Chapter 74

3:55 p.m., Tuesday

Andy closed his phone just before entering the Associated Wholesalers Group warehouse. The temperature was in the low 80s and he knew the building would be sweltering. He regretted that he had finished his "project" before heading home on Thursday. Lord only knew what mundane task awaited him.

He took a deep breath and pushed through the doors, telling himself it was only for two more days (three at the most). He could deal with almost anything for eight to 12 hours. The foreman was waiting for Andy beside the time clock. The supervisor grinned to himself as he watched Andy search for his card. He had put it in the same slot in the same row since his first day on the job almost two years earlier. It made the process a lot quicker if he didn't have to search through card after card to find the one with his name on it.

Now, it wasn't there. There was an empty slot in the third spot from the bottom of the fifth row.

"You're supposed to go directly to the office," the man informed him. Andy frowned as he watched the time clock move past 4 p.m. Even when he worked in the office, he punched in at the warehouse clock. Now he was going to be late for the first time during his employment.

The supervisor fell into step beside his employee as Andy headed up the stairs to the nice air conditioned second-floor offices. He saw Melinda Amos waiting at the top for him.

He gave her a nod. She worked in personnel so he wouldn't be in her department. He was surprised when she stepped out of her doorway and gestured for Andy to enter. Andy's supervisor followed him in and closed the door. Andy's heart started to beat faster, certain that he was about to be dismissed.

"Did I mess up the pamphlets?" Andy asked. He hated the fact that he was about to be fired. Even though he was leaving at the end of the week, he had been proud of the fact that he had worked his last two years of high school and managed to keep both his job and his education on track.

"The pamphlets were fine, Andy," the supervisor said. "You saved us about $5,000 in shipping costs by finishing them so quickly. That's part of the reason why I brought you up here."

"The other reason is because we're overstaffed for the rest of the week," Melinda told him. "We hired two new probationary employees yesterday so we're not going to need part-timers this week."

Andy frowned again. The normal procedure was to call the employee if he wasn't to come in. Belatedly, he realized that no one at AWG had his new phone numbers.

"Crap!" he muttered. "I forgot to inform you guys that my phone number and address changed. I hope you didn't waste too much time trying to get in touch with me."

Melinda actually laughed.

"I didn't try to call you," she admitted. "The owners wanted you to come out today so we could give you these."

She passed across two envelopes. Andy saw the one on top was the paycheck he was due. He didn't know what the second contained.

"We're giving you the rest of the week off with pay," Melinda explained when she saw the confused look on Andy's face. Andy's befuddlement deepened.

"Almost everyone here knows Melinda's little girl," the supervisor cut in. "She used to run around the docks on her Big Wheel when she was three or four years old. We heard what you did for her. The owners were impressed with your ingenuity and the rest of us were happy that you were willing to step up for her. The two boys we hired yesterday are the two that intervened on Leslie's behalf. This is just our way of saying 'Thank you' not only for the work you did while you were here but for looking out for people outside of here."

"I... ," Andy stammered, looking from the man to Melinda. He'd never heard of anyone in his situation getting time off with pay. As a part-time employee, he didn't qualify for vacation or personal days.

"Thank you," he settled upon.

"We're also treating this as a layoff instead of a voluntary separation," Melinda informed him.

"OK," Andy answered. He didn't see the distinction but it appeared important to her that she told him.

"That will let you collect limited unemployment," Melinda explained. "The second check lifts you over the threshold for your base year. It might not sound like a whole lot but you'll get about $300 a month for the next four to six months. It'll help out with the college incidentals, I'm sure."

"That's not necessary," Andy said, touched by the gesture.

"It will also let us bring you back on immediately if you find you want to work during your breaks or even for a weekend or two for some spending money," Melinda told him. "If you run a little short of cash, give me a call. I'll schedule a drug test and you can work the next afternoon if you need to. If we find we need someone of your skill set for a short period, we can just pick up the phone and call you in if you're agreeable. You're not committed to returning. But this way, we have options."

"Andy, I'm not sure you've gotten a real understanding of how things operate down there," the supervisor said, turning in his seat to face Andy. "I know last week seemed like the worst job in the world ... and it might have been. But you did it; you did it right; you did it quickly; and you did it without a complaint. The others? I might have gotten two out of the four – and the bitching would be constant. You? I told you what needed to be done and went about the rest of my job. I didn't have to run over every 15 minutes to make sure you were still where you were supposed to be. I didn't have to have someone go over every skid with a fine-toothed comb to make sure everything was correct. Quality Control checked one skid out of every hundred because they saw your name on the skid label. You saved us not only the costs of next-day shipping; you save us man hours on the floor; in QC and in the office.

"To me, an employee like you is worth his weight in gold. In the future, should something like last week crop up again, I'm not really going to have someone I know I can rely upon to handle it."

"Give Wyatt and Billy a shot," Andy said. "Neither of them is stupid and I think you'll be pleased with how hard they'll work for you."

"I'm already pleased," the supervisor said with a nod. "But a lot of people start out that way. You're one of the very few that still works as hard two years in as you did on your first day. That's the sort of thing people notice, Andy. I'm not talking about me and Melinda. I'm talking about our boss and our boss' boss. This is the sort of job where we can't keep good people. It's unskilled labor. We pay what the job is worth to the company; not what the people are worth to us. That's the only way we can stay in business, I guess. You'll probably learn all this in college. But, my point is, your work ethic hasn't changed one bit in two years. You do the same things today as you did when you started; you just do them better."

