Chapter 49

Cindy and I were out the door early the next morning. The first part of the actual remodeling of the offices was getting underway, and she was wanting to get in early enough to be there to oversee the work being done.

I had already fielded twenty complaints from various people, mostly about them being told they needed to relocate. I wished I had an extra dollar for every time someone had told me things weren't done this way at Macklinson's. I told all of them the same thing, that Cindy was the person to speak to if they had any complaints about the changes being made. Meanwhile, I carefully reviewed and approved every change that would make it to the contractor for implementation. I thought she'd done an excellent job with her design plan, and I made sure to tell her so, often.

At nine o'clock, Jesse Macklinson showed up outside my office door, wearing a nice clean shirt and new looking Levi's. He had even gotten a haircut since I'd last seen him. That had been when he came in to quit on the afternoon they all did. He'd looked scruffy then, as well as acting surly towards me when he told me where I could stick my damn job. This time, he looked better, also happier. Gene had already mentioned that all of the boys had been unprepared for the loss of their incomes following their hasty actions.

"Jesse, just the man I wanted to see. Come in, have a seat." I waited for him to sit down, then I started right in with my apology. I apologized first for any inconvenience my lack of communication skills might have caused him, and for my confusion concerning who his father was. I didn't apologize for the comments about his attitude being too much like his uncle's. "I asked Gene to have you stop by, hoping we could figure out a way to put aside our past differences and get you back here working again." I stopped speaking and left the rest of it up to him. I didn't know what Gene or his father had told him, and I wanted to see how resourceful he was when it came to communicating with me.

"I do want to come back to work, we all do."

"Well, good. If you do come back, what kind of work do you see yourself doing?"

"I thought I'd go back working the line at night, so Donny could come back and supervise the day shift line."

"I think we're already set for the line supervisor jobs. Miss Kitty has been doing well running the day line, and Donny says he's just as happy working the late shift. I've got people from Nashville that can spell them on their days off." Jesse started looking all around the office, a bit restless, I thought. He also began to look worried.

"Uncle Gene said you might be using me to keep things straight with some of the others?"

"I said that to him, because Cindy mentioned she thought you might be the best one for helping me communicate better with your cousins. She thinks you have a lot of potential."

"I talked with Kyle, and he said we'd all be taking a pay cut?" Jesse had abruptly changed the subject on me. It was easy to see he was attempting to get information from me to share with his family. This was tempting, but I wanted to save this discussion for the elder Macklinson men.

"I've been reviewing all the pay records, but I haven't really decided what to do. I'm going to do something, make adjustments, but I want to have an opportunity to think about it first, and get some ideas before I make any final determinations."

Jesse looked disappointed with my response. That was all right with me. He was here to be interviewed by me, not the other way around. He probably already knew, from Gene, that I was going to allow him to come back to work.

"The pay isn't as important to me as getting back to work is, Mr. Parsons. I'm ready to work wherever you need me."

"Good. For now, until I decide what I'm going to do about pay, we'll keep yours where you were when you quit before. The first task I have for you might be a hard one for you to do, but it has to be done. I need you to go talk to Kyle and ask him for a list of whichever of his cousins, or his brother, he's decided I shouldn't hire back again. He and I talked about this already, because he told me he didn't think he could fire some people, even if I told him he had to do it. Those are the names that will be on the list he'll give you. Don't go see those people. All the others, I want you to go visit them, and find out if they're ready to come back to work yet. Can you do that?"

"What about my father, or my uncles? Are their names liable to be on that list?"

"No. They'll be in a separate category from the younger people. If they come back to work, and then someone needs to let them go, I'll do it. This is only the younger ones that Kyle might put on the list. I think Wayne is probably already back at work, because Kyle told me he needed him, and of course Kyle and Steve. With you back here, that leaves only three left that you might need to talk to. If Kyle puts your name on his list, you better come back here right away. If not, you can leave and go talk to whoever isn't on Kyle's list. Kyle is downstairs now, talking to some of the loading people. Why don't you go try to find him before he leaves?"

