferring jobs to it for people who WANT to work. Those who don't, will find themselves without...union, or not.”

“We'll block your plant off.”

“An unemployed man standing on a union line with a union isn't protected by that union. You quit therefore you'll be subject to arrest.”

Security entered the office and I said, “Escort this man to the personnel department and allow him to get his belongings. IF he attempts to disrupt work up top, let me know and I'll have him arrested for trespass and tell our legal department to sue the shit out of him for work hours lost.”

He looked at me and said, “You'd do that, wouldn't you?!”

“Yeah, I would. I've yet to talk to legal today and for your information, I'm suing my own brother for the cost of my divorce. So, you sir wouldn't be nearly as emotional as any lawsuit I've got planned.”

He attempted to speak and I said, “Security, get him out of here. He's about to find himself paying for my lost time and he can't afford that.”

Security took him away and I called the head of personnel and told him to come up. He asked what for and I once again told him to come up and be sure to bring his assistant. He said they'd be there. I then said, “Be up here in five minutes.”

“I'll be there.”

I sat down and thought, “Man, oh man, this day has turned into hell. Well, I might as well call legal and get them on the divorce.”

I called legal and requested an attorney to come to my office. They said they'd send one right away.

I looked around the room and thought, this place is a dump. It needs painted and it needs a restoration.

The attorney arrived and I said, “Good, I've needed to speak to you for the past two days and just now have the time.”

“What can I help you with?”:

“I need a divorce from my wife. She was caught in an adulterous affair with witnesses and I've got proof she's had over fifty affairs while we've been married.

Offer her a settlement of fifteen million to sign the papers and if she chooses to not, then pull it from the table and tell her attorney we'll hash it out in court.

Also, in the paperwork, put in a confidentiality clause stating both parties agree to keep matters learned in the marriage confidential. If either party breaks the contract, the sum of one hundred million dollars will be awarded to the injured party.”

“Ok, is there anything else I should know?”

“Yeah, I'm gay and she knows about two men I've been with. Neither were while we were in the marriage, but I believe she'll attempt to write a book or do something to make money off that information.”

“Ok, anything you say with me is confidential.”

“I hope so because if it isn't, I'll go have you disbarred and then I'll sue you for that same sum.

Absolutely nowhere on your notes are you to put that revelation. The only people who knows are family members and they're not talking.

Only some of them know who those individuals are and that's my father and my ex-wife. My father isn't about to divulge that information and since no one else knows it, I'll assume she told.”

“Ok, anything else.”

“She's to receive no marital property. All items left at the household after her generous amount of time she was afforded to pack will be donated to a worthy cause. If she attempts to fight for anything else, tell her lawyer I have photos and witnesses and he'd not be representing her well if he chooses to take the matter to court. Tell him once I get the case won, I'll be contacting Jefferson City and asking for his law papers.”

“You can't do that!”

“Sir, I'm a Stein. I've probably got enough money behind me to get the Pope pulled out of the Vatican. So, trust me that I can get a lawyer pulled out of this state. Look who we have in the Governor's seat and then ask yourself if that's possible.”

“I understand sir.”

“I'm not coming down on you. It's that I know there are gray areas and I'll play them to my full advantage.

One other thing, put in the paperwork that all moneys lent to her family are to be repaid and then leave that amount blank. I'll have our bank get me canceled checks of the amount.

Her father was told before we were married he wasn't going to receive a penny from me unless he worked for me. Nowhere will you find any employment records that affirm that fact.”

He smiled and said, “She pissed you off.”

“No, she did that before she fucked my brother.

Now, about a second item of business. Keep your hours spent on this in a ledger because I'll be suing my brother for that amount.

I do have witnesses that will testify he was fucking her on this desk. One was my father and the other was a security officer for this company. The other was the bikini girl who was in the office having sex with them both.

You might want to tell her attorney I will call that girl in as a witness to prove the lesbian actions which were happening and witnessed.”

“Oh man.”

“Yeah, so do those two things and then on a side note, speak to your supervisor if you have one and find out when the person who is our corporate attorney will be available so I can start getting everything in order to take this company public

And sir, before you speak to anyone on that matter, you have them all sign confidentiality paperwork. I realize you probably do that already, but outline that specifically in the paperwork you have them all sign.

The only people who know about that now are you, me, my secretary, and my father. None of them will talk, but just to be safe, have one of those sent up here for my secretary to sign and you might as well have one drawn up for me too so it looks good for the SEC.”

He smiled and said, “Ok sir, I'll most likely be the one that handles that.”

“Good, I think we'll get along.”

“I won't judge you. I went through the same thing and I'm also gay.”

“Good. Maybe we can go out and have dinner sometime to discuss this divorce.”

“I'm with someone.”

“I didn't mean it in that manner. I believe I stated for the divorce. I don't need a relationship at this time. I'll be entirely too busy to be good for anyone for the next few years.”

He looked at me and said, “You mean to say you're not going to put your happiness ahead of the company?”

“Sir, with the amount of work I'll be doing, if I did that to anyone, I'd be a fool. My work days will be filled for probably at least five days a week and maybe six. The other time will be spent with my younger siblings and my father who is terminally ill. That sir is to remain confidential too.”

He nodded and said, “I'm sorry sir. Will that be soon?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. He's got brain cancer and apparently, he's not telling anyone how much time he has left.”

He nodded and said, “Anything else sir?”

“No, you can find out where my wife is staying from the Chief of Police out at Pacific. He should know.”

“Ok Will that be all?”

“Yeah, I've just had another item I need to do on that 'to-do list' in my head!” I smiled.

He left and I called Maintenance. The Supervisor answered and I said, “I need something done and it needs to be done by early next week.”

“What's that sir?”

“I need the locomotives painted in Red with Yellow trim with the logo of my brother's railroad put on it and then right after that is done, I need it photographed and blown up to be a photo 11 x 14.”

“Ok sir, I'll have someone on that. When the guys heard the offer I had, they all are suddenly interested in overtime. That's a bit hard to believe.”

“That's good. One other thing and then I'll be off here.”

“What's that sir?”

“Could you not call me sir? My name is Pete. That's not the thing I'm wanting to discuss, but I'd appreciate it.”

“Ok Ssss....Pete”

“Good. The next item I want to discuss is this. I'm not trying to be a hard ass here. What you'll realize is I've got a stack of things I need to do and it's all got to be done like yesterday. I'd appreciate it if you thought about that and work with me. I apologize for appearing to be a hard ass.”

“That's ok Pete. Something tells me I'll get along better with you if I get the jobs done you need me to do.”

“Yeah, but look at it from my perspective. I've got employees out the ass apparently and I've got to pay them. If the money was coming out of your pocket, would you have guys standing around?”

“Hell no!”

“Well, think about that because before I'm done here, it'll be coming out of your pocket. I can't tell you how I'm referring that, but think on that and I bet you can figure it out.”

“I think I do sir....I mean Pete and I think it's about time.”

“OH! Before I forget, what I need is some boxes made up with slots in the top that all have a lock on them that can be opened from one key that only I hold. Paint them white and have “Suggestions” painted on the outside.”

“How many?”

“Find out how many break areas or rest rooms we have and figure on putting them at each of those spots.”

“Pete, we can't do that in certain areas because of health concerns.”

“Ok, well, how do we put up notices in those areas?”

“We put them behind glass display cases.”

“Oh, well think of a way we can get suggestions from the employees in those areas. What I'm wanting to do is put out a bulletin asking people to give suggestions on how to run this place if it were there's and then, we're going to have contests for the ones that bring us the most return for our dollar.”

“What's going to be the incentive?”

“We're thinking about a cash award of a thousand dollars and then having the best of the best be on commercials which will give those people another amount of money each time they run.”

“That's a helluva idea.”

“Yeah, and that's one key thing that will change this place. When people start seeing I'm concerned in listening to people and putting them in my position, they'll start seeing this place as someplace that will be putting money into their pockets.”

“Ok, I'll get that done.”

“Ok, I need to get ahold of the advertising department to get some fliers printed up about that. Now, I have another question and that's to ask how you all have supervisors meetings.”

“We haven't. The only way we have a meeting is when we get called up to your office.”

“Man, that's got to change. We have to get into a situation of what each department knows what the other guy is doing and know we've got to work together.”

