Chapter 6

An hour later, just before 10:00, the door opened and four guys and the wife who had asked for the job of applying decals came in. They all came in one car. The weather was discussed. “Rick, I got the small job coded last night. First pick out three pieces you want to construct. I’ve typed up a set of instructions of the order to begin with. If you follow those you won’t have as much down time when a printer is waiting to be set up for the second run.” I handed a copy of the instructions around.

“When you have each printer set up, pause and double check the first one. Start it if you believe it correct and then go to the second one and double check before starting that one. Now go back and look at the first one. If everything is running okay, do the third one. Wow, you have three printers running at once. Spend your time checking each machine. If you loaded them in the best sequence, probably the third machine will finish first because it was a simple prototype and would take less time. Next it may be the second in the sequence for the same reason of being a little less complicated.

“If you think this through, you’ve spent most of your time watching the first printer because that was the most difficult one. The third one was the simplest and almost a freebee. That’s where your raise in pay is coming from. Okay, go ahead and start printing. The first prototype will take about two hours to print, and the other two will be done before the first.

“The way John was having you operate it would have taken you most of the day to finish all three. So the company has saved at least four hours in labor. I can save the business that ordered this 10% and almost it will guarantee me I will get their business again.”

All five people stood around looking at each other. I asked, “Questions?”

“What if everything we are printing is alike, time-wise and won’t fit into an eight hour day?”

“I can handle that in two different ways. I can have you stagger the printers so you might only be running one at punch out time. It should be for only a few minutes, and I’ll watch it myself. Or if you guys want to get twenty minutes of overtime, you might arrange it so all three machines stop within that twenty minute extension. I would gain three pieces and I have paid you less than what it cost me. This of course depends on how much work we have.”

While I had been talking, all three printers were started and running. “Okay you guys are all set. I’m going to put in the order for more machines and ask for delivery next week and then I’ll be working on the estimate for Monday when Joe comes by again. I’m hoping to have something definite from him on Wednesday when he leaves town.”

“We hope so too.”

I had Jenny, who had asked for the decal work come in to look at the website and see the catalogs with the different decals they had in stock. “I ordered the ones I need for the job the guys are running off now. I hope they will get them to me by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow night is New Years, they won’t be working, and there is no way you can get them here by then.”

“They will be working today and I ordered them to come overnight. I’ll get enough of the miniature objects covered to give Joe a good idea what they will look like.”

“Are you working tomorrow?”

“No, I’m staying home with Kitten. I promised I would. After all, we have only been married since Monday.”

“Most wives would demand a honeymoon. I would, but I didn’t have to for he insisted we have one. Rick urged me to find a place for us to be happy before we settled down to make ourselves a happy life together.”

“And how has that worked out?”

“Well, I’ll admit there have been times when I wished we hadn’t spent the money for the honeymoon. We were pretty worried because we didn’t think Rick was going to have a job by the first of the year. We would have some great memories while we struggled if he didn’t have work and we have tried to tell ourselves it was worth it.”

“Jenny, hopefully you will have your memories and Rick will have a good job. If things come together the way I hope, he’ll have both.”

Jenny smiled, and then asked, “Are you going to be working on applying the decals at home tomorrow?”

“If the decals arrive I will.”

“Can I come to your house and watch you?”

“That would be great. Kitten would love to have you there.”

“Kitten is a strange name.”

“Her name is Kittery. I’m the only one to call her Kitten.”

“I’ll remember.”

I worked steadily. I could hear the men discussing how I wanted them to change the way they produced the prototypes. Rick Hammalund was the designated operator as he was the one who the others looked up to. The garage on number three printer finished first. Twenty minutes later the barn was finished and a half hour after that the main part of the house was completed.

“There are three items left. There is the gazebo, the porch and the equipment shed. It won’t take but an hour and a half to do these. Is it okay if we run them? Jenny can bring them with her tomorrow. She said she was going to watch you put decals on.”

“That would be great. Leave the heat up a little when you leave here and I’ll see you all Monday morning. We’ll be finishing up the orders that Becker had in queue before we do anymore on this. That is if I get this job and I’m confident we will.”

“We are all confident you will get this project for us. God, how could we think we could make a living without knowing how to go about it?”

“Hey, at least you gave it a good shot and you have learned a lot. How many times did I have to leave what I was doing and get you back on track? Not once! I have faith we are going to make this company into something we can make a good living at. I’ll see you next week. Have a good holiday. Stay sober.” A laugh went up as I went out the door. I had three miniatures of buildings in a box under my arm. I also was wearing a satisfied smile.

“I thought you would be home at noon. Your dinner can be warmed, though.”

“I’m sorry, Kitten, I should have called. There were four of the guys there. I decided to show them how to make a run through handling three printers at the same time. They didn’t have any trouble. They are still there with a shorter run. If the decals come today, I have what they produced to work on.”