Jesse left right away. He didn't look too happy. I was pretty sure Kyle wasn't going to put anyone on the list. I was fairly certain that this had been discussed with all the Macklinson people in the week since I'd first had my talk with him. Since Gene hadn't mentioned it when we had our talk at lunch, I figured they'd worked things out concerning what to do about that.

Ten minutes later, Jesse returned, a big grin on his face. He told me that Kyle had told him he didn't have anyone whose name should be on the list. He surprised me by asking me a number of questions about what he could tell his brother and cousins when he spoke with them. Most of these were concerning the jobs they'd be doing, and when they could start work again.

I told him they could start the next day, but they needed to see me so I could give them a temporary assignment. I mentioned that I needed to talk to the people coming back, and to some other people as well, before deciding what I wanted the rehires doing. He then asked me if it was true that everyone still had their work benefits, even though they'd quit. I told him that was true.

At noon, Jesse called me, wanting to know if his brother could come in that afternoon to speak with me. Billy Ray had worked with Phil, his father, doing maintenance on the night shift. By all reports, he hadn't been well suited for the tasks he'd been given.

No one had come right out and said it to me, but Billy Ray appeared to be the one Macklinson that some might consider less than successful in his work history. I picked up on this by listening to some of his peers, and from his relatives as well.

Kyle had laughed when telling me about Billy Ray's failures as a route salesman, and Donny, the line supervisor, had told me that Billy Ray had ruined several large batches of batter when he had been working in the mixing room. I told Jesse to tell Billy Ray I could see him at two thirty.

Fifteen minutes later, Cindy came to my office, and invited me to take her out to lunch.

I knew she was extremely busy, and I could hear hammers and saws working over at the other end of the administrative floor.

I was busy as well, trying to finish a report on I was doing on our six month projected vending sales from this office. I needed it for Joyce, and for my father. I put the report I'd been working on aside, smiling when I told her I'd like taking her out to eat very much.

Not surprisingly, the main topic of our conversation over lunch turned out to be Billy Ray Macklinson. I heard about how nice a person he was, and about how helpful he'd always been to everyone. I felt like she was trying to set me up to date him, not give him his job back.

I found out his wife's name, Maravelle, the names of his two young children, Frank and April. Not once did she mention any of Billy Ray's possible work related shortcomings. I listened for fifteen minutes before I finally had to stop her.

"Cindy, do you have some good reason for telling me all this personal information about Billy Ray? I'm considering hiring him back, not marrying him."

She looked nervous, not looking me directly in my face like she'd been beginning to do, more and more, as our relationship blossomed. I knew someone had called her, someone in the family, trying to get her to smooth the way for Billy Ray. I wasn't expecting her to admit it to me though.

"Daddy called me. He asked me to explain about Billy Ray to you. He thinks you might judge Billy Ray too pessimistically"

"This is what you've been doing for fifteen minutes?"

"Don't be like that, Kenny. Daddy is trying to help you, that's why he called me. Uncle Phil is worried about Billy Ray, about what it might do to his self confidence, if he's the only one who isn't permitted to rejoin the company. They want you to hire him back, and put him to work doing something he knows how to do. He's a good driver. Daddy says you should let Billy Ray drive the grain cart. He told me to tell you that Phil will realize you're serious about wanting to get along with the family, after you do this for Billy Ray."

"That's what Gene thinks, but what does Cindy think?" I thought it was a fair question. She had accused me the day before of being gypped by Gene. I wanted to hear what she'd say if I asked her what she thought of my going along with this suggested move. She didn't answer right away.

In any event, I was already planning on doing away with the grain cart and the open bins. My Dad was sending down one of the big grain dumpers we used at our short term grain buildings over at all the other plant sites. They held about eight times as much as one of the little bins we were using now, and they were easier, faster, and a lot safer for us to use. With them, we could do all our loading and unloading through the fill hoses on the sides of the storage building and the top of the dumper.