“I'll tell you for quite some time the people in your office didn't want everyone knowing what everyone else was doing.”

“That's crap.”

“I've thought that for some time, but to be honest, what we've been doing is we've been having informal meetings down at the main cafeteria over coffee before we begin work. I'll pass along the information if you don't mind.”

“Sure. The quicker people can be thinking of the idea, the better. What I'll have is the advertising department print up some pads that allow the person to outline the suggestions.”

“You might print up a lot of those. I'll be willing to bet people will be worried at first that they're going to be fired, but once word gets around they'll be filling that box.”

“Ok, another thing. On Monday, tell the people who are at your meeting to stay there and I'll be down there. We'll use the first thirty minutes of each day to have a formal meeting and then I can lay out things I need done. That way everyone is seeing what sorts of things I'll be requesting of everyone.”

“That's another good idea. I'm glad we talked Pete.”

“Me too. One other thing. What's your name?”

“Tom...Tom Brenner.”

“Ok, thanks Tom and be sure to tell all of them I don't like Sir. Only one man on this planet gets by with calling me that and even he knows I don't like it.”

He laughed and I said, “Tom, I've got to ring off. The Head of Personnel is really on my shit list and I've got to get him replaced.”

“Oh man”

“He was told and ignored me on even getting up here. At least you gave me that consideration.”

“They're hard to get along with over there. If you want to know a bigoted bunch, you've got them there.”

“Well, that's a policy that's coming down the pike is an anti harassment policy.”

“How you planning on getting it done?”

“Zero tolerance. Anyone who slurs, slanders, or just plain bullies another employee will be fired immediately. It doesn't matter who it is or how it's done, they'll be fired and I'll give you permission to call someone in front of me if they do it if you don't want to fire them yourself.”

“They won't let us fire anyone.”

“That's changing Tom. Bring them in front of me and I'll fire them, but that's got to change. It's your department for chrissakes. If you're not the boss, who is?”

“You”

“Nope, that's why I pay you. If I've got to do your job, then that's cutting me too thin and quite frankly, it demeans you as a supervisor.”

“I've thought that a lot. We have guys who I put in outer Siberia rather than deal with them.

Now, to answer your question of why those guys were in the street painting department, that's the reason. They've attempted to undermine me every time I've turned around.”

“Ok, did they stay, or did they go paint?”

“They're still here.”

“Ok, bring them up here and I'll fire them. Give me causes if you can.”

“I've got a stack of them.”

“Good. One of the causes really should be wasting my money.”

He laughed and said, “Yeah, that's for sure.”

“Well, I've got to get off here and go sack me a head of personnel.”

I rung off and as I was standing up, the phone guy was entering.”

“Good, just the man I was looking for. What I need is one line in there on my desk that goes to the switchboard and the other that's a direct dial line. You might put another direct dial line on the other desk and another out here. We really need to get rid of a switchboard operator.”

“I can get that done for you if you'd like”

“Ok, get on it. How long will it take?”

“It depends if all the phones in this place are with keypads or not. I can look, but it shouldn't take me but a day to wire it up. I can get it done tomorrow if you'll get me permission to be in here.”

“Sure, go ahead. I'll get the switchboard staff all moved up to this office. Those gals all should have some real secrets they could share!”

He chuckled and said, “Most of them are too busy”

“Well, I don't even know where it's located.”

“Just as soon as you enter the lobby, look to your right and behind that door is the switchboard. You have two per shift.”

“Ok, so thats six people.”

“Nope, eight. You have weekend staff too.'

“Oh man, this place is drunk with staff.”

He smiled and said, “No one wanted to be the one to tell anyone they weren't needed.”

“Well that's changed. I'll go get the notice put up for them to report to this office on Monday.”

“I'll have it all done sir.”

“Thanks.”

I went out and went to Human Resources. When I entered, I went into the Supervisor's office and said, “Pack your desk. You're fired. Now where's your assistant?”

He looked at me and said, “You can't fire me!”

“Oh, but I can and I have. As I said, Pack your desk and go draw your final check.”

He looked at me and then smiled. “You're making a helluva mistake.”

“No, you are.” I reached over him and grabbed his phone. “Please get me security to this office. I'll need another taken out of here and please have the police standing by for trespass charges.”

I got off the phone and went out into the main office. I asked the closest person, “Who's that man's assistant lead?”

“There is none.”

“Ok, who's got the most seniority here?”

“Ethel down there. She's been here forever.”

“Thanks”

I went down to the desk and said, “Hi, I'm Pete Stein. You're Ethel, correct?”

“Yeah, what can I do for you?”

“Do you think you can run this department?”

“Yeah, but the question is, Do I want to run it and I'll tell you hell no!”

“Why not?”

“You've got a bunch of hot headed assholes that work in here. If I can't fire them, then I don't want the job.”

“Give me cause and I'll fire them, but as Supervisor, you'll have that right.”

“Ok. I'll take the job. Can I fire all the dead weight now?”

“Get to it and I'll follow you around and make it official.”

She went around and started telling people to collect their final checks. They looked at her and then at me and I said, “She means it and I'm enforcing it.”

Of an office of twenty two, she kept five. All the rest were fired.

he then went back to her desk and said, “IF you think I'm hiring anyone else to take their place, you're nuts.

That man in there has people working in here that's all his buddies. None of them work and the best mannered one is an asshole. All the rest of them are cowardly drunks that think they can get by with calling anyone names.”

“Ok, I support it because I've heard quite a bit and I've also been party to some game playing myself. What I need you to do is check to see who it was that got my secretary transferred up to my office. I'm keeping her, but what they did to her is uncool like you wouldn't believe.”

“What'd they do?”

“I can't tell you the exact thing, but what I'll say is hypothetically speaking, they sent someone up who they knew wouldn't have sex with my brother in hopes he'd fire her. What the person didn't know was my brother got fired and I happen to like her.”

“Ok, that'd probably be one of the assholes. The ones I kept actually have a clue of how to staff this place.”

“One thing I need to tell you, Ethel is this office is going to be swamped with people looking for job transfers on Monday.”

“Ok, what I'll do is I'll take their names down and then give them show up pay and send them home on lay off. They'll get called back as we need the help.

To be quite honest, we don't need the help. Your brother's a dumb ass that thought we needed to have on fifteen thousand people and never bothered to check to see if we needed that many. We only need about nine thousand, so a good number will need to be laid off.”

“Oh. I had no clue.”

“No, but that's what you're paying me to do.”

“Well, the people over at the switchboard are all getting relocated to my office. On Saturday, we're going to go to direct dial. All these phones will have extensions.”

“Oh Christ. If you give these idiots access to long distance you'll have everyone calling everyone everwhere.”

“I'll get on that so they can't do that.”

She smiled and said, “Boy, you need someone to look after you!”

“Ok, you're hired.” I said laughing.

She smiled and said, “What I've got to do is go get that man away from my desk and get moved in there. I'll tell you now, this has been a long time coming.”

She went into the office and said, “If he told you to get away from that desk, move! IF he didn't, I'm telling you to move, so get!”

The guy stood up and said, “You can't fire me!”

She looked at me and said, “Did you tell him he was fired?”

“Yeah, Security is on their way. He's now trespassing.The police have been called.”

“The police won't do anything. The Security here is our police. Have our guys arrest him and it'll hold up in court. They can file the paperwork with the county.”

“How's that?”

“We were here before the city got down here. WE're our own city within the city limits. They know that, so they won't touch these guys. Our guys have to press charges. Call the county and they'll pick them up.”

“Ok”

Two security guys came in and I said, “Remove him and press charges for trespass.”

The guy looked at me and said, “You don't have the authority.”

“Oh, but I do. If you haven't checked, I'm the one running this place now.”

He looked surprised and said, “Jack never called me.”

“Jack got removed yesterday. If he dares to step foot on this property, he'll be arrested.” I looked at the Security officer and said, “What are you wating for?”

He told the guy to turn around and to allow him to cuff him. The guy said, “I'm leaving.”

“No, you had that option before, now arrest this man.”

“I have to give him the option to leave.”

She looked at the Security guy and said, “Sir, get on your radio and call your Supervisor down here. I do believe we'll need him to get you off the property too. When the man that is running the place tells you to do something, you really should have done it.”

