Chapter 81

I walked down the street to the front door of Silverman Cabinets. As I pushed it open I heard a bell ring, similar to what a small store might have in the first half of the last century or before. I looked up and saw a real live bell attached to the metal frame above the door. Opening the door pushed a lever that was attached to some kind of spring that rang the bell. When the door closed, it raised the lever again and the bell rang.

There were a couch, a couple of chairs and a long table in front of the couch with some magazines on it. At a glance, they looked like old issues of Time and Newsweek. There was also a curved counter for a receptionist. The customer furniture looked old but clean. I looked over the counter and saw a fairly modern phone with a console full of buttons and something I hadn't seen for a long time: a typewriter. There was no computer but I noticed a fax machine against the back wall. It had thermal paper, so it had to be at least five years old.

By the time I was done checking everything out, it must have been three minutes since I came in and rang the bell twice. If they weren't out yet, they weren't coming. I pushed through a double swinging door and went into the factory. As soon as I cracked the door, I heard the sounds I'd heard over the phone. I examined the door and saw that it was sealed pretty tight with rubber flaps along all the edges of both doors. The edges that were on the frame had insulation similar to what is on the old wooden windows they built years ago. There was no way that bell would be heard past these doors.

There were eight or ten people working about the place, most of them dressed in bib overalls. They all wore goggles and earplugs. I saw Claude about fifteen feet away from me, measuring a sheet of wood on a big metal table, taking notes as he did.

I walked over and stood on the other side of the table from him until he looked up to see who was there. He smiled at me, then pointed to his goggles and earplugs and the door I'd just come in. He started walking towards the door and motioned for me to follow him.

As soon as the doors closed to the lobby, it got quiet again. He raised the goggles so they were on top of his head, then pulled the plugs out of his ears and let them drop. They were the ends of a loop around his neck and bounced on his chest before settling down.

"You aren't supposed to go in there without ear and eye protection. The insurance company will have a fit if they find out." He went behind the reception counter and pulled out a box with several pairs of safety goggles and set it in front of me. Then he gave me a small plastic box that had a pair of earplugs similar to the ones he was wearing.

"The first thing I need is for someone to call the parking attendant so Jack can park the car and come in."

"Don't tell me. Not on the list."

"Right. I decided it would be better to come in here than try and argue with the guy."

"Well, come on. Let's go see if we can talk some sense into him."

We walked down the street and Claude talked the attendant into letting Jack in, then told him to issue him a temporary parking pass to us for the next two weeks. Claude had to show the guard his employee badge before he'd listen to him.

The three of us headed back to the shop.

"You seem to have settled in quickly," I said to Claude.

"Once you know what you're doing, it's not that hard. The guys he's got working for him are OK but they're limited in what they can do. They really needed a foreman who had been around. You could feel the relief after I got introduced and worked with them for a couple of hours. I think George was pushing them pretty hard and a lot of them were uncomfortable with it. That's probably why he's lost so many workers."

"What's with that guard?" Jack said.

"Oh, he's OK. People try to get out of paying for parking by using our lot. But the big thing is that's also the entrance to the loading dock. If the wrong person got in, they could walk right into the warehouse."

"I could have done that from the front door," I said.

"I'm talking about the stuff that's all ready to ship. Although some of the wood in the shop is pretty valuable."

He pushed the door and held it open for us. He walked us over to the counter and held out the box of safety goggles.

"It's a good thing there's nothing good to steal in here or it would be long gone," he said, tossing a pack of earplugs to Jack.

He led us into the work area over to some shelves that had big sheets of wood on them. Jack started to take pictures.

Claude called over one of the workers and the two of them slid a big sheet off a shelf and stood it up. They went over to another shelf and did the same thing.

"What do you think, Jill?"

I looked at the two of them. I wrapped my fingers around one and felt the texture with my thumb. I moved over and did the same with the second piece. Both looked similar but for some reason the second one seemed more attractive.

"They're both beautiful. They feel 'woody', not like plywood. Solid, almost alive. This one over here," I said, pointing, "is more appealing. I can't put my finger on it. That one's a little more busy."

"What about the grain?" he said.

"Oh, that's it. It's almost even on this one. The other's going in different directions, depending where you look."

"They're both good quality oak. The one you like is quarter sawn."

"What's that?"

"The simple explanation is that the log is cut perpendicular to the flow of the rings. That's what makes the grain even like that. The problem is, you waste a lot of wood cutting it that way instead of traditionally. That means it's more expensive."

"Will it be this color when it's done?"

