She Took It All
Chapter 6

Copyright© 2011 by happyhugo

"Okay guys, mount up and let's go see what you own." Elizabeth had given me the keys so we could explore the first floor. I had walked through once when I first thought of leasing the building. Now I wanted to start to plan where my equipment was to be placed.

I gave Jimmy the keys and the three kids ran for the building. The entrance to the two floors above was on the right. There was no elevator, just stairs. You went into the empty first floor by the same entrance.

There was room for two trailer trucks to back up to a loading dock at the other end of the building. Actually, this building was sitting on a little more than a five-acre lot, so it was quite large. The trucks did not have to back in off the highway because there was room to come in and turn around. There was nothing attractive about the place. The whole lot was graveled with a sagging chain-link fence around the perimeter.

The kids went running through the downstairs to the loading docks. There was a lot of junk and assorted rubbish packed against the back wall from when the construction workers had renovated the upper levels. I walked into what had been the office area and liked it. Some old desks and filing cabinets had not been moved out. One was an ornate golden oak roll-top I was going to claim for my own.

I opened a door in the corner and saw a stairwell going down. The lights didn't work. This was something I would have to investigate later. Just then, I heard the rumble of a man speaking. I came out of the office just as I heard Sandy answer a question.

"We own the building. Jimmy's mom bought it for an investment for us. Who are you?"

"I live upstairs in apartment number four. You kids are too young to own something like this. You get out of here right now or I will call the landlord."

"You don't understand, mister. We are the landlords. Honest. I'll find my dad to explain if you don't believe me." This was Jimmy taking up for his younger sister. I stepped out of the office.

I addressed an elderly man. There was a little old woman with him. "Hello, Sir and Madam. The children are technically correct. Jimmy's mother did buy the property for them, but they do not take control until Sandy, the youngest, becomes twenty-one. I'm in charge as their manager until then. I have leased the bottom floor here from them and will be opening up a small manufacturing business some time after the first of next year."

"What is going to happen to us who are renting the apartments?"

You will still be able to rent them. In fact, we will be going through them and upgrading them if we think it necessary. Do you have any complaints you would like to tell me about right now?"

"Our worst one is that our heating is terrible. We have a gas wall furnace. It is old and unreliable. It costs us a lot to keep having the service man come and fix it."

"It will be warm weather in another month. Can you survive with it until then? In fact, any service you need before summer, you can have the furnace technician send the bill to me. I'll make sure you will be comfortable next winter. Tell me, is that the way each apartment is heated, with the tenants paying for their own heat?"

"Yes."

"You let me look into the situation and I will see what I can do for all of you. In return, in the future maybe you can overlook some noise that my machinery will make down here for a few hours a day. And that I promise I will make as minimal as possible."

The two old folks didn't say anything. Maybe I was too soon in bringing up that there was going to be machinery operating here. I had decided I did not want to hide anything. "May I have your names please so I will at least know one of our tenants?"

"We are Sadie and Tom Burns."

"Good, I'm happy to make your acquaintance. I'm assuming you know all of the tenants. Would you take the kids around to all of them and introduce them as the new owners? Kathy is the tallest and oldest girl. Jimmy the boy, is a year younger and Sandy is the youngest and the smallest. She also is the one the two others look to, as their leader. They let her be boss and I haven't figured that one out yet myself.

"I'll be around next Wednesday about six in the evening to meet everyone. I will post a notice just inside the entrance to that effect. I'll try to have a place for everyone to sit down here on the first floor. Oh, do you know what is in the cellar? There are no electric lights down there."

"I honestly don't know. I have never been down there. Probably not much but junk."

"Okay, I just wondered. I will get it checked out. You kids go meet all of the people upstairs. Miss Sadie and Tom, I'm pleased to have met you. We'll be seeing much of each other."

The kids went upstairs ahead of Tom and Sadie. I listened as they knocked on the first door and were explaining to someone who they were. I walked toward the other end of the building, imagining where I would place different pieces of equipment for my business.

There was more than enough room for my operation. I think there would even be room for another small discount bread store. I was thinking of ways to keep the tenants and this might tip the balance of those who objected to the noise from the machinery. I jumped off the docks and walked toward the back side of the lot.

I had a revelation. It would not take but a narrow building to house the hammer mill, the mixer and the pellet mill, as they were an inline operation. The storage silos for the corn and the beet pulp would be positioned close to the milling equipment. This would cut down on the noise in the apartments and keep a lot of dust out of the building as well. It could be situated along the back fence. The out of date bread could go over there in tubs, transported by a forklift.