"Do you know how many employees have never been late in two years?" Melinda asked. She didn't wait for Andy to reply. "You. That's it! You. You've never called in sick. You've never left before your shift ended. You've never been even two seconds late."

"Even today," the supervisor added with a laugh. "I always dread it when someone gives notice – and not just because I'll have to replace them. I know that the next two weeks will be filled with call-offs or screw-offs. Almost always, they start to come in late and leave early. And when they're here, they're more interested in telling everyone how happy they are to be leaving than to actually do the work they're being paid to do. I don't blame them; I understand the sentiment. I was already trying to think of some way to let you know how happy everyone was with how you handled you last job. I mean, we can't really give bonuses for exceptional performance without people looking for one for just doing what they're already paid to do. When I found out what you did on Saturday, I called the owners. This was their idea but Melinda and all the supervisors immediately signed off on it."

Andy's head was still swimming when he walked down the stairs to exit the building. He had no locker so he didn't need to clean it out. He could just leave – except he couldn't.

Wyatt Erving and Billy Green were standing at the time clock getting their orientation from one of the older workers – the forklift driver, Monica Worthy.

"Hey, Andy," Billy said when he saw him. "Dude, I'm sorry about what happened. If we had known they were going to let you go, we would have waited to apply."

"It's no problem," Andy said. "This was my last couple of days anyway. Congratulations on getting hired. How's Stan?"

"Still woozy," Wyatt replied. "He was a little worried that the concussion would keep him out of the Air Force."

"Oh, shit," Andy said, shaking his head.

"He's cool," Wyatt told him. "The recruiter said that unless something came up on the physical, no one would even ask him about it. Hey, thanks for ... you know ... stepping up to my dad on Saturday. He's ... he's been different the past couple of days. He's happy that I managed to get on here – and that I'm going to graduate. That Mexican woman came out yesterday. She got things set up. I have to do an essay on doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and I get a diploma."

"Me, too," Billy offered.

"Good," Andy said, happy that he wasn't going to have hold Anita Lopez's feet to the fire to get it done. "Well, I probably better let you get to work. I'm glad things are going to be OK for you guys. I was ... Saturday was ... you guys did good."

"Take care of yourself," Monica told him. "We're going to miss you around here."

"Believe it or not, I'm going to miss working here," Andy admitted for the first time.

"You got your whole life ahead of you," Monica told him. "Look, we're going to miss you but ... we don't really want to see you back here – unless it's in one of the big offices upstairs. OK?"

She gave him a hug and went back to showing the new employees what they needed to do to get paid. Andy walked out to his car, turned and looked back at the building one last time then got in his car and pulled out his phone.

Regan was pulling her golf clubs to the elevator when she felt her phone vibrate. She didn't have a free hand so she figured she'd check it when she got the lobby. Andy was working and anyone else could wait, she decided.

She was headed to the golf course with Ruth, Joy, Lisa and Katrina for the evening. The shuttle service would pick them up in a couple of minutes and the others had waited for her because she had been talking to Andy.

"About time!" Katrina said with a laugh when Regan emerged from the elevator. "Ruth said you were probably sexting or something."

"Andy was driving to work," Regan said with a shrug. She decided that she wouldn't mind sexting with Andy. In fact, she decided, that she'd start by sending him one while she rode to the golf course with her friends. The thought reminded her of the phone call she'd missed. She fished her phone out of her skirt and saw Andy's number.

Everyone around her noticed her immediate frown.

"What's wrong?" Ruth asked.

Regan shook her head. Andy hadn't left a voicemail so she called his number. She was surprised when he answered.

"Are you in the office tonight?" she asked as the girls headed to the shuttle van. Andy had said that was the only time he could really sneak an evening phone call.

"They let me go," Andy told her. Regan stopped walking, causing the others to stop, too.

"They fired you?" Regan asked.

"Well, not really," Andy replied. "They hired Billy and Wyatt yesterday so they don't need me anymore."

"Oh, Andy, I'm sorry," Regan said. She alone knew how much pride Andy took from working while in high school. She also knew he had plans for the money – although she didn't know what those plans might be.

"It's cool, I guess," Andy said. "It was sort of weird. Melinda Amos – that's Leslie's mom – and the supervisor pulled me upstairs. They told me it was a lay off and not a termination. That seemed important to them. Anyway, they paid me for not working."

Regan got a confused look in her face as Ruth came back from the van to get Regan's clubs for storage in the back of the vehicle.

"They paid you for not working this week?" she repeated.

"Yeah," Andy said. "They gave me two paychecks. The first was from the last couple of weeks. The second is for this week, I guess. I really didn't look."

He opened the first envelope and found his paycheck from the two previous weeks. As he expected, it was pretty small – $168. The second envelope had a letter instructing him how to collect unemployment compensation that he barely glanced at.

"Crap," he said in amazement. Regan had made her way to the van while Andy looked at his money situation.

"What?" Regan asked urgently.

"They paid me for 80 hours," he said, looking at the check for almost $700. "It says unused vacation time. I don't have vacation time. I'm part time."

The situation clicked in Regan's head and she smiled as the van pulled away.

"They are proud of you," she said.

"Huh?" Andy wondered.

"They're proud of you!" Regan said again. "This is their way of showing their appreciation not only for what you do for them but for who you are. Oh, Andy! This is actually pretty cool. Hey, have you passed the golf course road yet?"

Andy would have drive right past the course on his way back to the city.