Chapter 15

The next morning we contacted the gal we rented the shop from, and told her we wanted another location and if she had anything that might work. After showers and breakfast we drove to her office, and quickly assured her we were not looking to move, this was to be a new location. Becky described what she wanted, and soon we were in her Towncar and driving to Studio City.

We checked out four locations, and none of them seemed right. Two were far too small, and she finally understood we were serious about the square footage we had discussed. The third was the right size but had been a medical office and we were not supposed to make major changed in the floorplan so we rejected that. Then the next was not in a good location, being on a side street that would limit visibility.

Then the next seemed to be it. We pulled up in front, and it was a stand-alone building on a corner, with a parking lot around the side and back. “This one needs a lot of work, and it might be too big. This was a Crocker National Bank when Wells-Fargo bought them and was closed. It’s been vacant for three years now and has quite a bit of damage. But here, let’s go inside.”

The outside did look sad, with most of the windows covered with plywood and graffiti covering the sides. And inside it was around 1,500 square feet. And she was right, most of it was trashed. But the old tile looked to be in good shape. And even though it was a bit smaller than we were looking, it had a second floor which in square footage would make it larger.

She went to her car and pulled out three flashlights, and we went upstairs. It was obvious that bums had been sleeping up there, dirty mattresses, used condoms, trash, and needles were visible everywhere. The toilets were all overflowing with crap since the water had obviously long been turned off. And there was smoke damage from a small barbecue that had been used in one of the offices. There were four offices upstairs, a bathroom, and a large storage room. Upstairs was around 500 square feet, so it was over 2,000 in total. And it was easy to see that Becky liked the place.

“I know it will take a lot of work, but I think this could be perfect! I wanna look downstairs again.” We walked around again, and there were four offices, a smaller storeroom, and a thirty square foot vault in the corner. We asked the price, and when she told us, Becky just shook her head no.

“No, this is what you do. We will pay that much, but only if they spend the money to completely repair it and bring it up to an acceptable condition. Tell them that we will either rent it for half that much, or we will submit an offer for $200,000 as is. It is going to cost a lot of money to get this place up again, and you and I both know this is a white elephant they want to get rid of. Let them know we are willing to negotiate, but we can always look elsewhere. Are they willing to sit on this for another three years, and risk more damage before they finally find a sucker to take this off their hands?”

She nodded and smiled, and said she would make a call. On the way back to her office we checked out two other properties, and one looked doable if the bank location fell through. It was a closed grocery store and was over 2,000 square space. But it was much more conventional in layout. In other words, largely an empty rectangular box.

We got to the office and the secretary brought us all coffee as she made the call. She talked to several different people, then gave them our proposal. She then smiled and said she would await their call. “OK, they asked for a week to consider your proposals. The guy I talked to is in their San Francisco office, and he said he is going to have their facilities guy in LA go and check it out. Apparently, he had no idea how bad of a condition it was in. But I think you are right Becky, they want to get rid of it. As soon as they contact me, I will let you know.”

After that, we went to the shop, and Becky started calling lawyers. On the fourth call, she seemed to have struck gold. She gave me a big thumbs-up, and said she would be there in an hour. “Baby, I may have struck gold. Let’s get going, we have to go to Wilshire.”

On the way, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the drive. I whistled when she told me the lawyer we were meeting. I actually heard of her, she was a bulldog and had been involved in several high profile cases. Most of her cases had involved female rights, and while I thought of her as a radical, I had to admit she might be just the lawyer Becky needed.

We only had to wait for about 5 minutes and we were ushered into her office. She was a short lady but seemed full of energy. She seemed a bit taken aback at seeing Becky in her skirt and blouse, and she explained we had been looking at some property. “Do you always dress like this, Ms. Maldonado?”

“Well, most of the time, yes. Why?” She just smiled, and then started to ask the particulars about the case. And as she wrote notes she would ask more questions, and she did seem to be getting perturbed.