Sure, it would be a big modification from my present operation, but this would be more efficient. I could also handle a larger quantity of material. I also had most of a year to put it all together.

When I got back into the warehouse, there was a woman waiting by the office with an infant in her arms. "Hi, my name is Phoebe Taft. I rent 302. Kathy, I think she said her name is, said you would see that I have heat. I called a service man two days ago and he said it would be this coming week Thursday before he could get here. I know it is 1 May, but I really still do need heat. Can you help?"

"I'll try. Let me get my book of service people that is in my vehicle. I'll call someone." I got my list and came back to make the call from my cell phone.

"Hey Pete, I have a lady here that has a gas wall furnace that isn't working. I know it is a weekend and I know you will charge me extra, but there is an infant in the apartment. She needs heat. The address is 1437 Meldrin Street apartment 302. I will take care of the charge.

"I'm manager here now so all repair bills for the furnaces will come to me. You can leave your card in the ten mailboxes. I want these furnaces to keep going until warm weather. I may do something different about heat for the coming year. You get a chance to bid on anything new." Pete told me when he would be here.

"Phoebe, he will be here in an hour and a half. If he can't get it fixed, call me and I'll make arrangements to find you a place to stay with your baby that is warm."

"Thank you so much. I won't call because the woman in 303 has been kind enough to let me stay with her. It is just that I hate to be a burden on her with my little one."

"I'm pleased to hear that. That is what neighbors do. There will be a meeting Wednesday here downstairs and I will meet you all at that time." I received a smile and she started up the stairs. She met the kids coming down. I heard her tell Kathy that I had contacted someone to have her heating unit fixed by evening.

"I knew Pop would take care of you. He's the best."

On the way home, the kids excitedly told me all about the different people they had met and how much explaining they had to do about being owners of the property. "Papa, I think we have hired an excellent manager. Keep up the good work." I had to laugh at my little blonde-haired lass.


I had many items and jobs to take care of and I was putting in long days. Shelly was busy as well. She was supportive in that wherever there was a need that I did not have time for and she could handle it, she was there for me. She was the one to post the notice I had drawn up about the meeting with the people who were renting the apartments. This she did on her way to the warehouse where she saw to the loading of the truck and then drove it out to the pig farm.

Things such as this made it so we all could have our evening meal together. We would talk over what went on in our lives during the day. On school days, the kids went to bed by nine o'clock, and sometimes sooner, as their days were full too. Shelly finished her housework while I did paperwork related to one of the three endeavors in which I was involved.

George Caruthers and Mindy Evans came into the warehouse and kept me updated on the Fortier Renovation project. Neil was often there as well for this meeting. He and Brett Turnbull were working toward putting the project under the umbrella of a holding company as Christian Stone had advised. At every turn there were things that I had no knowledge of, but among all of us, we were able to keep things moving ahead. It still would be some months before we would be able to start the permitting process.

I gathered a half dozen flood bulbs and a dozen 100-watt light bulbs and went over to the new building. I wanted to see what was in the cellar. The kids were interested as well so we did this right after an early dinner. They of course would stay for the meeting with their tenants. The kids were apprehensive about going down into the dark dungeon as they called it.

When we reached the foot of the stairs, I spotted a single fuse box and it was off. I flipped a switch and there was a dim light that we could see way out at the further end of the cellar. It at least gave us a bit of orientation to see our way. However, we waved our flashlights around and could see empty light sockets over our heads. The ceiling was nearly twelve feet high. I would have to find a ladder to reach the light sockets.

"Jimmy, take your flashlight and look for a ladder. I would think there might be one here somewhere."

"There is one right behind you Papa and there is a bucket of light bulbs on the floor beside it."

"Thanks, Sandy." The ladder was a tall stepladder and Jimmy could just barely reach the ceiling to screw the bulbs into the sockets. I had him put in a floodlight in every third socket to give us plenty of light. We then went about examining what was down here.

There was an aisle down the middle, ten feet wide or so. This was fairly clear without obstruction. On both sides, though, there was broken machinery parts, pulleys, gears and castings of machines, many of these cracked and broken. Apparently, this had been a woodworking factory at one time. Rather than send the broken equipment off to the junkyard, it had been stored down here for salvageable parts.