"No. Once the pieces are all cut and fitted, we stain and polish. George and his wife will have to look at the computer simulation with the quarter sawn oak and decide what finish they want. I could make the finished cabinets almost as light as this or almost black or anywhere in between."

"There's a lot involved in this."

"Well, once these cabinets are in, they're going to stay in. They'll last as long as the house does."

George came out and put his hands on our shoulders.

"Claude taking good care of you?" he said.

"Fine," I said.

"Great. I've got a million things to do. I'll see you later. Why don't you just coordinate anything you need with Claude from now on?"

"That's fine with me," I said. "But I'll need to get with you for any decisions about the actual site."

"Oh, yeah. Fine, fine. I'll talk to you later."

He left and went over to talk to one of the guys working at a drill press.

Claude took us back to the table he'd been working at when I arrived. I looked at the piece of wood and said, "That's quarter sawn."

"Very good. We have a limited amount of it and I'm trying to figure out how to cut it so that the grains will match as closely as possible. Once I've got the doors and the outside sides done, we can use regular oak for the rest."

"The rest?" I said.

"Sure. Each cabinet is essentially a box. The parts we're most concerned about are the doors and the edges that are going to end up outside. Look, in a typical kitchen you've got two sets of cabinets. For the high cabinets you might have two of them side by side, then a couple of short ones above the refrigerator, then two or three side by side. You can see the doors on all of them but the only sides you see are at each end plus the lower part of each one next to the refrigerator. Under the counter, you'll have several side by side and you'll just see the far outsides plus the doors. I'm not saying we don't use good wood for the rest of the construction but it doesn't need to be quarter sawn. The standard oak will work just fine."

It was after five when we finally got to Sam's. As we were making our way through the parking lot to the front door, I said, "Myra, it's going to be too late for you to go home, feed the kids and come back. Why don't you just eat with us. I'll get another pizza."

"Let me pay for ours."

"We need something to drink. You can handle that."

"OK."

"All right. I'll take all three kids and we'll get the pizzas. You guys get your card and your photo paper and stuff and we'll all meet in front of the cash registers.

I got a cart and put Billy in the seat. "In or out?" I said to the girls.

They looked at each other, then Laurie said, "In."

I lifted her up and stood her in the cart, then did the same with Annette. They managed to sit down, facing each other. Billy was driving his truck over the handrail. I zigged when we got in and drove past the old guy checking the receipts at the exit.

"I didn't know we had any kids left," he said, winking at me.

"These were the last three. This boy's a little too young so I'm saving him till Christmas but I plan on having these two for Thanksgiving."

He laughed and shook his head.

When I told Jack I'd meet him up front, I planned on having to wait a while. The new membership was bound to take some time, then the actual shopping and waiting in line would add to it. What I didn't take into account was the typical Southern Californian's attitude this close to a major holiday.

Sam's Club, pizza line, 5:15, two days before Thanksgiving. It all adds up to a major wait. It seemed like everybody for miles around decided they didn't want to cook but they wanted to eat at home. Or they didn't want to be bothered going somewhere else for dinner and would eat at one of the tables at the front of the store.

We were fine. Billy had his truck and the girls had each other, after I assured them I'd been kidding with the exit guy. I saw three disgusted people leave during the 20 minutes I waited for our pizzas. I heard a lot of grumbling from some of those who chose to wait but most of us realized that neither leaving nor complaining was going to fill our bellies any faster.

There were two people in front of us when Myra came over.

"We decided to shop first. Jack's over at customer service, waiting in line. I'm going to go there so I can get my card so we'll meet you over there."

"That's fine. See you in a few."

My phone rang a moment after Myra left. I looked at the display and saw it was Daddy.

"Hi, Daddy."

"Hi. Is Laurie with you?"

"Yep."

"OK. I just called the house and Mary said she went out with you."

"She did. We're in line for dinner at Sam's."

"Oh. I was going to pick her up in a few minutes."

"I'd rather you wouldn't. She's looking forward to eating with Myra's kids and I don't want to disappoint her. We'll have plenty of pizza if you want to join us."

"Are you sure it's no problem?"

"Yes, I'm sure. You may have to see if you can scrounge up some chairs at June's. Let's see. Three kids, two, four, five adults. We might make it."

"I'm at home. I'll just throw those card table chairs in the trunk. I can leave them there. They'll probably come in handy for Thanksgiving."

"That's a good idea. Julie's supposed to be there for dinner at six."

"Who's Julie?"

"One of Jack's clients. She rides horses. She also owns one of Posie's brothers and is dating Posie's father."