She reached over the desk and punched in a number. She spoke and then got off the phone.”He'll be down here in a moment Pete.”

“Good. Now go tell all of them that you fired they'll have charges pressed against them if they aren't moving. I'll call out to Clayton and get the county to send us some cars.”

I took the phone and called 9-1-1. When the police answered, I requested the county sheriff's department. I was transferred over to their dispatch. As soon as the woman came on the line, I said, “Ma'am, this is Pete Stein down at the Meister Stein brewery. We have a bunch of people who are being charged for tresspass. Would you please send some officers down here to process them?”

“Is this at the brewery?”

“Yes ma'am.”

“I'll have some officers dispatched. How many?”

“One moment.”

“I yelled. “Ethel, how many are wanting to go to jail.”

“Four out here and that one in there.”

“Five ma'am.”

“Ok, we'll dispatch three cars, sir.”

“Thank you.”

When she re-entered the office, she said, “Pete, go ahead and go and I'll get this take care of.”

“Ok, when the dust settles, come on up to my office as I need to speak with you. We need to do a walking tour of this place and get some of the dead weight cut loose.”

“Ok, I'll be up.”

I left her office and went out and over to the switchboard room. The room looked complex, but I'm glad we were getting it handled. When I got the attention of one, I asked, “Who's the Supervisor in here?”

She pointed at a woman and I went over to her. She saw me and disconnected. I could tell she was listening in on a conversation and she blushed.”

“When you have a moment, I need you in my office.”

“I'm rather busy.”

“Fortunately, I can't prove you were busy listening in on a phone conversation, so what I'll say is this...Tomorrow, this room is being automated. We'll need one person to man the incoming calls and all the rest of you can report to my office.

Those of you who would like to be secretaries up there, I'll expect you to report to work. Those of you who don't should report to the personnel office.”

“I can't type, so I'll report to personnel.”

“Ok, but give the others an opportunity to report to my office. And, make sure the other shifts know.”

She nodded and I went back over to personnel. Ethel saw me and asked, “Pete?”

“I just spoke with the Supervisor over at the switchboard. She says she'll report over here to you since she can't type. I believe I caught her listening in on conversations.

My personal opinion is if she'll lie to me about that, then she'll snoop into the papers of this company. See my opinion is reflected when you choose to place her for another position.”

“Ok, she'll be out of here. In my opinion, you'd be doing better if you'd let me put people who can be trusted up in your office. Those over there can't be trusted.”

“Ok, Would you do that? I think I only need three.”

“Ok, now I've a question and you can answer it.”

“Ok, what?”

“Who are you going to have as an operator?”

“I need someone who's not going to listen in on calls.”

“Check with the phone company and see that the guy puts in a system that disconnects calls after five seconds. They have them, I know.”

“Ok, I'll go try catching the guy. Why don't you hire the operators?”

“Ok, I'll get it done and I'll tell them all to report over here and interview them all.”

“OK, make sure whoever it is knows this company.”

“Oh, I will.”

I left and then returned to my office. The man was installing the phone on CJ's desk and said, “This is a lot of phones when I could install seven button phones, or a Merlin System.”

“Well, do what you need, but I just caught someone listening in on phone calls down there. Can you install a system that isn't going to be allowing long distance and one that will disconnect calls after five seconds?”

“Let's talk about that for a second”

“Ok,”

“What is it you need in a system?”

“I'd love for it to be completely automated. I realize some phones will need outside clearance and some will need long distance, but not everyone needs to do that.”

“Ok, we have a Smart system which allows options of letting the person calling to pick options or call an operator. IF it's an emergency, they speak with an operator who can press a button and get ahold of the supervisor in a department with a long continuous ring rather than one that rings and pauses. What they use is a Merlin phone system which is new and state of the art.”

“Ok, get me the best and I'll be happy.”

“Ok, but I might need to put in different wiring for multiple lines like this.”

“No, if I can put someone on hold or make it three way that will be fine, but the only reason I wanted one that didn't need to go through the operator was privacy.”

“Ok, So, all this work I did was for nothing?”

“No, save these, but can you put the phones side by side?”

“Yeah, I can color coordinate them. You'll have a white one and a black one.”

“Ok”

He looked at me and said, “My wiring out of the switchboard should only take a couple of hours. What I can do is have it down as soon as I leave here. Now, what will take longer is installing phones and getting extensions down and labeling extensions.”

“Ok, make mine Extension 1006 and 1007. Make Dad's 1004 and 1005 and make CJ's 1000 . Then, on another desk over there put 1002, and 1003. We can move 1001 over there when we get all the desks into place. Now, can you put advertising on the system?”

“If we have the recordings.”

“Ok, I'll get them. I want our beer songs as the background music.”

“Ok, I'll go over to advertising.”

“I'm about to go there myself.”

“Ok, how about I go ahead and go with you since I'm about done here and will need to get the lines redone tomorrow.”

“These work, right?”

“Yeah and your lines out at that house already work. You got a call while I was in here.”

“Ok, how long ago?”

“About five minutes.”

“Ok, what's that number?”

“They never told me. She said she'd call back.”

“Ok, well that shoots that plan in the foot.” I smiled.

“I can find that number.” he smiled.

“Sure, if you don't mind.”

“That's no problem. I'll get right on it.”

I looked at him and said, “Do you work for us?”

“No, the phone company.”

“Oh, ok. I was hoping you worked for us. You have a “can do” attitude and people here have one that says it's not “their job” which is totally pissing me off.

So far, about fifty people have lost their job and from what I understand, I'm going to be getting rid of a lot of help.”

“Why?”

“First of all, I just took over after my brother had this job. He had it in his mind it didn't matter whether we needed the workforce or not, we were going to have fifteen thousand people working here.”

“Whew, that's a lot of people.”

“That's about six thousand people more than we need. So, we're cutting back and we're going to have to make some people unhappy. Unfortunatly, the bad attitudes are at the top, so I'm taking no prisoners and getting rid of attitudes that can't do their work.”

“You'll probably piss off the union.”

“It doesn't matter. What I'm doing is tightening our belt and then, we're going to build a brewery out in St. Charles county and then, we're going to phase this one out and move the jobs there. THEN, when this place is empty, I'm going to come back down here and start over. The union will be hell bent to try to stop me.”

He smiled and said, “It'll be empensive.”

“What's expensive is having people who only work two weeks a year and stay on the payroll because their attitude stinks so bad their supervisors can't even deal with them.

So, what you have is a bunch of people who are all faithful to the old way of doing things and me in my second day that are finding them and getting rid of them if they can't slide over to actually having to work.”

“Oh, well it does help if they think they'll have to work. Me, I think it helps if I find out what the problem is and then get it corrected the first time rather than having to keep doing my job over and over.”

“I understand. What you got caught up in is me finding out even a job I didn't know really existed had eight employees that could be automated. There's all sorts of these jobs in this place like that. People have the attitude they can't be replaced and that's not going to fly. My job is to find those jobs and get them out.”

“You know, I have a friend who just got phased out of a job that could probably help you. He an engineer whose job it was to automate factories. He did his job so well that once he got done, they let him go.”

“Give him a call and tell him to report to our engineering department. I just gave my guys an assignment to get those jobs done. I'm sure they'd appreciate it since they have no idea what they're doing.”

“Sure, let me give him a call.” He picked up the phone and said, “You didn't see me make this call since I'm not supposed to do it on company time.”

“No problem. You've been more help to me this afternoon than a whole plant full of people.”

He apparently got through and said, “Frank! Yeah, you need to get your butt down here to Meister Steiner brewery. Yeah, I'm down here in the President's office and he was just telling me how he needs to update and modernize the place and that they have no clue. I told him about you and he told me to get you down here and to tell you to report to their engineering department. Yeah man, you're hired without him seeing you. Yeah, they have elevators. Now, get your ass moving. Ok, hang on.”

He handed me the phone and said, “He wants to speak to you.”

“Hello”

“Hi, I need to ask you a question before I make the effort. Are you going to have a problem with someone in a wheelchair working for you?”

“No, hell no! What you do is if anyone has an issue with it, you come to my office and tell me. I'll fire that person no matter who they are. We're implementing an anti harrassment policy here and that means anyone and Frank, while you're at it, make this place so even wheelchairs can get around this place. If people are willing to work, I don't care what their handicap is.”