Down near the end of the building was a large crate. It had the date scribbled on it that was only four years old. I walked around the crate and there was an invoice tacked to it. It identified a steam heating plant. I didn't know too much about something such as this, but I was hoping this was purchased to replace the wall furnaces for the apartments. Behind it against the wall were bundles of piping. I would get Ted to come look at it.

I then began to look around to see how this heating plant was lowered to the basement. Above the crate, I spotted what appeared to be a large trap door. Just as soon as we were finished looking around, we went up to the first floor and I could see beneath piles of junk, the trapdoor and the hinges that swung it open. Overhead I saw a short rail and an electric hoist. This then was how the boiler had been lowered into the cellar.

Tenants were drifting down from the apartments upstairs and I was not quite ready for them. Sandy and Kathy spoke with them as they came in. Sandy addressed most of them by name. She had met them on Sunday. I was amazed that she was able to do this. Jimmy and I went about setting up the chairs that had been stacked in the corner where Shelly left them this morning.

Phoebe Taft came and thanked me for getting her furnace working in apartment 302. "I want to thank you so much. I called my husband and it relieved his mind about me having the baby and me here alone. He is away for two months. He works for the government. How he laughed when I told him I had met the new owners and the oldest was thirteen. Anyway, thank you again."

There were about thirty people sitting down. I had the rental records and all their names, but I hadn't had time to get to know them yet. "I'll start by introducing myself. My name is John Rheingold. I'm the manager, hired by my children. Jimmy Rheingold is my son from a previous marriage. Kathy Rheingold and Sandy Waters are daughters of my present wife, Shelly. I consider all three my children.

"One more detail, my ex-wife purchased this building to give to me in a final settlement. I wouldn't accept it, so she set up a trust and put the property into the trust for the children and named me as manager. That is why the kids have been saying they are the owners. Enough of that.

"What I have in mind for the property probably has you concerned. I will go into that now. I have a business where I collect bakery goods returned to the suppliers. A lot of it is still good enough for human consumption because some of it is returned before the sell by date. I do have a discount store where I sell this. Most of it has to be sold the same day. If it isn't then I make pig feed out of it.

"Where I am leasing now is going to be torn down within a year. I am going to move my operation here to the first floor of this building. I thought at first my whole operation would be in this building, but I am going to construct a shelter for the nosiest equipment along the west edge of the property.

"More than half of the floor here will be taken up by storage. There will be a small discount store and what equipment needed to remove the wrapping and packing from bread and related products. Some of the people I employ won't want to come so far from the city center, so those that don't I will have to replace.

"There will be a chance for some of you to work right here. I must warn you that this is not a high paying job. Most of those I pay will be minimum wage, but remember there is no traveling, so that has to be considered. I'll take questions from anyone now."

There was a man who stood up from the last seat on the left. "My name is Jack Timmons. You said something to Tom Burns about changing the heating here in the apartments. Will you be doing that and with what?"

"I will do something so the heating is central in some way. I was just down in the cellar. There is a new steam heating furnace and boiler in a crate down there. I'm having a heating technician over to check it out. This should be a lot cheaper than each one of you buying your own fuel. I'll have figures within a week. It appears this is what a previous owner planned. He just never followed through."

"What about the money we had to put up front when we leased here. Do you have that?"

"I have the accounting and the escrow account has been turned over to me. You can check with my wife anytime to make sure it is correct. She is keeping the books. She is an accountant. You will be meeting her in a few minutes. She is bringing some trays of bread and bakery goods you can have to divide among you. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Can we visit the operation where you are now to see what you do firsthand?"

"Yes, of course. I meant to mention that. You are welcome between nine and four any day during the week. Now I just heard my wife drive in. She will have the bakery items. They will all have a sell date by tomorrow, but it all should be edible for a couple of days." The kids went running out and some of the tenants offered to give Shelly a hand.

Shelly whispered to me that there wasn't as much to bring as she hoped. There were two loaves of bread apiece for each tenant and three boxes apiece of half dozen doughnuts. She had four trays of English muffins and four bags of bagels. There were more than enough Twinkies and cupcakes. All of the tenants were tickled to have the goodies and to think they did not have to pay for them.

I surmised most could pay full price, but you can't beat something for nothing. The kids had to be in school tomorrow so we left soon after the food was given out. Sandy led the trio around to say goodnight. That kid just amazed me more and more!