“Well, if you will have me I will take your case. This is a classic case of sexual discrimination, as well as age discrimination. I will arrange for another of my partners to work out a deposition with you in a few days, and I will have one of my clerks start to do some quiet digging. But this is how I want to play it. I will hire a PI to dig into this manager, I bet there is something going on that not even the company knows about. Do you have any copies of their policies?”

She was pleased when Becky said not only did she have them at home but also copies of all of her performance reviews and contracts. “OK, I will send a courier tomorrow to pick them up, can you get copies made between now and then?” She smiled when Becky said she would have the copies ready, and gave her the address for the shop. She also gave the names of the two witnesses, and that one of them would be very favorable. Even though he was potentially getting promoted into her old job, he was also furious she was getting fired. “That’s even better! A man moving up but pissed at how he is doing it. OK, here is what I would expect if Sears, Roebuck, and Company are smart.”

She looked at all of her notes and then smiled. “I figure it will take two weeks to do the research and talk to this assistant of yours. But I am figuring we hit them with a $1.5 million dollar lawsuit. Hold a press conference in front of the store, and alert the media so at the time they are delivering the packet we are telling the press. Now I am betting that when it is all said and done, I can get them to settle for around $1.2 million. That will leave you around $1 million, and I will see what else I can arrange. But let me do some digging, I will get back with you in about a week.”

Becky gave her the address and phone numbers both for home and the shop, and she asked what we were looking for property for. “Well, I recently got medically retired from the Marines and started a business selling used computers. It really took off, and Becky started a sideline with me, doing publishing and music. This is going to be her place, and I am keeping my store also.” She was a bit concerned about our plans, then I said how I had gotten injured, and the settlement would easily pay for the new place.

“I can easily afford this, but Becky here is adamant that she pay me back, and that she makes this work on her own. We were already planning this, which is why she expected to walk out of that meeting with either a promotion and we would continue as we had been. Or turning in her two week notice, and she would pay me back as her business took off. Her getting fired like that surprised both of us, but we were already planning this out.” Becky took my hand and squeezed as I said that. We both shook her hand and left, and Becky was really excited.

“I can’t believe I was able to get her. She normally only takes big cases.”

“Becky, this is a big case. There is no doubt you were outrageously discriminated against, and I bet she will dig up even more. Now I am curious to see what else she digs up.”

On the way back to the shop I saw a computer store I had not noticed in Koreatown, and we pulled in. What caught my eye was the banner in front saying “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS”. We went in, and it was a middle-aged Korean lady behind the counter. We both looked around, and it reminded me of Herb’s shop. Some older but sill new stuff in the front, a few new systems, and a lot of new old parts. Becky was talking to the lady, and we soon learned that her father had owned it, but he had a heart attack two months before and had died. She was trying to sell off everything so she could close it, and I smiled and said I might be interested in buying her out.

She let me into the back, and indeed it was a lot like Herb’s. Years of old computers stacked everywhere, but she admitted she had no idea what condition any of them were in. I asked her how much she wanted for everything, and she looked at me. Becky handed her one of our cards and explained we bought old stock from other stores, and then resold it. But we had done something similar before, buying entire stores and moving everything out in a week or less.

“Now if you like, we can take a detailed inventory then make an offer, or you can just tell us how much you want as is and we will take a chance. But I can have everything out within a week, so you can not only have money but get out of this lease. No pressure Ma’am, you can call us at any time. We can take it all, or just part. You just let us know.”

She smiled and then asked if we would like some tea. She closed up and soon we were at a small Korean place a block away. “I will admit, I know almost nothing about computers. Dad left it to me, and I have been trying to get rid of the place since then. My husband hates that I have had to hire a babysitter to take care of the kids after school, I have not even sold enough to pay for that. And nobody has given me anywhere near a fair offer yet.”