“Are you sure because there's something else.”

“What's that?”

“I'm gay.”

“SO, so am I. If they have a problem with it, really tell me that!

They might be nice to my face since I'm the boss, but they sure as hell will be just as out of here if I find out they bother you because of that. All I ask is for you to do your job.”

He laughed and said, “Ok, I'll be right down.”

“Ok, come to my office and I'll take you over there and tell them you're a consultant.”

“Ummm, what's your name?”

“Pete. Pete Stein.”

“Pete, man, I need a job. I don't need a job that's going to be phased out.”

“I know. What I'll have to do is tell them you're a consultant, but Frank, what you don't know is I just laid down the law over there and told them to get me results....in two weeks. The ones that get me results get to keep their jobs, the ones that can't got told they'll have a two week headstart on finding another job.”

“Oh...man, that'll be hard.”

“Well, you know and I know they can beg, steal, or borrow plans and pretty much fake it with me. I don't care what they do as long as I have something in my hand that will give me a direction. Until then, I'm sitting on my hands waiting.

If I told them to get them to me when they could, we'd be here this time next year waiting. They now have a fire under their ass and that's what counts.”

“Ok, I'll be right down.”

“Good.”

I rung off and the phone guy was looking at me. “I know what he told you and it doesn't matter?”

“No, it doesn't. If you know what he told me, you hear what I told him. It doesn't matter to me who a person is or what they are. What matters is if they can do the work.”

“Then can I ask you something else which will probably get me fired.”

“What's your name?”

“Eric”

“Eric, what you've done this afternoon is give me hope there are people out there that will do their damned job. IF you think I'm going to get you fired over that, then think again. You did your job, plus you helped me, so don't think I'm going to run behind your back.”

“Ok, would you like to go to dinner some time?”

“Sure, but.....Oh.....Yeah, I'll go to dinner, but you need to know I'm going to be too busy for anything more.”

“Why?”

“Because I just got handed a whole company to run and what you see here is multiplied by ten and then, after that, there's a whole bunch of other companies that we own that I've got to go into and see if there's things like the breweries that can be updated. Then, in the midst of all that, I've got amusement parks and animal parks to run. So, that cuts me back to one day a week where I have for family and a personal life. My family comes first and I just found out my dad has brain cancer, so he'll definitely come first.”

“Ok, that's fair, but I was wondering.”

“Eric, do me a favor. I don't know what you make there, but you're under paid. If you would do me a huge favor, would you go around this plant and listen to the people and when you hear bad attitudes, would you casually get their names?”

“How am I going to do that?”

“Well, you're the phone guy. Ask them their name and if they ask why, tell them you're installing a phone and wanted to know if it's their extension because you need names for extensions. They'll give it to you and then, bring me the names.

I want to know any type of discrimination. What we have here is people who are discriminated against for about everything. Even my dad said he knows of discrimination of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Any of it is too much in my eyes.”

He nodded and said, “If I ask you out occasionally, would you go?”

“Sure, I'm not saying I wouldn't mind it, what I'm saying is if you want something more, I don't think I can give it.”

“Ok, at least you're honest.”

“I have to be. If I'm anything else, then I'm not making friends, I'm becoming a liablity to them.”

He nodded and said, “Frank and I've been friends forever. We'd probably be together but we were young and we were dumb and we decided to go swimming down in the quarreys at Ironton. He jumped and hit rocks.

Since then, we've been friends, but he thinks because he has no feelings from the waist down, he's not worthy to be in a relationship with anyone.”

I shook my head, “That's a mental handicap trying to disguise it as a physical one. He needs to let it go. Most of a relationship is with a person's mind instead of their body. Yeah, sex is good, but I'd not be into it if I wasn't able to be in the person's head.”

“You and me both.”

“Well, let me call down to Engineering and let the Supervisor there know he's got the calvary coming to rescue him.”

“Ok”

I called down to Engineering and spoke with the Supervisor. I told him I had Frank coming as a consultant and he said that'd be great. I told him, “This guy is handicapped and if I hear of ANY one who is harrassing him or giving him any grief, I'll expect their name and them to be fired.” He said he'd do that and imagined it wouldn't be an issue. I said, “By the way, on Monday, up here in my office, we're going to start having meetings with all the Supervisors so we can get a start on the day and everyone knows what everyone else is going to be doing. Could you start coming to those?”

“Sure, I'd been hoping something like that would happen, but the way it's been is your office didn't want anyone knowing what anyone else was doing.”

“Well, that's changing as of Monday. I apologize for being so gruff, but I've got to get changes made and you now know what I'm wanting to do. By the way, this isn't a part of your projects, but find out how much it'd cost us to get better pumps and bigger diameter pipes in the rest of the plant and how much it'd cost to put in a tank car facility which will put the wort into tankers for the fermenting.”

“Why you want to do that?”

“Because, we're doing it down in the caves now and to be quite honest, what you're doing is going to have our capacity to the point of either the caves and tunnels will have to be made significantly larger, or we've got to find a different way. What I think is we can use the rail cars and then take them to sidings rather than under ground.”

“That will mean you have to find a place to park them.”

“My next phone call will be to the railroad to get the land we own out in St. Charles county turned into a rail yard for us.”

“They won't let their lines get to be clogged with our cars.”

“We own caves and tunnels clear underneath that property we own. I think we can run rail lines through them and come up, don't you think?”

“Oh, yeah, but we'll have to clear out all those tanks.”

“Yeah, and in doing so, we have to create a way to store it all. Thusly creating need for tank cars.”

“Ok, I'm on the same page. You're going in a direction we've never went before, but it makes sense. You'll be able to have a helluva lot larger capacity.”

“Yeah, so now you can see what we're doing, but before we're done, what we'll be doing is we'll be piping from this plant out to that plant and have the storage out there.”

“Ok, why don't we go ahead and do that. It'll save on labor.”

“Ok, then get it on paper so I can see what the costs are. By the way, this isn't a part of your project.”

“No, that's ok, I've got six more guys sitting here not doing anything.”

“Ummm, put two on it and tell four of the to report to personnel on Monday. We've got about six thousand people extra here and I've got to make cuts.”

“Will do, and when we're done with the project, I can give you two more off the roles.”

“Will you need them for other breweries?”

“No, they've all got guys sitting around at those places.”

“Oh man, ok, I'll start making calls and making cuts.”

“Don't let anyone know I told you, but I really think you're heading in the right direction.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it. And, what I'd like for you to do is ask yourself a question and see what you come up with. And, you might ask everyone else who works for you the same question...What would you do different if this place were yours?”

“Oh man, there'd be a lot of changes. Your processing and packing lines are all backwards flow. You could turn them around and save a lot of money.”

“Then, put those ideas on paper and we'll get them started.”

“Oh man, you've got my brain exploding now!”

“Good, I'll see you in the morning.”

“What's in the morning?”

“I'll be going over to your department to see what we've got going and what I can do to help.”

“Ok, we'll be here. Do you drink coffee?”

“Not much, but it looks like I will be. Everyone drinks coffee here.”

“You provide it.”

“It sounds like I've got to start providing alternatives.”

“You do...Beer!”

“No, I mean soda pop or something like hot chocolate or tea.”

“I'll get you what you want. Start feeling like this area is your home away from home.”

“Ok, I'll see you in the morning.”

I rung off and Eric was finishing. “Pete, I'll be here super early to rewire the phone system.”

“How early?”

“Well, if I get started about three am, I should have it done by seven and then I can get around to replacing phones.”

“Ok, I've still yet to call advertising to get them your songs.”

“I'll get them in the morning. I'm going home to get some shut eye so I can get up early.”

“Ok, and Eric?”

“Yeah”

“Thanks for everything.”

“No problem.”

He left and I picked up the phone and called advertising. As soon as it rang, it was answered and I said, “This is Pete, who's the Supervisor there?”

“I am.”

“Who are you.”

“Brian Knight. Why?”

“Brian, I've got a list of things I need from advertising. Do you have a pen and paper handy?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“There's a phone man who is going to be replacing the phone system who needs our beer songs and some radio advertising spots for all of our beers. Make those into a tape he can use, so he can put it into the phone system.”

“Ok, what sort of tape?”

“I don't know. You might put it on a longer tape and then ask him tomorrow and trasfer it over.”

