Chapter 7

Joe’s construction workers had everything in place by quitting time on Friday. I had twelve new 3 D printers set up and running. 24 more stations were waiting on machines. This was twelve more than I planned for. I belatedly went for a permit to put up walls for the packing and break room. The bathroom was plumbed, but not hooked up. The stations were no problem for Becker had a permit that was still in force for those. I made out the permit for the rest of the construction and it wasn’t even necessary to have it viewed for approval.

The contract work I was going to do for Henry arrived and two small prototype jobs came in that Becker had estimated. These were fed into the queue. Directions came from Joe Graziola in what order we were to begin working on the 267 building models we had the contract on.

Kittery decided she would quit work and gave her notice. She wouldn’t be going back to work for the concern. She was well liked and every one of her co-workers wished her well. They all knew her new husband had just purchased a business and she wanted to help him until she had her baby.

There wasn’t much for Jenny to do yet, so she painted the walls in the shipping area and the break room. I felt flush with money so I installed a large refrigerator to keep lunches in. Someday if my crew was large enough, I would put in a sandwich machine. I turned some of the bookkeeping entry over to Kitten. My accountant, Sam was an easy-going person and he showed her how to set us up with better method than the one John Becker had used.

I kept two of my best crew on coding prototypes. The four others settled in and all were watching three of the production printers easily. I promised raises to everyone on the first of February. With the half day working Saturday, they were making nearly $200 more dollars a week. I ordered 12 more printers and began searching for operators.

I went to the employment agency. I engaged two men. One lasted the day and said he wouldn’t be back. “This is a slave shop. You work your help too hard and are paying just a little over minimum wage. I wouldn’t work on Saturday for any amount of money, anyway.”

“I guess I’m glad you aren’t staying with that attitude. See my wife in the office and she will pay you for the day.” The second worker had been struggling all day to learn on one machine with Gary teaching him.

Gary said he thought the new man, Murphy, was a slow worker and would eventually make good help. He was a little older and trying very hard. “Give him a couple of weeks and I think he will get there. He only has a high school education, not like us who went to college. He does have a family and will do his damndest to come up to the production we need from our workers. He has been working on a farm and has developed an allergy against hay.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll go back and see if I can find another two or three people. Whomever I hire will have to be running at least two machines after three weeks or we won’t keep up when we finish the backlog that Becker left us. We need at least six machines in production to fulfill our contracts.

I went back to the employment agency. “Sorry, we don’t have any prospects for you. You can check back next week. I suppose you could try at the closest Indian village. Most of the Indians willing to work have positions in the casinos on the reservation.”

“That’s an idea. I understand the Indians have high unemployment. The job doesn’t have to me a male. I would entertain having women working for me if men weren’t available. I’ll check it out.” I received directions to a reservation located several miles from Helena.

I was about three miles from my destination. I came upon a pickup truck beside the road. Two women were standing outside as if waiting for a ride. I slowed down and they saw me as a Gentile and turned away. It was very cold and they were well bundled up. I stopped and asked, “Is your vehicle broken down?”

“It’s out of gas.”

“I’m heading for the reservation, can I offer you a ride?”

“It is cold, we could ride with you, I guess.”

“Get in.”

“We have groceries. Can we take them too?”

“Do you need help loading them?”

“No, we don’t have that many.”

I turned the heat on high to get the two women warm. I asked if there was someone I could speak with that knew if anyone wanted to work in a small factory. “By the way my name is Howard Prentice.”

“What kind of factory do you operate, Mr. Prentice.” I explained what I produced and what the machines were like.

“Our brother might. Our parents died recently and he is managing the household. He was hoping it would be us two who found work because we have two younger brothers and a sister in her teens who is old enough to help.”

“Do you two have an education? You speak well.”

“We both have associates degrees. It is all basic stuff, but we did well. It was a grant program from your government. We were hoping to go to college, but with our parents gone it isn’t possible.”

“Is your brother home?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to talk to him. Maybe we can work something out. What are your names? I know I shouldn’t ask, but how old are you?”

“I’m Sherry Wolf, twenty-two, and Sheila is twenty-three. Our brother is named Steve and he is twenty-six.”

“Are you familiar with computers? In this job everything begins and ends with computers?”

“We’re both pretty good or were when we had access to one. We don’t own one and only rarely get to use one. Steve has a phone so we get to use that sparingly.”

“If you worked in Helena would you have to be home every night? It’s quite a drive.”

“No, we could stay with our uncle. He works in Montana Lil’s Casino. It is in East Helena.”