Kitten looked disappointed. “Honey, I’m all yours for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t start that today. Hey I’ve got you and I’m going to keep you. I’ll be home all day tomorrow, too. Jenny may come by; she is really interested in applying the decals. She is bringing the last few pieces with her. This means Monday morning I can have one of the housing compounds all completed. I’ll have the estimate all done too. I won’t have to leave the house either.”

“You’re going to take care of your wife like you are supposed to?”

“I said I would and I mean it. I keep telling you, you come first.” Kitten came and hugged me and kissed me. “Tonight is New Year’s Eve. Do you want to go out?”

“No Howard, I want to snuggle right in front of the pellet stove like we did last night and let the hot air blow on us. Aunt Mary called and she and Ron are coming for dinner Sunday. She sounds so happy and she said I did too. God, two months ago we kept telling each other how happy we were and facing the world alone was great. Then you came to see us. Our world began on that day.”

“Keep that thought. I’m going out and do chores. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to break with the wind going down and the sun is going to shine. What a way to begin the New Year.” I went out and did chores. FedEx pulled into the yard with the package that held the decals. I took it in and put it on the sideboard, not even opening it. I ate and then we got cozy on the floor.

I had just got really comfortable. Kitten seemed uneasy. Finally she asked, “Howard, you really want to open the package that FedEx brought, don’t you?”

“Nope, I want to lay here with you and hold you.”

“Well, I’m going to open it. I want to see what you have been talking about. Get one of those miniatures and we’ll put one of the decals on and then come back and lie down like we are now.”

I laughed, “Okay Kitten, I do want to get your idea if what I planned is going to work.”

I helped Kitten up and we opened the package. I looked at my order. Good, everything came. There were two sets of the same decals. They weren’t that expensive and I didn’t want the job held up if a mistake was made during application. “Let’s do the barn. That will give you the right idea. There is the red siding, the black roof, the white doors, and the windows that look like glass. The sashes and door frame decals are colored white. Before we begin we’ll use felt tip markers to color the corner boards and the fascia on the eves? This is my idea and I’m a little worried about it looking professional enough.”

I broke up a packet of felt tip markers and proceeded to apply the ink where I knew the decals wouldn’t cover. Some places I went over the second time where I didn’t think I had made the color heavy enough.

“Okay while that is drying, have you got a 9x13 glass cake baking dish? That’s what will work the best. Water will stay warm longer. We don’t want it hot, just lukewarm. Where do you want to begin?”

“Let’s do the sides first. It’s a good thing we have the artist’s rendering to go by.”

“That is pretty much how I know what decal to order. If I follow their colors, window and doors, I shouldn’t be too far off. Really this should be fairly easy. By being easy, I mean for making the estimate. I’ll figure out what this will cost to produce, give the customer what the people want and add 40%. That leaves me about 10% to play with. If I clear 30% we’re making money.”

“We’re making money? Who is we?”

“We ... me and you. You’re my wife, remember? We’re a team.”

“Howard, you make me so happy.” We worked slowly and I showed Kitten how to measure the decal before we cut it. It was impossible to do any trimming after it was applied without it tearing. I could see I needed a paper cutter for the straightest of edge.

I told Kitten about the old carpenter saying of, “Measure twice and cut once.” She laughed at me. “That was Gramma Harris’ saying when she was teaching me how to make a skirt and blouse. She wasn’t a carpenter either.”

Kitten was a wiz at placing the decal after it had been slipped from the backing and at smoothing the decal into position. We were almost finished with the barn with only three windows left to paste on. The barn came out as perfect as I had hoped. “I’m almost sorry I offered the job of putting the decals on to Jenny. I should have offered it to you. I still can, but it might cause hard feelings.”

“Howard, I don’t want the job. I’ll help, but before you get anywhere near finished with this project, we will have a baby and it will take up most of my time. I want to give our baby all of my time.”

“And I’ll help take care of the baby. Remember, I promised I would work only a normal day and that still is my intent. I’m hoping Aunt Mary will be here for awhile with us until we get into a routine with the new one.”

“She will be. She is only going to work on Ron’s ranch weekends. I called to make sure she and Ron would be here Sunday. You know they are moving really fast with their relationship. Aunt Mary is in love with him already. She’s even talking about having a baby. She wants the experience watching me with our baby before she decides.”

“That is a little odd?”

“I know, but Aunt Mary will be only thirty-nine when the baby comes. That’s late, especially for a first child. Don’t mention that I said anything.”

“I won’t. It would be her decision and we would support her, whichever way she goes. Kitten, are we staying up to see the New Year in?”

“Not necessary if you kiss me before we turn over to sleep.”

“Good morning, we missed the New Year.”

“Not much of it, and the rest of the year is before us. You stay in bed and I’ll get you breakfast.”