“Ok, next item.”

“We need signs made up stating new policies of Zero Tolerance for discrimination of any sort.

Under that, put harrassment, name calling, and any sort of discrimination based upon ethnicity, creed, color, or sexual preference will not be tolerated and the first incident will result in immediate termination. Also put on there a fascimile of my signature. Then, laminate them and get them put up in every break area and in every bathroom in this place.”

“How many and how big?”

“I don't know how many. You might contact Maintenance and get their numbers. As for size, make them about eighteen by twenty four long. Then, make up another bunch that are eight by ten so once the new wears off, we can get the larger ones sized down for more bulletin board space.”

“Ok, next?”

“Have one of your guys draw up a cool looking paint scheme for the locomotives which are bases in red with yellow feathers and the initials PS on them.”

“Ok, are we going to be painting the locomotives?”

“Yes and then what we're doing is were sending that design over to my brother's railroad so they can use it to paint theirs.”

“Ok, I've got an idea. I'll have it done tomorrow.”

“Ok, next item. I need some ideas made up for a new cardboard container for boxes.”

“Ok, for the beer boxes for bars?”

“No, for a new package that's going to be very form fitting over six, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty”

“Ok, you want me to design the packaging too?”

“Can you do that?”

“Yeah, that's my job.”

“Ok, then what I need is something that's very form fitting so the bottles will not bang against each other and break.”

“Pete, can I call you Pete?”

“Yeah”

“I've made these up before and have them already done up. Can you come down?”

“Sure”

I rung off and then went out of my office. Rather than turning left, I turned right. I went down the hall and found an elevator. Then, I went down to the third floor to get to the advertising section. A thought occurred to me the space the executives were using could be used for advertising to shoot commercials and edit them.

In the advertising department, I saw all sorts of people at work. We do radio, television, newspaper, and billboard advertising. There's magazine, sports, and blimp advertising too. I'm sure if we could, we'd put a rocket up and have it put advertising on the moon too.

When I got to his office, he had a stack of thin cardboard cutouts. I looked at them and said, “Ok, how do you use these?”

“Well, bottles are put in like this.” He had a bunch of empty bottles all glued together in six, eight, sixteen, twenty-four, and thirty-two. He put a twenty-four upon the cardboard and then folded up the sides The top tapered in and it folded over tabs which he said would be glued. “Your cost is less than a penny for the packaging and here's the name of the supplier.”

“How much for the machinery to do the packaging?”

“I don't know, but I had spoke with the head of Engineering and he said our equipment could be adapted to do it easily.”

“Why wasn't it done?”

“You brother slugged me in the balls when I took it to him. He said we didn't need new packaging and said the old way was fine. That was two weeks ago and then, I got told I would be getting a write up in my work record reporting me on doing this on company time.”

“That's bullshit. Ok, what I'll do is I'll get that taken out of your file and I want to know who to contact to get to going on this and who to order these from?”

“Here's the supplier's name. There's their cost sheet and projections of how many cases we put out a year. The neat thing is when you put these on a pallet, you can get eight more cases on per layer than you could the big boxes. That means less cost of shipping.”

“Ok, what I'll do is put a commendation in your work file, but that's not going to mean anything, but just the same, I need to get it out there. Now, what I've got is a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have an employee that gave me the suggestion and she's going to think I called you and got on it and am now giving you the credit.”

“Cracker Jack, right?”

“Yeah, how did you know.”

“This is her idea. She and I are friends and she was telling me about it. I did it and got slugged in the nuts for it.”

“Ok, so you're giving her the credit?”

“Yeah.”

I could see the gears turning in his head and said, “Ok, here's what I'll do. You did the leg work on this and she did the brain work.

What I'll do is split the thousand dollars for the idea and then I want a commercial filmed showing you two working on it and how we took the idea and turned it into a reality. I want it released co-inciding with the date we start shipping out in these containers.

What will happen is any royalties from the commercials will go to you and she.”

“Ok” he said smiling.

“Good, now you now know I want commercials filmed. I'll get ahold of these people and get ahold of the Engineer to get the machines changed.

Can you take me around here so I can see what we have in the works for advertising?”

“Sure”

He led me around and as we walked, he told me how he was promoting each of our products in all the different markets. If you don't know, advertising is different.in the different markets. What is said in San Francisco won't be said in New York simply because different words appeal to different parts of the country. “Great Tasting” might be said as “Appealing” in a different part of the country.

In other parts of the country, we might have guys dressed in business suits drinking the beer, but in the rural areas we show them in blue jeans and a flannel shirt. It's the same ad, but with different people. Strange, but I understand we have to be different things to different people. What we don't do is change the product.

About half way through, I turned to him and said, “We're putting trains into the parks. Would you get some commercials made of that?”

“Ok, let me know when it's done.”

“It'll be done by Summer at least by late May.”

“Get one done before the others and I'll have that one filmed.”

“Ok”

“What you'll need to do is film different ads for the St. Louis market for out at the farm. We're using trolley cars there.”

“Ok, Do you want advertising on them?”

“No, but I'd like a special pinstriping on it where the Falcon E is used.”

“Ok”

We continued to tour and I said, “Everyone's working. Now, tell me the truth, how many are standing around when I'm gone?”

“No one. If they come into this section, they are put to work. I don't believe in people standing around.”

“Ok, now are you going to have a problem with firing people due to harrassment?”

“NO. What you don't know here is the diversification we have is way different. Maybe it's because we have a high turnover, I don't know, but most of our employees come directly out of college, so they're more accepting of differences.”

“Why the high turnover?”

“Because they get better offers to go other places.”

“You mean to tell me we can't keep these people once their trained?”

“Well, it's like that. They work here and get lured by the big advertising agencies in New York or Los Angeles.”

“What would change that?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah, don't ever lie to me.”

“What we're not giving them are percentages. A guy will work here and he'll make a bunch of commercials and then, he'll get called at home by an advertising agency that tells them they could have made x amount of dollars if we'd given them a percentage of the ad. They get to thinking about that and it bugs them and they go over to the other guys.”

“OK, get them percentages and mark it up to the cost of your department.”

“Ok, but one other thing I think would help is we have a 4 year contractual agreement.

What I think would work is changing that to ten years. These guys salary cap is at the end of the four years, they're still some of the lowest paid in their industry. If the percentages don't snag them, then them finding out they can go someplace else for a near doubling of their salaries will take them.”

“Ok, up the contracts to ten years, but only up the pay increases for forty percent. We'll see if we can do that. Mark it up to your budget and I'll get you the increases.”

He looked at me and said, “About the parks.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we put more advertising there?”

“Let me see. When I go to the parks, can you give me a couple of days and we'll walk around and take some looks?”

“Sure. What I'm thinking is some subtle things like on the trash recepticles, they're plain and what I'd like to see is the Falcon E on them.”

“Ok, that sounds good. But what I don't want is a bunch of beer advertising. The only place I want that is in the gardens, but if you did something with the logos in flowers or on the trash recepticles. I wouldn't have a problem with that.”

“Ok, when are you going again?”

“I'll be going two days next week. Probably Tuesday and Wednesday.”

“Ok, I'll clear my schedules and have those days free.”

“Good, then what I'll do is have you planned to go with me. Dress casual because I sure dress that way. One other thing while I think of it.”

“What's that?”

“Out at the farm, we're going to be bringing in elephants, kangaroos, and koalas. We're keeping the other animals, but what you'll be doing is seeing more of those animals. I want a wide variety so it's a treat to come visit.

Also, we're going to be changing the look around this place. I'll probably be spending a lot of money, but when it's done, we'll have a more restored look to the place and when that's done, I want a lot of promotion of the tours through here.

I want the focus on St. Louis for everything rather than their local brewery because as production increases here, I'm going to be seeing which ones of those I can phase out.”

“Ok, so we're tightening our belts.”

“Yeah, but no. I'm spending money like a madman to get the costs of labor and production down, but the capacity is going to go up about seven times what we are now.

We're going to be doing a hard push to be the lowest cost out there but I want everyone to be thinking their getting the best for the cheapest and wondering why the other guys are charging more.

One thing I want to insist on is you concentrate on advertising which stresses our product doesn't change in taste and theirs does. I want you to go out in those fields of Kansas and Nebraska and do a blitz of showing we own our own hops and barley fields whereas the other guy buys whatever, wherever and that's the reason they taste different time after time.”

