Chapter 71: Vacation Is Over, Back to the Grind

I waited two days to be sure, but after that, I decided I was done waiting for Willow. Not everything was sunshine and roses, and I had come to realize that.

I spent a few more days there in the hotel. I ate, worked out hard, and was pampered at the spa by the masseuses. I felt out of place and decided I was done here. Willow ruined Kauai for me.

I would do this again, on a different island. I had portals on both Oahu and here, so it was easy for me to pop over. I gave up on buying a place on Kauai for now.

I returned to William and Mary Town. To my women there, I was only gone one day.

I went to my new headquarters to see how it was coming along.

The inside of the building was finished. It had been done out of sight, so as they acted like they were plugging away at the outside. Yet they had already finished the interiors.

The Heillizdt cheated on the furnishings. They had already filled the place up with office furniture. They had ordered a semi-truckload of desks, chairs, cabinets, and the rest of the folderol you need in offices. They got it from my America on Earth 23.

They had stuck to wooden furniture so it would fit in better here. The outside of the building was far from finished, but it was close.

I had Aimee Mathews, my supposed efficiency expert, come and inspect. She gave me a short list of top positions. We would add additional people later.

Now the issue was finding officers to run the headquarters. I had one Officer, Aimee Mathews, as my Executive Director, plus Flora Todd as my Chief of Sales.

Aimee and I talked about titles. I told her that the titles of President or Vice President were not appropriate for here. We are under the English system of government, so the word “President” should not be used on professional stationery or in our organization.

Having been away for many weeks, I spent the next several days visiting my three main factories. I had to catch up on where things were going.

If you ever put a book down for a month, you would know why I was a little disoriented. Willow affected me more than I knew.

Because I wanted a Boss or Chief for each factory or division, I needed to change each one’s title. I decided to name them ‘Chiefs.’ While doing that, I had the brilliant idea of having one Vice Chief represent each tobacco factory here at headquarters. Why try to squeeze modern concepts into this? Why not start with a department head from each factory? The Vice Chiefs would represent the factories. My mills, cotton, and linen organizations would remain outside of my tobacco organizations.

A Vice Chief for each factory seemed right. They could interface with Gloria at Henson Cigars, Mason at Kennedy, Rose at Cooper-Howard, and Mathew at Morgan Tobacco. Those four august people are my factory chiefs.

I sent Aimee to visit each factory and to find me a Vice Chief to represent each area. The Vice Chiefs needed to be concubines and able to travel between headquarters and their individual factories.

I realized after my epiphany, this was close to what I had thought I needed when I started this messy idea. I was unsure what Aimee would do next. I would have to turn her loose and let her dig in and see what she came up with.

A Vice Chief for each factory was what I needed above all else. I needed to move Paloma, Pippa, and Cousin Reese into this building as it neared opening. It was too rough outside yet. They needed to be Chiefs or Vice Chiefs.

Gigziks told me, “It would be a week before headquarters were finished.”

For that reason, I did not bother with the details. By now, I knew they did a good job, and if an issue arose, they would fix it right away.

I timed it back and went to Cuba to visit Ana. The two Bescós men were actively running the farm, with Ana keeping an eye on things. Shipments of Corojo tobacco were being directly shipped to Morgan Tobac in Franklin.

Morgan Tobac was running smoothly enough. Don’t mess with something that is working. I was asked to hire more workers at Morgan Tobac and Henson Cigars.

I sent the Smiths an email to that effect. Two days later, Lola emailed me, saying she had 16 Taino women ready to head north. I met her at her place and brought the 20 females to my boat. Again, Lola had gathered extra women: three were Cuban, and one was a Spanish girl.

Lola brought them to my boat. After moving through the water for a few hours, I turned up the speed. The girls were all asleep when Gigziks arrived to talk.

She said, “What do you want done with the females?”

I said, “The 16 Taino are headed to Franklin to roll cigarillos and cigarettes. I am not sure about the four extra hitchhikers. I have not had a word with any of those girls. I think the Cubans would do well at Henson Cigars rolling cheroots. I will let Gloria figure out where she wants them.”

I said, “As far as the Spanish woman, I am at a complete loss as to what to do with her.”

Gigziks said, “Have you looked at her at all?”

I said, “I have not looked at any of them really. This was a rushed job.”

She said, “I thought as much. Ships Beings ( AI ) brought this to my attention. One issue was that you were pumping out cigarillos and ready-made cigarettes at Morgan Tobacco too fast. Faster than you are making Cheroots at Henson Cigars. We see cheroots are your bigger problem now. That market is already established.”

I said, “Yet I see cigarettes as being the biggest in the near future. I have been spurring the urgency there.”

She continued, “As I was saying, perhaps the 16 Taino would be better used in Suffolk. These are non-Spanish-speaking Taino girls. The three Cuban girls do speak Spanish well and some Taino. The Spanish girl speaks Spanish only. She has a back story. Let’s go take a look at the Cubans and the Spanish girl.”