"She's dating a German shepherd?"

"No, silly. She's dating Eric. He's the guy we got her from."

"Oh. OK. I'll be there at six."

"Good. If we're late, get the key from downstairs. Watch out for wild beasts; there are two of them in the apartment."

They were ready to take my order when I hung up the phone. I ordered a pepperoni and a deluxe. That should satisfy everyone. I gave the lady my money and she handed me a number. "Five minutes," she said, pointing further down the line where I saw several people waiting.

I pushed the kids down there and said, "Daddy's going to come over and have dinner with us."

"He likes pizza?"

"Sometimes. The first night I met Jack was at a football game at his school. Our team was playing his team and somebody pushed me and I knocked him over. Wanda was at the game with us, too. That was before she lived with Daddy. Anyway, we all went out for pizza that night. We did that a few times but haven't for a while."

"How come?"

"I don't know, Laurie. I know they still have football games on Friday nights. Would you like to go to one with us?"

"Can Annette come?"

"I don't know. Would you like to go to a football game Annette?"

"If it's OK with my mom."

"We'll probably bring your mother with us. I don't know about Billy. He's a little young."

"He can stay with Aunt Eileen."

"OK. We'll see what we can work out. This weekend's Thanksgiving. Maybe next weekend."

"253?"

I looked at my ticket and saw that it was our number. I went over and swapped the number for two boxes. I slid them onto the bottom of the cart.

We went down toward the exit.

"Look, Guys. There's your mom. She's getting her picture taken."

The two girls stood up, made OK signs with both hands, then put them over their eyes like glasses. They sang "Nee — ner, Neee Ner, Neeeeee, Ner," wiggling their bodies as they did all this. It couldn't have come out better if it was rehearsed.

Myra cracked up and I heard the click of the camera.

The woman at the counter smiled and turned her monitor around so Myra could see the picture. "Do you want to do another one?"

"No, that's fine. At least I'm not frowning."

They ran off her card and then we all left. There was a different guy at the door and he asked the kids if they liked pizza. He used his felt pen to draw a smiley face on the receipt and handed it to Billy.

Once we left the store, the girls wanted to see Myra's card. It wasn't too bad; it just looked like she had a big smile on her face.

"It looks good, Myra," I said.

"Yeah. You guys ought to work for Jack. He makes people look good in front of the camera, too."

That got a "Can we? Can we? Can we?" from the two of them.

"Sure," said Jack. "I need someone to wash my car."

There was a twin "OK."

"All right. You wash my car and I'll take you to the dinosaur museum."

The first part of the ride home consisted of questions about the dinosaur museum. Where was it? Do they have real dinosaurs? What kind of dinosaur bones have they got?

Myra asked if we could swing by her place and get Billy's high chair. I thought Jack had been over there and he thought I had but it turned out that neither of us had. She gave us directions and we ended up a few blocks away from the mall. She ran up to her apartment and was back with the high chair a couple of minutes later.

Daddy pulled up right behind us when we got home. I could see Julie at the top of the stairs just before we turned into the driveway.

Each of the girls carried her booster, I got a case of Coke with two pizzas on top of it, Myra took the high chair and Jack got the rest of the stuff from Sam's. Daddy carried up his four plastic folding chairs. I made sure I had my keys in my mouth before Jack loaded me up.

Julie took the keys and found the one for the front door. Bozo was stopped in his tracks by the crowd as we all went into the apartment.

The girls saw Daddy's chairs and each of them wanted to sit on one. He took them into the kitchen and they followed with their boosters. Jack whispered something to Julie and she took off down the stairs. She was back a minute later with Billy in her arms.

Bozo had made his escape but Posie stood nervously at the front door.

"Laurie," I called out. "Posie has to go."

She and Annette rushed into the living room and Laurie picked up her dog. The two of them rushed downstairs.

"Sorry we weren't home when you got here," I said to Julie.

"Oh, that's OK. I wasn't here long. Looks like you've been pretty busy."

"Nothing unusual. We had to see one of our clients, then went to Sam's to stock up on supplies for Jack and pick up the pizzas."

We went into the kitchen. Billy was already sitting in his high chair and Daddy was sitting next to him, telling him what a big man he was.

"Julie, this is my father, Dr. O'Hara. Daddy, this is Julie Harris."

Daddy stood and held out his hand. "Call me John," he said.

"Whatever," I said. "Julie, you know Myra. Daddy, have you and Myra met?"

Myra said, "We just introduced ourselves."

"That's good," I said. "Julie, that's Billy in the high chair."