He nodded and said, “Good point. Stress quality and commitment to our customers.”

“Yeah and don't hit them over the head with studies or polls. They're not dumb they know that can be rigged.

If you want to do anything, pull some bottles out of hibernation and have people tasting the product then versus now. Have them saying how it hasn't changed.

Don't go all Hollywood with it, but instead show some of our college guys first getting here and them being given the challenge of going out to get ads made up. Then, have the public thinking these different ads are what they've come up with.”

“Great idea. That'll be a cool different ad blitz. Everyone will see our ads have changed and we can point it at that.”

“ONE other thing and I'll leave you alone.”

“Ok”

“The calendar for next year. There is no such thing as the bikini girls any longer. They're now on the unemployment line.

What I want is our sports teams. Don't show anyone drinking, but instead show a boat race for June, a stock car race for February, an elephant at the animal park for July, and an amusement park for August. What I want for December is a picture of the draft horses pulling the sleigh in a snowstorm outside of the brewery with lights decorating the buildings. I don't care if you have to create snow to get that picture, but I want the edges of the picture to be like they're looking through a frosted glass of beer.”

“Huh?”

“Sepia”

“Oh ok.”

“I want them thinking they're looking through it like they're looking into a crystal ball.”

“Oh, cool idea.”

“Then have your seasonal advertising reflecting that with a nice glass of Meister Stein Cinnamon with a cinnamon stick sticking out of it.”

“What?”

“We're going seasonal with beer flavors. The winter one will be cinnamon flavor, but we'll have cherry and apple flavors too. I imagine we'll try peach and some others.”

“Why don't we start advertising in some women's magazines for some recipes that will go with beer.”

“Ok, whatever knocks you out, but I want us to triple the ad budget.”

“Oh man, that's going to be hard. We're already drowning the market now.”

“Well, what I want is five million of those calendars made up. I want to give them out to these convenience stores to give away. I want households having them in there for their entire year next year.”

He got a serious look on his face, “Ok, one other thing.”

“What's that?”

“I want to go into our archives and pull out some of our old ads and start using those. Theres some good ads there and I want to dust them off and use them.

Maybe we could go double page with them and have the new ad next to it that says, “Same great taste. It's never changed.”

“Great idea. I'll sign off on it if that's what you do.” I said.

“You have to sign off on everything...no matter what. That's the way it's done.”

“Well, let's do this. For the stuff you know we've talked about, you just put my signature on the memo you were going to send to me and put under it “approved by conversation”. I'll back you on it and that will cut through red tape.

If you're in doubt, use the meetings in the morning to talk with me. I want all the other departments to know what you're doing. You might use it as a 'show and tell time' so they can get some pride of being able to get sneak peaks of what's coming out. Then those guys go home and tell their family about the cool commercials we're going to have.”

He smiled and said, “You're really going to jump start this place. You know that!”

“Let's hope, I'm sort of flying by the seat of my pants here...speaking of that, during Spring Break, I want us to really drown those kids in ads.

Find a Camaro and customize it so we can give it away. Then, lets do some advertising aiming at the college kids that will get them to looking for the car.”

“It's too late for that.”

“Why?”

“Ads have went out up until May.”

“Ok, what can we do that's neat and exciting that doesn't mean we'll be sponsoring bikini girl contests?”

“You want my opinion?”

“I wouldn't have asked if I didn't.”

“Fuck all that and get the horses down there in team pulling the wagon.

Have them meet the horses. Girls love horses and guys fantasize about driving the wagons. They might be in college, but they're still kids and they'll flock to the horses.”

“Ok, but they'll have to be under a tent unless we're out pulling the wagon. You might have the horses at a distributor there and hitch them to pull them into the area where the kids are. But, next year, I want the cars at every Spring break location.”

“Ok, what do you want?”

“How many Spring break locations are there?”

“Oh man, I don't know. I imagine there are a lot.”

“Well, get a car for each location. Have the seats done with our logo on the backs of them. Have them in company colors and have them so when we do the advertising for Daytona, we can show the cars on a race track all driven in formation, then have them seen splitting off and have trailers which show the cars going to each spring break town and showing we're giving them away. I want everyone really flocking down there to get a car.”

“Ok, so do you want to up the advertising focus towards college kids?”

“Yeah”

“Ok, how about if we start using a portion of our ad budget for that?”

“Ok, but not the whole thing. Let's do like twenty percent.”

“Good. I'll do some checking. I don't know what we do already, but I'll find out what our percentages are.”

“One other thing about colleges.”

“What's that?”

“You many not know it, but the kids at the upper edge colleges are all planning on going to the corporate world.

I want kids in Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and all those to be thinking the guys who are in the corporate worlds all go out and drink our beer after they get off work.

Show some commercials of two young guys say a lawyer and an accountant or a Wall Street type all going out to work and saying how the only thing that's stayed the same is the beer they drank back in college.”

“Cool ad.”

“Yeah, lets get them to looking and ordering those while they're at college thinking that's what they'll be drinking when they go out later in their lives.”

“Ok, I'm on it. I'll get some of these whiz kids on it and it'll be out to greet them this fall.”

“Ok, but another thing, I want you to ask the whiz kids to be thinking of neat seasonal things we can do with the bottles. Maybe we can have the Fourth of July on a bottle and something for Halloween on another. I want nothing to be sacred.

There's a market of people out there that collect this memorabilia and I want them to be looking at us for their next fix.”

I paused and said, “One other thing, find a cool mascot for these college kids to relate to that we can carry over to younger kids like t-shirts with the mascot, and sweat shirts. I want us to be everywhere and even though they can't drink, I want them to be thinking they're cool by wearing the stuff their older siblings in college are.”

“Ok, that's a go.”

I said, “I absolutely have to go. I was only going to spend a few moments down here and I've already spent nearly an hour.”

“You can do that any time.”

“I probably will. This is neat. I can think and brainstorm and really get ideas down here.”

“Now you know what makes our ads so unique. We have these sessions about once a week.”

“Ok, do me a favor. Get a coke fountain and I'll come to the brainstorming sessions. I want everyone to see I'm a normal guy who can come up with ideas.”

“Ok, that'll get a lot of these guys on your side because when the big agencies come knocking, they'll ask themselves if the owner of that company will be down chatting with them and getting their input directly.

Plus, I'll start holding those meetings on Mondays at ten am so they can go right into lunch with it. We can do that on Monday and announce the pay increases.”

“Ok, how about if we start getting some ham, turkey, chicken breast, and hoagie buns and a wide variety of chips so we can have an extended lunch provided during the brainstorming session. Then they can not be concerned with the session carrying over into lunch, but if they need to leave for lunch with someone else they can, but they'll feel like they're missing out. Either way, I'm not going to hold it against them.”

“The union's going to frown about that. They'll see is as people working through their lunch break.”

“Oh ok, give them an hour off early on Friday to make up for it.”

“Ok, that will be neat. Then they'll see it as something they're really anticipating but you realize it's a union thing and are making it up to them. I bet you it will supercharge all these people and our creativity will go into orbit.”

“Good. Well, I'll see you on Monday. I'll probably bring my secretary. You know her as Cracker Jack. I call her CJ.”

“She's your secretary now!”

“Yeah and man has she blossomed. You're going to hardly recognize the girl you knew because she's got a good thing going and she's making changes.”

“I love her. I'll have to give her a call.”

“She won't be home. I bought her a house today.”

“Really!”

“Yeah, we've got some tricks up our sleeves and we're going to be using them on this place like you wouldn't believe. Do you have an inkpen?”

“Sure”

“Here's her new address. Go out and take a look at the house. I have a feeling I'm going to really like you being on our team.”

“What do you mean?”

“My brother has a lot of spies still in our midst. What I'm doing is I'm creating a team to change things so much that even the reports to my brother aren't going to make sense to him. He's not allowed on the property anymore and I want him wondering what all has changed so much to the point it's going to drive him nuts.”

“What did he do that has him out?”

“My wife was caught on his desk having sex with him. We're now getting a divorce, but my dad was the one with me when we caught him.