“No, we’ll get it together. That’s what our life is going to be. I suppose we have that Jenny coming this morning to learn how to apply decals. I hope she is good.”

“We’ll teach her to be good. This project has a good beginning and it will continue. After she gets started, would you stay with her? You are still my backup.”

“Of course, I want to get to know her.”

We were waiting at ten when Jenny, Gary and Rick drove in. Rick had the remainder of the objects they had run off yesterday. “How’s it going Howard?”

“Great, Kittery and I worked at putting decals on the barn last night. You can tell me what you think?”

Kitten had baked muffins and we all had coffee before I led the way into the dining room where I had everything laid out. “Wow, that’s impressive. I hope Joe Graziola will be impressed too.”

“I think he will be. He came here not really knowing what he wanted or how to have it done. Becker or none of us would have been able to do this. Just how are we going to get it done in the time frame that he wants?”

“Okay, we will have 60 working days to do this in. That’s about four and half building compounds we have to do a day. Would you think that is possible?”

“It will if we have enough machines. Remember too, the bigger compounds have many more pieces.”

“I remember. I have one of the bigger ones I’ll be coding here at home and I’m working on that before finishing my estimate. There are other ways to save on labor as well. Like the gazebo you did. I’ll bet there are at least twenty properties that call for a gazebo. I need machines that can do multiples. Say we can do ten at a time. That’s nine that doesn’t have much labor cost and would not be reflected in the estimate. Hopefully there will be a little bonus for everyone when we finish the project.”

“That would be nice, but you had better bank it for the lean times that are bound to come. Having steady work means more than a few dollars now and then.”

“We’ll see when we finish. Today we will begin with the gazebo since the roof is tricky because the gazebo is six-sided. I showed Kittery last night how to whiten an object so we’ll do the roof edge with ink before we apply the roof decals. It doesn’t take but a few minutes to dry. Jenny, you can get the water for loosening the decal adhesive. I have a clock here to tell you how long before the decal is softened enough and ready to handle.

“Okay, notice there are six wedge shaped roof decals. One for each face and you need to be careful to line up the shingles, minute as they are. I’ll do two to show how they must come together. I do have a set of extras, but I hate to use them because I know there are bound to be screw-ups. There again, they are interchangeable, so you do have leeway.”

I worked with Jenny for an hour until I was confident she could proceed without my help unless she got stuck. Kitten was there to help also.

I took Rick Hamalund out into the kitchen where we started work coding the larger property’s building. He was acting as my secretary. As I finished a building I had him list what we would need for decals. He had the artist’s rendering in front of him and the catalog of decals on another laptop. He was good at pairing what was needed together. Kitten got us lunch and we broke for that. Another two hours would see us well along.

Jenny would have the decals all applied on the project I had given her. The only mistake she made was the long side of the main house. The decal creased and when she tried to straighten it out it tore. “Why did it do that?”

“Because you left it in the water about a minute longer than it should have been. That’s why you should use the clock to time the decal while in water.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, that’s why I purchased the second set of decals. Mistakes are bound to be made. You’re doing great and I would like to have you working for the company at this for us. You can start Monday as a gopher for us until we get into this totally.”

“I’ll be there.”

It was three-thirty when we had the job I was working on completely coded. Rick had made out the order for the decals on the larger property and we faxed that off. “I’ll have those back Tuesday morning and Jen can begin applying them just as soon as we get the prototypes off the machines.” I stopped talking and then asked Rick, “How many hours will it take to produce what we have just coded?”

“Do you mean using one machine or someone running three machines?”

“Give me what you think for time for both.” Rick was close to what I thought the time on the machines would be. It was a little low for one machine and I figured he was taking into account the unfamiliarity with watching three machines, so he was high in time using three machines.

“That’s damned close to what I figured. I think I would lower it just a little because there is a chance to do more than one item on most every property at the same time. With three machines running that way, we might get four items completed.”

“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you? Do you have enough information to do the estimate?”

“I believe so. I’ve made some notes and have mentally kept track of other things. I’ll write it up first thing Monday morning. I’m giving the rest of the weekend over to Kittery. Her aunt will be here Sunday for dinner. Oh, we may be a little late setting up Monday because there will be carpenters all over the place building stations for the machines that will be here on Wednesday. It will only long enough to put up a plastic dust barrier to keep the dust down.

“Rick, you will be strictly doing the coding for the work we have in shop. We have to get that all out by the first of February.”

“I’ll need a little help with that.”

“Pick whomever you think best. It will take a little time to sort all these changes out. If it looks like something isn’t working, we’ll talk it over and decide on the best course to take. I’m a big believer in teamwork up until a decision has to be made. That would be me, but you’ll find my decisions aren’t set in stone.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I took Kitten out to dine, which was a treat for her. She seldom went out especially after she began to show her pregnancy. Now though, she clung to my arm, proud that she had a man to go with her protruding tummy. “Do you want to go to a show, or anything?”