I told her about Herb, and how he wanted to return home as he had cancer. “I did not even know that at the time, but he made me an offer and I took it. Most of the new stuff I traded with a guy that owns another store next door, we have an arrangement. I buy all of his old stuff and do not sell new computers. And it works out well for both of us. Both of us have profited because we feed customers to each other.”

She then asked some questions about us, and after finishing the tea she nodded, and we headed back to the shop. Once inside she asked me to take another look through and make a price in my head. I smiled and did so. I then did as she asked and wrote a number on a piece of paper. $15,000. I handed it to Becky, and she looked and nodded.

“OK, here is my number. $17,500 for everything. And like with your Mister Herb, we own all the fixtures also, so take those. What was your offer going to be?” Becky handed her the paper, and she smiled. “OK, we have a deal. Our largest offer before you was for $5,000, and you pretty much hit my actual target. Make it for $15,001 and we have a deal.” We both smiled and shook hands, and she giggled and smiled. She then hugged both of us and said she was now very happy. Because she could go back to being a housewife again.

I asked how she wanted to be paid, and she said a check was fine. So Becky went to the car and got the checkbook, and as I filled it out she started looking through the back again. “OK, the store is yours. My husband will insist that we make sure this clears before you take anything, but is there anything you think you might want now?”

Becky nodded, and she soon had two boxes filled with things that caught her eye. I gave her one of our cards, and on the back wrote our home phone number. “If you want you can call my shop now, my stepmother and brother are there so you can see that we really do own a shop in Burbank.”

I loaded the boxes into the back of the car, and watched as she turned the sign around saying “CLOSED”, then asked if she could have that and the neon sign in the window with her father’s name on it. I of course said she could, and unhooked the neon sign saying “Mr. Kim’s Computers” and put it in the trunk of her car. I said I would call her on Friday if we had not heard from her by then.

By the time we got back to the shop, Becky was already moaning her garage would be full again, but it was with a grin. We went in to talk to Cliff, and I handed him one of the copies of Novell 86. I then asked him if he knew anybody that could teach me wiring, and he said he could do that. We went to our shop and I showed him what all I had bought, and he was impressed. “What are you going to do with all of this Pete?”

“Well, I want to wire this up with Cat 3 cable, and my dad’s house also. They are moving to Idaho next year, and Becky and I will be moving in there. She made a proposal for a building on Lankershim, and I will wire that up also but with new equipment. I am betting that in a few years coax will be dead other than in homes, and I need to learn how to use this kind of wiring.”

We told him about the plans for her shop, and he nodded. “Yeah, that is no competition, even if you opened a location there. I would not see it as competition way out there. I will come over in a day or so and we can start laying out how to wire you up. I will close early, and we can head over to the hardware store and get the rest of the stuff you need.”

At 5 Cliff closed, and we hopped in my car and we drove to the big hardware store a few miles away. I got 15 sockets in boxes to mount in the wall, something he called a “punch-down tool”, then we drove to a construction store he knew of nearby. There I bought four items he called a “patch panel” with 15 ports each, and two brackets to mount them in. And finally, two wire testing kits.

“If we are going to do this, we are going to do it right. All the wires go to this, then from this, they are connected to that hub you got. We mount them on the wall, and it is easy to troubleshoot and repair. My fee is one of those test kits you bought.” I laughed and said it was his.

The next day I went to the Recycler and put an advertisement saying that I was hiring. one full-time employee for retail work, two for technical, and two others part-time as needed for lifting and moving. And I was a bit surprised when just after noon I got a call and was told my check had cleared and I was welcome to come and start picking things up. I told her we would be there in 45 minutes, and Becky and I got into the truck.

She smiled when we pulled in and hugged us both. “My husband went to the bank and they told him the check was good this morning. How do you want to do this?” I asked her if I could if she could give me a key so I could come and go as needed and load everything up when I could. She said that was fine, and she gave Becky the alarm code as I started to clear out the back room. My first priority was the systems, there were over a hundred of them, and another 60 monitors. I then collected up the “other computers”, mostly Apple and Commodore. I also saw we would be getting another seven display counters and two tall display cases. These we would hold for Becky’s place.