He thought he could hit my dad. I beat the tar out of him and my dad threw him out of the place and took the place back over. Now I'm running it with my dad and CJ “Cracker Jack” was called up to be my secretary. I loved her immediately and have taken to her like she's a member of the family.”

“You know she's a lesbian, don't you?”

“Yeah, you'll probably find out some things about me too, but keep them under your hat.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'm not going to tell you here, but if you're around out at her place, you'll find out. It's something I'm not going to broadcast here at work.”

“Ok, so what I'll do is I'll go out there to this place. That's out in Ladue right?”

“Yeah.”

“She's sure come up in the world.”

“Well, she deserves it. Her ideas and her support is getting changes made all over this place. We're tag teaming the old guard and we're going to have a leaner tighter ship when it's over.”

“Good, this place has needed it.”

I left and went back up to my office. As soon as I walked in, I saw Frank sitting there. “Oh man, I'm sorry Frank, I got lost down at advertising and I forgot you were coming in. By the way, I'm Pete.”

“I would have went on down there, but I didn't see a secretary here.”

“She's got the day off. I'm really sorry. Listen, I've got a huge favor to ask you.”

“What's that?”

“First of all, we need to discuss pay for you being the consultant.”

“Ok”

“What did you make at the last place you worked.”

“Forty grand a year.”

“Ok, for your being a consultant, I'll pay you fifty. Then, if we can keep you, I'll get you that job for what it pays which is about that much. What I need is you to check on things in advertising with a new way we're going to be packaging things bottles and get me a change in the machinery we have.

He says the Engineers told him it wouldn't take much changing in machinery, but I don't know what they mean by a little and a lot. What I want you to do is if we need new machines, you light fires under people to get those changes made and I mean fast.”

“This sounds important.”

“Well, here's what we got. If I had time, I'd take a truck and load it and then drive it down a cobble street so you could see the breakage we have with the boxes we have now.

Down in advertising, the Supervisor has a new idea for packaging which is cheaper and lighter. It'll lower the breakage rate, but I need to get the packaging ordered and I need to get the machinery in if it needs to change and I need to run out of the boxes we have now.

That's going to piss off a supplier and I'll probably have to pay a fee of ending a contract early, but it means enough to me to lower breakage that I'll write it off. So, will you look into that for me and let them pump your brain on other things?”

“Sure, if you'll promise me no one will harrass me.”

“I can't promise you that, but if it happens, what I will promise you is that I want you to come to me immediately and take me to the person that did it. Then I'll fire that person immediately. Ok?”

“Are you shitting me?”

“No, what I want from you in return is I want your eyes and ears open. If you see anyone doing any sort of harrassment, I want you to come to me.

Hopefully, you can get a name of someone, but I want their name immediately, so I can go fire them. We're going to have a nice workforce if it takes rehiring every one of these people to do so, but the new work force will know we're not going to tolerate meanness in any form.”

“Ok, that's a deal.”

“Ok, what you do is you go out of this office and you take a right. Then, you go to the elevator and go to the 3^rd floor. I'll call him and let him know who you are and to be expecting you. And, Frank, if they can't get you to the area where that machine is, I'll find a way of getting you there or bringing you that machine. We're going to change this place so anyone can work here, but right now I know some areas people are having to step over pipes. We'll get that changed because I want everyone who wants to work here able to work here.”

“Good, Thanks for giving me the shot.”

“No problem. Thanks for coming.”

My phone rang and I answered it. It was CJ. “How's it going boss?”

“Fine, did you get your paint picked out?”

“Yeah, you didn't tell me I was going to have the whole Maintenance department here cussing you!”

“Fuck 'em. They got told to either go out there and get it done or not to report to work tomorrow.”

“Well, they're all good and pissed at you.”

“Ok, well their boss is now a part of our army and he's about to lay a bunch of them off anyways. The ones that he keeps are going to be happy to work here or they can go and we'll find someone else.”

“What have you been doing down there?”

“Which area? I've went into most areas and I've be cutting staff. It took cleaning house down in Human Resources, but we now have that place cleaned out too.”

“Man, I wish I'd stayed.”

“No, we'll do a walk around tomorrow, but be ready to leave once you're off work tomorrow night. Now, did you go furniture shopping?”

“Not yet. We're about to leave going there.”

“Ok, tell Teresa she can stay home tomorrow to take deliveries but you need to have the house ready on Saturday...Oh man, I just told the guy in advertising you'd be home Saturday.”

“Oh him. The guy's a sweetheart. He's gay.”

“I like him. He's nice. But I gave him your address and told him to go out and see your house on Saturday. You're not going to be there, so I'll have to call him and tell him some other time.”

“Tell him to come by Sunday afternoon.

“Ok Things going ok?”

“Yeah, the phone company came out and the guy was great. He put a phone in every room including five in the basement. He said you wanted this house wired so it had two lines.”

“Yeah, if one doesn't get you, I know the other will!”

She laughed and said, “So what else is going on.”

“You're going to have three secretaries. I don't know who they are, but you'll be over them. The lady who is now over Human Resources has been here forever and she's going to personally interview to get us good reliable trustworthy employees up here.” I paused and said, “By the way, the switchboard is being replaced by an automated system, so no one will be listening in on our calls.”

“It sounds like you're cutting staff like crazy!”

“Well, Ethel, the woman over HR said my brother wanted fifteen thousand workers here even though we only needed nine, so she's going to get the cuts. Then, we'll have to cut the same number at all the plants.

What Jack did was pure stupidity, but now we'll have things a lot more affordable. Now, I've got a question for you!”

“What's that?”

“Who do I contact to get a car to drive me home?”

“Call the maintenance guy. He should have someone over vehicles. If he doesn't, then ask him who you need to contact.”

“Ok, you have fun and I'll see you tomorrow, right?”

“No, what I'm doing is I'm driving Teresa over to your place later so she can pick up that truck. Then, we're taking the truck and going shopping for bedding and linens.”

“Ok, set it up hon and have it ready to fly.”

She laughed and said, “Thanks Pete.”

“No problem hon, you'll earn it.”

I rung off and then called Tom. “Tom, who is over the cars for this place?”

“I am.”

“I need a car to drive me home, could you get me one?”

“Sure, but I've still got to bring up those guys and have you fire them.”

“Ok, come on up then. If they don't want to come, then get Security to go down there and get them out of here. Speaking of that, I need to contact the head of Secuirty and speak with him.”

“I can bring him up with me. His office is right next to mine.”

“Good, I'll see you when you get here.”

I looked around the office and thought to myself of remembering a safe that was in the wall, but couldn't see it any longer. I looked at the wall and saw it looked like it had been made so the safe couldn't be seen. I thought I'd tell Tom to clean that wall out and get me so I could use the safe.

Tom entered with the two men and the head of Security. I looked at the two guys and said, “Guys, have a seat as I need to speak to this man first.”

I went into the office and said, “Tom, grab a seat.” I sat on the edge of the desk and said, “What's your name?”

“Ted Jackson.”

“Ted, earlier today, I called a member of Security over to have him remove some people from HR. He refused to do it. I was informed we are our own Police force as we were here before the city got here. They view us as our own town. Is that correct?”

“Yes, but no, the brewery gave itself to the city in return for them maintaining our streets.”

“Tom, do we still maintain the streets?”

“Yes”

“Then I'll contact legal and pull ourselves from the city so we are our own entity once again.” I looked at the head of Security and said, “From now on, I expect when I call someone in to have them remove people from here, that it's done.

When I expressly request trespassing charges, I expect they be made and the person taken to the county for processing. If the county wants to deny us that due course of action, I'll speak with the prosecuting attorney myself. It seems I can and will post election information on the bulletin boards and it can be whomever runs against him.

Now, I need you to hang on a moment while I do matters with these two men here. They might need to be taken out of here.”

He nodded and said, “Sir.”

“Call me Pete”

“Pete, did you happen to get the name of the guy who refused to do his job?”

“No, but ask Ethel down there in HR. I'm sure she knows. IF she's not fired him herself, I imagine she knows who he is.”

“Ok, I'll do that.”

I went out and said, “Gentlemen, please come in.”

When they came in, I said, “It's came to my knowledge we're only painting streets two weeks a year and you don't work the rest of the year.

I've been told when you're requested to do work in Maintenance, you refuse to do so. From my understanding, this has went on for numerous years instead of weeks, or months.