“You know, I believe I would like to interview both of you for the jobs I have to fill. We’ll talk to your brother about it. You did say you were looking for work.”

“Yes, we certainly are.” I pulled onto a narrow street that hadn’t been paved. Sometime in the past, there was a thaw and the street had turned to mud and then frozen. About midway to the end of the street, Sherry indicated this was their home. It was a sizable doublewide, but old. The two women opened the door and walked in. They removed their coats.

I glanced at them. Both girls were about 5 feet, 3 inches tall, eyes of dark brown and their hair was short of being dark black. Their bodies were solid, round with somewhat stubby legs. You could define their breasts enough so you could tell they were women. Their faces were round and not unattractive. Their skin color wasn’t white but with a brownish tint.

“Steve, we ran out of gas about three miles back. This man gave us a ride. He wants to talk to you because he may have a job for us.”

“You girls know you aren’t supposed to get into a stranger’s car.”

“I know, but no one went by for over an hour. We were terribly cold. Besides Sheila was in the back seat behind him and I was beside him. We would have been able to go on the warpath if he didn’t behave.” Sherry smiled when she said this and looked at me as she did so.

This made me laugh and then Steve chuckled. “He’s alright then?”

“We think so.”

“You’re looking for workers? Why would you consider an Indian, or for that matter women?”

“Why not? I’ll hire anyone who can do the work I need done. I haven’t owned my factory very long, but I do have a lot of work that has to be completed by May. My wife will be in and out of the factory for awhile because she is pregnant and expecting in early March. I would like to interview Sheila and Sherry. They sound like they could handle the work I have. It isn’t heavy, but they may find it boring. I have four college men who will be working close to them. I have two more men who do the coding of the work.”

“Please explain what you do.”

I did, they would be operating machines and told them that new hires would be earning just a little above minimum wage. “However, as soon as I can, I will increase your wages. There is also one new hire I hired yesterday that will be learning along with you. I also need one more person if you know of someone for me to interview. That person does have to be computer literate, though.

“What do you do, Steve?”

“Now? I keep the family together. I help around the village here fixing up other peoples cars. No one seems to have a good one. I do a little plumbing. The only one who could do that before this, left here a couple of years ago. I helped him and the job has fallen to me. I do a little of everything. I guess you could say I am a little mechanically inclined.

“I’m sure we might be able to find someone. Sheila and Sherry have a bit more education than most of us who live here, but they all keep in touch with those they went to school with. The girls can tell you if there is anyone who would make you another person you could hire after they get trained.”

“That’s good. For yourselves, I will show you around when you come in to be interviewed. I hope you can make it soon.”

Sheila turned to her brother, “Steve, phone Uncle Rufus to see if we can stay over tonight. We could ride in with Mr. Prentice because he doesn’t live very far from Uncle Rufus.”

“You could take the pickup if we got gas into it.”

I spoke, “Steve, why don’t you get a can for gas? I’ll wait for you and we’ll get it running. Let your sisters ride home with me. They can ride in with my wife tomorrow to see whether the job is anything they are interested in. If it isn’t, my wife can drive them back here.”

Steve asked Sherry if she had any money left from getting groceries. She had three dollars and some change. Gas was cheaper on the reservation, but three dollars wouldn’t buy much gas.

“I’ll fill your can. Let’s go get it.” Steve found the can and we drove over one street to the pump. “Here use this, and you can keep the remainder and you can pay me back when you can.”

“That’s not right. The girls will have to almost have to work for you. I don’t want them beholding to you.”

“Don’t tell them. They aren’t obligated at all. You have to get your pickup, anyway.”

“Thanks, Mr. Prentice. I will pay you; that’s a promise.”

“I believe you.”

After a phone call, Jim Rufus, the uncle, said he would welcome his nieces and they could stay with him. I met the younger sister and the two younger brothers. They didn’t say much. Sandy, the girl, told the two sisters that were going with me to be careful. Sandy looked concerned. The two boys didn’t say anything, but looked worried that their sisters were going off with a stranger. I could understand. The girls had loaded back packs and the four of us were soon pulling up to the stranded pickup.

“Steve, we’ll call when we get to Uncle’s. This may be our one chance to make some money. We sure need it.” Steve shook my hand and hugged his sisters. The girls were quiet and didn’t say very much on the trip into town. I didn’t ask many questions, for it might seem as if I was prying.

I asked, “Would you like to meet my wife? That’s our home up ahead. She was at the factory when I left this morning.”