I had a crew coming down later in the week, and we'd already filed our building specs and blueprints. As soon as we got approval of the plans, we'd commence the construction of our new storage building.

"If it was me, I'd do this for them, Kenny. They already know you're going to cut back on their salaries. If you do this, it would make it easier for them to accept that. Just make sure they know that this was you making a friendly gesture to them. They know about Billy Ray. They don't expect you to have many plans or uses for him."

I was troubled by her saying that. Was Billy Ray going to end up being a problem for me? Was he going to be a dead weight I'd have to carry in return for getting the desired Macklinson cooperation?

"I thought giving that land to your Dad was a friendly gesture, but you said it was only me proving to them that I didn't know what I was doing. I think you said they'd get the company back if I kept doing things like that. So, which is it?"

"Kenny, this is how we do things. We're a family, and we take care of each other. Billy isn't dumb or anything. He just hasn't found whatever he's good at yet. Except for driving. He's a really good driver. He can drive almost anything. He used to race some when he was younger, until he had all those crashes." She wasn't helping her case much. Did I want a driver who had crashes?

"He's coming to see me this afternoon. I said I'd talk with him. You tell your father this company isn't a bottomless pit where he can stash all his unproductive relatives. I'll expect to see some signs of Macklinson cooperation, and very soon too."

"Kenny, all of us love Billy Ray to pieces. We all want to help him however we can. You helping him will be another good sign to all of us. You'll see, they'll take good notice of you doing this."

We went back to the office, with Cindy hurrying right away, anxious to get back to overseeing the construction work. I was sure, even as busy as she was, she'd somehow manage to call home to let Gene know that her lunch mission had been a complete success.

Billy Ray was led in by Danielle, promptly at two thirty. He and I had a nice, if a somewhat rambling, chat for the first twenty minutes or so. We talked about Cindy, Patty, Kyle, the NFL team in Atlanta, and the fact that both of us had daughters who were named April. When he saw I wasn't the one who was going to bring the topic around to his being re-employed, he went ahead and brought the subject up himself.

"Jesse came to see me this morning. He said I could maybe come back to work?"

"Did you want to come back to work here, Billy Ray?"

"Well, sure I do. Daddy told me I was foolish to have quit like I did, but all the rest of them did it, so I did it too. He said I should go back and ask for my job back, especially after Kyle and Stevie got hired on again. Vellie, my wife? She's been after me to go back too, so I wanted to come right in here to ask you if I could maybe start back tonight?"

This far into our conversation, I still hadn't detected any obvious reason why Billy Ray might be any different from his brother, or from any of his cousins. He wasn't as quick as Kyle was, but not too many other people were either. He talked fine, and he seemed personable to me. I remembered when he had come in to quit, he'd seemed upset that he was doing it.

"Someone told me you were a good driver, Billy Ray. Is that true?"

"Maybe not for racing, but for anything else I am. Is that what you want me to do?"

"I'm not sure if it is yet. Have you ever driven a grain dumper?"

"Like the grain cart? Sure, I've driven that a lot. Nothing to one of those."

"No. This is a big front draining dump truck with a feed hose over the top of the tank. It's like a dump truck, but it lifts up and forward with a gravity feed to the grain storage shed. It operates on hydraulics, and you need to get out and set the connections for loading and unloading. Its like operating one of those tow trucks, where you use hydraulics to lift and pull the car onto the bed of the tow truck."

"I've driven tow trucks, both kinds, and I've operated hydraulic lifts before too. I don't see where I'd have any problem. Can I see it for a minute or two? If I can see it, I can tell you whether I can drive it or not."

I explained to Billy Ray that we didn't have the dumper yet, but he could see it before I ever went and assigned it to a different driver.

"Is there a different job you think you'd be better suited for than driving, Billy?"

"I like to paint and draw, but there's no call for that working here. That's what I'm best at."

"Really? What do you like to paint?"