What I've got to say might come as a shock, but from this afternoon on, our business won't need your services any longer. You can leave work and your final checks will be mailed to you. Is that understood?”

“You can't do that.”

“Yes sir, I can. That man over there told me I couldn't fire him and I told him I could. Until your names are on the ownership papers of this company, you can be fired.”

“The union will fight you.”

“The union and I will come to an understanding. They are going to have a wake up call that tells them I'm moving the brewery to St. Charles county and I rightly don't give a damn if they like the fact I hate it when people sit on their butts and think they can't be fired. You've earned enough money by not working, I'm not about to lay you off and pay you unemployment. Consider yourselves fired.”

The one guy looked at me and said, “It's that bitche's doing.”

“Sir, if you weren't fired, you would be for that comment. I don't know to whom you're referring, but the doing is that man over there. He says he has enough causes to fire you but this office was holding him back. Well, I'm in this office now and believe me, he's now got the permission to fire at will.

He chose to have me break the news to you, so I'm entirely happy to do so. Have a good day and good luck in finding future employment. Don't ever apply for another one of our companies because as long as I'm an owner, I'll see you can't.

Your comment will be noted in your employee file.”

“Fuck you” the man said and stormed out.

I looked at the other guy and said, “Sir, you can leave too.”

“It wasn't me. It was him.”

“Did he force you to make comments and not work?”

“No, he told me nothing could be done.”

“Well, you're old enough to know better. My suggestion is for you to work when you find another job. Good day.”

He turned and walked out.

I turned to Ted and said, “Ted, there's one other thing. I want Security on full alert around this place. My brother will probably attempt to enter this building and that's not going to happen.

If he attempts to enter, arrest him and charge him with corporate espionage and contact the FBI. They'll look at it and give him federal charges. I'll be passing that information along to him directly as my last bit of business today.”

“FBI?”

“Yeah, we are our own town. We can call the FBI in to do investigations.

Do that as the Chief of our police force and if you're not registered as a police force, my suggestion is you get that paperwork filed.”

“We are.”

“Good, at least you've got the right to do that.”

He smiled and said, “I think I'm going to like working for you.”

“Good. Now, one thing I want you to know Tom is those meetings on Monday are going to be held up here. You can still meet the guys down there, but I want it up here so we can all sit and have an hour to work toward the future of this place.

What we're going to do is we're going to hear everything everyone is doing and you all will be made a part of knowing what the goals are of each department each week.

Also, there is a safe in that wall. I don't know who ordered it covered, but I'd like that wall taken out and access to the safe be made possible again.”

“Your brother ordered it sealed when he couldn't get the combination of it.”

“Ok, then contact the manufacturer and get the combination. IF you can't contact them, then get a locksmith or a safe cracker up here to get it done. A lot of important papers are going to be in this office and I want access to it.”

“Ok, we should really get that door back on it's hinges so you can lock it.”

“If you do that, I want clear glass in all those panels. The days of people having sex in this office are over.”

He smiled and laughed. “I was told about that.”

“Get me the name of the officer who witnessed that. I'm filing for divorce and if she wants to fight me on it, I'll need to subpoena him in to testify.”

“Ok, it's Mark Andrews. He's a guy that has worked her for five years. He said he's never seen anything like that.”

“Me neither and she was my wife. To think my brother paid her on the payroll of this company to have sex is beyond me.

Apparently, she was giving him something I wasn't receiving because I sure never found it worth giving a cent.”

The both laughed and I said, “Ted, you're invited to the Monday morning meetings. Tell all the department heads to meet up here and we'll have meetings with them. Then, I'll notify all the other shift supervisors we'll be doing the same thing.”

Ted nodded and said, “You're changing things. Will I have the right to fire at will too?”

“Yeah. And let me tell you now that anyone in this plant who makes any derogatory remarks about anyone else will be fired immediately. That includes you and me.

Don't do it and be ready to support me on it when the policy comes out. The Ad section is making up the signs now.

That includes comments by people when they read the signs It's going to be a zero tolerance policy for behavior that infringes upon anyone else.”

“Ok, that's a good idea. I've seen situations where it's led to arguments and fights. I don't like it and my hands have been tied.”

“Well, consider your hands untied on these matters. One other thing Ted”

“What's that?”

“We're putting up suggestion boxes in each department. It will be your job to explain it to your men.

The best way for me to tell you this is to tell you to ask the workers to put themselves in my place and ask themselves what they'd do to change this place and make it better to work and get more production.”

“Oh man, I've got a lot of ideas for the safety of workers.

One of them is to lock the doors at night. This place is left wide open and it's insane. Someone could come in here and plant a bomb and we'd all be blown away.”

“Ok, put that on a suggestion sheet, but do that starting tonight.

Tell the guards to start patrolling the grounds and tell them I'll have them some vehicles to patrol with.”

“We've got them, but I'll start having the grounds patrolled.”

“One other thing Ted. When someone makes a report as to something getting stolen from their vehicle or purse, I want a report taken and I want it sent to me. Make it clear and concise as to what was taken and the value.

If it's personal photos, ask the person how much it cost for that photo to be taken. If it was a driver's license in the wallet, then put the value of the replacement of that license and add a couple of dollars for the cost of the gasoline and the time associated with them having to replace it.

Put a value on everything and I'll get them that money returned. I want all the workers to know we care and I don't want anyone to think they're a victim without us coming in to support them. BUT, I want you to look high and low and to fingerprint everything. I want proof so when we find the culprit, we prosecute and we get a conviction.

What I'll do is I'll ask the court for that person to reimburse us as a matter of restitution.”

“That's really going to be nice. I've never thought of that, but I'll be happy to start doing that.”

“Don't publicize it, but I want you to know the reason I'm having you fill out the paperwork.”

“Ok, that's a good thing you'll be doing.”

“No, it's what I want people to start thinking of this company. I want them to know we have a corporate heart. If the worker that's had their things stolen knows that, they'll look at working here and will be asking themselves if other places do that to which the answer will be no.”

“You're right there.” he said smiling.

“Also, tell your guards if a homeless person is sleeping on our streets in our area, that we're to take them in and give them a bed for the night.

What I'll do is I'll speak to Ethel about putting them on a list for future employment. I don't want that to get out otherwise we'll have every homeless person in the country here, but that's what I want to happen.

We'll have some rooms made up with beds and bathrooms in them so they can stay, but I want all the office doors in this place locked at night and those people aren't to be allowed to walk around..”

“Ok, we'll start doing that. I don't think it's happened, but when it does, we'll have a course of action. I'll get the message passed around.”

“Ok, now Tom, I need a car to go home.”

He smiled and said, “You've had a full day!”

“Yeah, but I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more of these before they start to get easier.”

Chains of Love

ab

Notes From Retta:

As you can see, a lot of my personal work ethics come out in my writing.

Most of you aren't aware, but I had a business and many of my policies for different situations came out in the writing of this chapter.

Pete Stein is a fictional character, but it's my hopes when people take a look at this story they think they'd like to work for him and possibly, just maybe some day when you have a business, you can carry some of these across.

With that said, a lot of these workplace reforms are now common practice. I'm quite familiar with the harrassment in a workplace from personal experience. Interestingly, the offender was a woman with a judgemental trash mouth.

Even to this day, when I repeat what names were called, people are amazed the company was allowing the behavior. To give a hint, mix and match the beginnings “dumb”, “ignorant”, and/or “stupid” followed by “cock sucker” “mother fucker”, or “son of a bitch” and you have an idea of what AccuTherm Inc. allowed to happen.

In their entire history of employing people, only two people have ever gotten unemployment from them. I am one and not only that, I got a settlement in the six figures for that harrassment.....Thanks Kevin.

I am putting this in my notes because I want you to know one word is too many in the workplace. Take a look at it online and you'll see legal precedence under workplace bullying.

“From My Keyboard To Your Heart”,

Retta

RettaMichaels@Gmail.com

Copyright Notice - Copyright © 2008 by RettaMichaels

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“From My Keyboard To Your Heart”,”'Retta”,“RettaMichaels”.“Retta”,“Rhett”, and “Rhette” are all Trademark of RettaVonnMichaels L.L.C. None of these trademarks may be used, or authorized without consent.

Disclaimer: All individuals depicted are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons, locations, or incidents is purely coincidental.