“No Howard, I want to go home. I saw a couple of women I knew when I went to the restroom. They enquired if I was with my husband. I said yes. Before this they had known I was pregnant, but I was never able to say much about the baby’s father. I hated to lie, so I said nothing. Word will get around that the baby’s father has finally shown up to be with me and the baby. They asked what you did for work and I told them you had just purchased a small factory that produced prototypes. I declared you were able to pay cash for it. Hope you don’t mind?”

“You really did have it tough before I came to see you, didn’t you.”

“I suppose, but I only had myself to blame. I am so thankful that everything has turned out like it has. One more thing that I’m thankful for is how Lorna has come out of this.”

“I am too.”

“She is older by a lot than me, but I did look up to her. I felt terrible about what I had done by crawling into bed with you. My feelings are mixed about that. I crawled in with you without even planning on doing it. That was when I saw her go into your bedroom with Rod Peters. The next morning I was ashamed and that was why I escaped back here to Montana to think this through. I thought all along you were madly in love with Lorna and I had taken something from you and you would hate me when you found out about it.”

I broke in, “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier? It still bothers you or you wouldn’t be telling me now.” My wife was near tears. I didn’t like this at all. “Kittery Harris Prentice, listen to me. Honestly, do you regret being with me on my wedding night?”

A subdued, “No, but I feel so guilty and it is getting worse.”

“Why?”

“Because I am so happy with you at my side and I don’t know that I deserve to be this happy.”

I stared at her before speaking, Then, thinking quickly, “Look, Kitten. Think about your sister. You think you cheated her by having the baby you feel should have been hers by law. Lorna and I never would have been happy together because we didn’t love each other. I knew it soon and she knew it too. Ask her how many times she cheated on me after we were married. She was cheating me. Look at her now. We are divorced and she may find the happiness she needs with Peters.

“Think of your mother and father. Lorna led your mother down the wrong path and I heard her talk to your mother about how much fun they were having. Mable got caught at the same time I caught Lorna. Your father was being cruel to your mother and they would’ve ended up hating each other for something that Lorna started. That’s resolved now. Lorna appears to be on the road to happiness herself. You deserve to be happy just like I’m happy. Enough said and there is nothing to be guilty or ashamed for.”

“Howard, you always see things so clearly.”

We had been sitting in our car. I was cold and started the engine. I didn’t move it yet. “Kitten isn’t there a Honky-tonk that will be open. I need a beer and I want to see people having fun. Maybe we can have some fun too.”

We drove around, but couldn’t find one. I had forgotten this was Jan, 1 and places were closed. “They’ll be open tomorrow night. We’ll try then.”

“No need, Howard. I’m over my guilt trip. I just got to thinking I was too happy for what I had done and should be feeling more guilt than I really was.”

“Well, if you get to feeling this way again, talk to me about it. Are we alright with the world, now?”

“Take me home, Howard, it’s been a long day—and a very, very good day!” Just as we pulled into the driveway, “Howard, I think we can say I lucked out when I fell in love with you. I hope you feel the same way about me.”

“I do.”

Saturday we got up late, just lounging around taking it easy. It was two in the afternoon when Kitten said, “Howard, work on your estimate. Every time you walk through the dining room, you look at that pile of papers. I don’t mind, really. You’re here and you’re near.” I walked up, hugged Kitten, ran my hand over her tummy and kissed her. I didn’t say anything, but we both smiled.

I had done many estimates for Henry so it was no problem getting one ready for Monday when I expected Joe Graziola to show up with the work crew he promised me. I typed it up and printed out three copies. I’d go over it with Joe and note changes if any. It would be nice if he could give me the okay on it, but that was too much to expect. I finally had everything done possible for Monday and felt really relaxed.

Sunday, Aunt Mary and Ron came a little after nine in the morning. Love was in the air between the two of them and it was obvious. I commented, “You guys haven’t known each other but a month. You’re moving almost as fast as Kitten and I did.”

Mary spoke, “Yeah, but I have seen Ron every day of that month. I think you only had about nine days together before you tied the knot. We have talked about getting married already. We haven’t decided definitely, but are close making it so.”

Kitten spoke up, “Aunt Mary, don’t you be on a honeymoon the first week of March. That’s when I’d like you here with me.”

“I’ll be here, that’s a promise.”

“Howard, how is the business coming?”

“Great Ron, I finished the estimate for that job that came through the door. The ten weeks of work it takes to complete is more than Becker, the former owner did all last year. So far, I’ve laid out a lot of changes and I have all of Becker’s crew totally with me. I’ve given them all a small raise in pay starting Monday and promised another one the first of February. Wages here are so low for this type of work it is embarrassing, but by the end of the year my workers will be making above what small concerns like mine in the area pay.”