I gave Ted the keys and had him go over and inspect the crated boiler. He knew the company that built it and said it was one of the better units. All that was needed was the boiler and piping to be installed and hooked up. He said Elizabeth really had a deal because the boiler would have cost several thousand dollars to buy. Ted said he would get an estimate for me to have the work done.

I wondered if the iron and junk that was in the cellar was worth anything. I found a person on the Internet who advertised for old machine parts of this type and vintage and he promised to come to look at what was down there.


It looked as if I was set with finding a stable place to continue my pig feed business. Elizabeth had done it for me, but she had also made my life a little more complicated. If I had taken the property, as she wanted me too, I would have worked in getting things moved and dealt with the problems in an orderly manner.

I would never tell anyone, most of all how my ex-wife made things more difficult for me. Understand, every night I had three excited juvenile owners tackling me about something concerning their property. If one couldn't think of something that needed doing immediately, think of three of them with their heads together.

Shelly realized I was devoting more time to the kids and their property than I should. I know she must have talked to them about it. She suggested that if they wanted to discuss the tenants or the building with me, they present it in a business-like manner, scheduling a meeting that was short and concise.

She worked with them and it did help a lot. Not once did I ever get short with them or cut them off. After all, I was working for them. I also knew at some point that they might lose interest. At that time, it would be my chore to show that they had to look at this as a project and they had to pay attention to their responsibilities.

The days were creeping along toward Memorial Day, which meant a three-day weekend. Elizabeth was apt to call up Jimmy and talk. Often it might be Sandy or Kathy and sometimes all three. "Papa, Aunt Elizabeth wants to take us up to a lake for the holiday. We all want to go. Can we?"

"I don't see why not Sandy. Are you sure you want to go with her?"

"We do. They are going to take us to see a big parade. There are going to be men marching and some exercises in several cemeteries. They are going to fire off some guns and we have to listen carefully to what some people will be saying when they are speaking. Uncle Neil will be with us. He was in the National Guard and is going to help explain things."

"Ask your mother and you can tell her I said you could go."

"Goody. We are going to take my laptop so Jimmy can send you some pictures and you can see them on his. We are leaving right after school on Friday and come home Monday afternoon."

I smiled to myself. This would give Shelly and me some time alone. Elizabeth called Shelly, telling her what to pack for the kids to wear. For some reason, she suggested a nice dress for the girls and a suit for Jimmy. His suit, we were unable to provide as he had grown out of it. Must be she wanted to take them out to a nice restaurant in the evening.

That same evening we got a call from Madie, saying the Missus had found a small home for her and Will to live in. They were there now and would have us over after the holiday to see where they lived. In the meantime, they were living at a motel until their belongings arrived on Tuesday.

I invited them to stay with us, but she declined saying the Missus had arranged everything and she did not want to change now. Wow, Shelly and I still had the weekend for ourselves. We showered and went to bed before dark. This was the most we had been able to relax since our time in Chicago. We took our time and it was a beautiful experience for both us.

I had brought Jimmy's laptop and Sandy's cell phone in and put both on the nightstand. We were laying there cuddling when the cell phone chirped. "Papa, turn on Jimmy's laptop. I want you to see a picture of us."

"You should be in bed."

"We are too excited to sleep. Open the laptop and you can see why."

I sat up and nudged Shelly. "The kids want us to see something. Elizabeth probably bought the kids a puppy or something." I opened the computer.

In the image, Sandy, Kathy and Jimmy were standing in front of Neil and Elizabeth. The kids were holding a hand-lettered sign that said "We're Married." My ex-wife had put a lot of effort into this, for Jimmy had on a new suit and the girls had on flowered dresses. Elizabeth had on a pale lavender dress and Neil had a suit just like Jimmy's suit. I closed the screen.

Shelly looked up at me. "How do feel about this, John? It must hurt you a little not being invited to their wedding. She was at your wedding."

"No, I am tickled as hell that I didn't have to appear at my ex-wife's wedding. Elizabeth did tell me one time that it was very uncomfortable when she was at ours. I agreed and I can see why she would be. She must have remembered. As far as the kids are concerned, I think she wanted to give you and me some time alone without them. I imagine that in the future we will see more of this time alone. She really does love them all and seems to want them with her."

 
There is more of this chapter...
The source of this story is Storiesonline

To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account (Why register?)

Get No-Registration Temporary Access*

* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.

Close
 

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...

Storiesonline is for adult entertainment only. By accessing this site you declare that you are of legal age and that you agree with our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.