I had loaded up all of the systems I could see, and Becky was loading up some more boxes. And with a wave, she left as Becky set the alarm and locked the store. “God, things are really working out sweetie. I can hardly believe how this is all going!”

“Well, Cliff did warn me a lot of places were going under when we first discussed this last year. We are doing good because of volume, and buying cheap. I can already tell half of what is in the back are probably XT systems, I am going to knock down the price of those a bit more. But we also got a lot of new stuff, and this time I am keeping it. I figure there is enough there to make ten new systems, those will be your first computers. If you can call Mandy and get those names, I want to paint all of the cases and make them all special. I intend Orbit Computers to be high end, and they will look it. No beige boxes, I want colors. Black, red, blue, silver, even some with flames on the side. Something a musician would be proud to have with them up on a stage.”

I pulled in behind the shop, and Dee told us as soon as we went in that Becky had a call. So Becky returned it as I started to unload the truck. I had just finished setting down the second stack of computers when she ran in and threw herself into my arms. “They took it! They took the offer Pete! They agreed, $200,000 as is! She said we can make arrangements for contractors as they are doing the paperwork, but as soon as we can deliver a check they will start escrow!” We hugged and kissed, then Dee joined us.

The next call was to George Flushing, who said he would start the incorporation process. Two businesses, “Or’Bit Computer Concepts”, and “New Dawn”, for Becky. Both would be incorporated in Nevada, with the two of us, dad, Dee, and him on the board. We then went to my bank and got a bank check for the money and I had barely stepped out of the car at the shop when Becky was driving off to the agent.

I laughed and finished unloading the truck, and pulled it back into the front. I was checking out the fifth system when Becky came back. She grinned and handed me a set of keys. “We can’t do any work until it closes, but we can go inside and start to make plans.”

We hugged again and she took Dee over to check it out as I continued checking systems. And I was surprised that ten of the systems were brand new, 386 and just needing hard drives. I was finishing the last of the initial checks when the gals came back, and Dee admitted she was impressed. “Oh, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think you two did good. I will call Larry and we can meet there when he gets off of work. I bet he knows somebody who can do most of that for you.”

After we closed early we followed Dee home, then her and Georgie got into the back of our car and we drove to the new shop. Becky had bought some flashlights when she was there earlier with Dee, and we were looking around again when dad got there. He whistled when he saw it, and what all would be involved in getting it working.

“Son, tomorrow ask the agent to get permission to have a large trash bin delivered. That way you can start the cleaning process, surely they will authorize that so long as you do no demo work yet. One of the guys on my bowling league does just this kind of work, I will give him a call and have him get ahold of you. I bet you are looking at $100,000 easy, but this will clean up nicely. Did you notice the floors?”

“Yeah, that’s marble, right?”

“Yep, sure is. And get that vault door checked, you can use it for high-value inventory. Will help keep your cost for insurance down. Becky, how were you going to arrange this?” Becky then walked around, describing how the front would be for musical equipment and new computers, and the back for the printing operation. She would rip out all of the offices back there, and the copiers, printers, binding equipment, and at least one workstation would be back there. She would keep the teller counters that were salvageable as about half were destroyed, and use those as the sales counters. Then the cabinets we got from Kim’s in the rest for display.

“Upstairs will be offices. I figure one for me, another for Pete, one for another worker if needed, and the last two combined into a meeting room. This way Pete can also work out of it, and we both can have meetings there. That will be a more professional environment than an old kitchen table at the back of his shop.” We all laughed, and dad said that made sense.

We went ahead and drove to a restaurant nearby, and I asked dad if he knew of anybody I could hire that weekend to help me clear out the other computer store. I said they could have either $75, or one of the XT computers. He laughed and asked how many and I told him three should be fine. “Oh, that’s not a problem at all. Where are you putting it all?” I told him the computer stuff mostly in the back of the shop, the rest in the garages. He nodded and said he would find the people.