"I can paint almost anything, if I can see it for a little while first. I like doing portraits, and painting pictures of race cars. I do people, horses, dogs and cats. Did you see the painting of my Granddaddy Tom, hanging over the fireplace at Gene's house? I painted that when I was a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen. I'm not a real artist or anything, because I can only paint what I can see. I don't paint things from my mind, like the real artists do. I need a picture of what I'm supposed to paint. I'm better off if I can see whatever I'm painting, in person though, from all the different sides."

I didn't remember seeing the painting he was referring to. I might have seen it, but if I did, I hadn't paid attention or even noticed it. It was interesting to find out about his having something like art as a hobby. I made a note to make sure I looked for that painting the next time I was over at Gene's house. I had another idea while I was thinking about the painting at Gene's.

"Billy Ray, do you think you could paint a picture on one of the walls of the new conference room when its ready? I'm thinking of having you do a picture of your grandfather, with his sons and Patty around him. Could you do that, do you think?"

"How they all are now, or like they were in the picture from back when Aunt Glenda got married?"

"You have another aunt?"

"Not now, but I did. She was older than Uncle Gene, Aunt Patty, and Daddy, but she died from the pneumonia. I wasn't even born yet when she died. It was a nice picture, taken at the wedding reception. They were all standing together, outdoors. I could do a painting easy from that. How big would you want it to be?"

"Like a big wall mural. Maybe seven or eight feet high, and as wide as you need it to make it proportional. There's twelve foot ceilings over where you'd be painting it. I think they're planning on building the room out, either tomorrow, or sometime over the weekend. How long would something like that take you?"

"If you wanted me to paint it on the wall, I'd need to prepare the wall first. You're talking wall board right?" I nodded that I was. "I could probably do it in a week, maybe a little less. Did you want me to include Aunt Glenda?"

I thought about it. I decided to include her, because she wasn't any less alive than Tom Macklinson was, and if it had been my sister, I'd have wanted her included in the picture. I told him to go ahead and paint it with her in it, but to put all the men in the back, with their father, and both girls right in front of him.

"I want you working on painting that picture, Billy Ray, but I don't want you telling anyone what you're doing. Not even your wife. I want it to be a surprise for them. If they ask you what you're doing, tell them you're training to be a grain dumper driver. I'll get my wife, Joyce, to send us a manual for operating the dumpers. That will show you how everything works. When it gets here, I'll have whoever drives it down show you everything about driving and operating them. After you get a few chances to drive it you'll know what to do. That will be your main job, but, you only need to drive the dumper for a few hours a week. What else do you like doing?"

"I'm just going to get a few hours of work? I need something with regular hours, like before. Did you mean what I like for work, or something like fishing, hunting or drawing?"

"You'll get enough hours, Billy Ray, don't worry. This is full time work we're talking about. You'll do something else when you aren't busy operating the dumper. That other question, about what you like to do? I meant do for work."

"I'm good with numbers. I can count most things."

I looked at him, wondering if he could really be that good with numbers. It seemed doubtful that he would be. Again, he talked fine, and he seemed able to focus well enough. I didn't have too much trouble accepting that he was a decent driver, because Cindy had said he was. I could even believe that he might be a decent amateur artist.

I thought about calling Patty, to ask her if she thought she might be able to use Billy Ray with her over in accounting. I didn't want to get myself off on a bad foot with her even before she joined the company. She wasn't even scheduled to start with us until the next month. I was just about to ask him if he had any interest or training in bookkeeping or accounting when I had a much different idea.

One of the things I didn't particularly like about all the trading I was doing was the account reconciliations this necessitated. I usually spent too much of my time working on doing that, after almost every trading session.

Even with the computer, this was a very time consuming activity. I had to keep up with it, because it needed to be done so I'd be able to keep track of what I was doing. This wasn't just for keeping track of trading profits, it was also for the grain brokering I was doing. I was constantly adjusting my open positions with the grain needs in mind.