“Oh, and in the next Recycler there is going to be an ad. For a full-time sales assistant for here, two technicians, and two part-time on-call laborers to help me do this in the future. I need to plan for you guys leaving, and I might as well get somebody else trained and know I can trust them before Dee quits.”

She laughed, and soon we were hugging goodbye and heading home. The next day Becky got a call to go see her lawyer for the deposition, and to find out what she had discovered so far. I was sorting through the stuff we had already brought over, and moving some things around in the back when Dee got there.

“Oh Pete, Larry said to tell you to get a bunch of plastic tubs, around ten gallons or so each. You can use those to pack things into, and store them also. Then as you empty them they can be stacked and reused the next time you buy out a store.” I laughed and said it was a good idea. So after lunch, I headed to the hardware store and got forty of them.

Becky came in as I was organizing things better and gave me a hug. “Oh, they were so happy! They went over the papers I gave them, and there is no doubt he broke company policies, and they are seeing other irregularities as well. And James already gave a deposition earlier today, confirming everything I said. Including that he overheard my old boss calling me a ‘wetback’ the next day and trying to tell some of the other managers that I had offered to have sex with him for the promotion. Two of them have already agreed to give depositions also!”

Shortly afterward, the first calls started to come in for people looking for work. I had already printed up some applications, and Dee was telling them to come on by and fill one out if somebody called. Cliff had shown me how to make what he called “patch cables”, three to five foot long segments with the large phone connectors on each end. I was finishing the third good one after ten failed attempts when somebody came in, and I could hear Dee talking to somebody excitedly. “Peter, there is somebody you really need to see up here.”

I finished crimping the wire and put down the tool, and went into the front. There was a gal looking at one of the computers. And when she turned around, I walked quickly over with a big smile. “Julie! Hey, been ages! How have you been?” We quickly exchanged hugs, and she kissed my cheek.

“Well, college did not work out, I could not get the science classes down and had to drop out. The store I was working for closed last month, and I have been looking for work ever since. Is this really yours?”

I nodded and said it was. I showed her around and told her what all had happened since I last saw her. She had heard about what happened with Linda, and said she was sorry things had gone the way they had. I just shrugged and said that was largely in the past now. “I thought the voice was familiar when I called, and when I walked in and saw Dee I knew why. But it was a shock to see you both. And little Georgie! My, how you have grown!” Georgie was sitting in her lap as she said that, and giggled when she tickled his side.

“Well, I take it you are looking for work then right?” She nodded, and I smiled. “OK then, let’s make this simple. How much do you want an hour?” She said $4 an hour was what she was hoping for, and she looked stricken when I shook my head no. “Oh no Julie, not $4 an hour. Here is what I want. Fill out the application so I can put it in the file, and you can start tomorrow at $5.50 an hour. Dee, if anybody else calls let them know we have filled the sales position, but the other ones are still available. And we will still take applications for future positions. Maybe when Becky opens she can hire some of them.”

Julie leaned over and kissed my cheek, and hugged Georgie to her chest. “Oh, and there is one other condition though. Becky will be back soon, she has to approve of you also. But that should not be a problem. But we are partners, and I also require her input.”

“Partners, as in business partners?”

Dee smiled, and I said “That too. She’s my girlfriend, we have been together for over a year now. But we are in this together, and anybody I hire has to get along with her also. Ah, speak of the devil!”

I saw Becky pull up, and she came in and looked at us with Georgie in Julie’s lap and smiled. I introduced them, and I went to help a customer as they sat at the table talking. A bit later when I went back Becky smiled and nodded. “Well, Georgie says she is a ‘nice girl’, that is good enough for me. I agree, welcome to the family Julie.” We all hugged again, and once the application was filled out I pulled out $50 and handed it to her.

“OK Julie, this is for today and a sign-on bonus. As you can see, we all dress professionally here. The dress code is skirts or dresses as you can see for Dee and Becky, slacks, and a nice shirt for me. If you have a problem with that, talk to Becky, that is all her idea. If she approves, I will approve. I suggest keeping sweats or jeans and a shirt in the back, in case you need to do work that requires that, but how these ladies dress, that is what is expected.”

She smiled and said that was not a problem, her last job was at a dress shop so she had a lot of appropriate attire already. Dee then took charge of starting to show her what was expected as I went back to making cables.

On Saturday, by 9 there were three guys at the store with dad and after giving him the address Becky followed me in her car with two of them and one went with dad. I put her in charge of filling up the tubs, and she was filling them with stuff in the front and dad with filling them with things in the back as the other guys and I started to load the back of the truck. Eight metal shelves and boxes of cards were already loaded, and then all the remaining systems and monitors. We took all that to the store and unloaded them, and when we got back we started loading the tubs.

By just after 6, all that was left was the display cases. Once those were in dad headed home and Becky headed to the shop as two of them piled in the truck with me and we drove to dad’s house. We got the cabinets in, and the garage was full again. We then went back to the shop, and all three of them asked for a computer. I laughed and gave them each one from the back, and they all seemed very happy.

Once again we were stuffed to the gills with computers, but I had a feeling that would not last long. Becky and I stopped and got beef bowls on the way home, and sat in the living room and watched TV as we talked about the week. On Monday we were going to meet the contractor at the new store, and he would give us a preliminary estimate prior to a full workup. She had gotten permission for the dumpster already, and she would make arrangements for that on Monday.

She gave me a kiss and went to get ready for bed, and when she came back in wearing a long t-shirt without a bra, she told me to get changed also. I smiled and just went into the bedroom and stripped to my underwear and she had me lay on the couch, with her laying in front of me. She then hit the play button on the remote for the VCR. Turns out this time it was “Angel on Fire”, about a crude and abusive man who died, and was made to come back as a female. Where she now had to suffer much of the same abuse he had dished out as a man, but now as the woman.

Less than halfway through, Becky pushed off my underwear as I realized she was not wearing any panties, and I was inside of her as we continued to watch. Becky was surprised when the first person the returned “girl” had sex with was the guy that had killed her, then at how she submissively accepted how the guys later treated her like dirt. Then the ending, which surprised her.

I was somewhat surprised when Becky pulled herself off of me, then sat up and smiled before laying back down, this time on her side facing me and laying reverse. I felt her take me into her mouth as she lifted her thigh and pushed her pussy towards my face. I reached around and pulled her in, and we were in a delightful if awkward 69. And it did not take long before she was moaning around my cock as she came, and I was not far behind. We continued to lick and kiss each other’s privates for several more minutes, until she stood up and reached down, and hand and hand we went to bed.

She had me lie on my back and cuddled on my chest, and we talked about the movie. She said once again that it was really unusual, and not what she had imagined porn would be like. “I had seen magazines in the past, and heard people talking about it. But so far most have been rather good. And while that one did some degrading of women, it also showed it was wrong, and not tolerated.”

“Well, there are some that are kinda bad. I actually gave several of those away long ago, these are ones that I decided to keep because they were good. Not just fucking, but a decent story and acting. If you want, we can try and rent some, but we have to make sure they are all older tapes, nothing after 1984. But there are a lot of old ones we can try.”

She said she would think about it, and after several more kisses, we fell asleep. On Sunday we opened the shop, and then Cliff came by and showed me how to set up the cable. Mostly using a small hand saw we cut the holes for the new boxes we mounted in the wall, then running the cables as Becky went to each of the store computers and swapped the network cards for those I had bought on the trip. Then once it was all hooked up and the cables run into the storeroom we set up the hub and patch panel and moved the server to a desk I had placed under it. Becky plugged in all the computers as we tested the cables and hooked them all up.