Chapter 23

Finally they were back in their apartment in Huntington Beach. It was only then that Brad told Kim that he was having a house built for them next to the Christians. He had one piece of “bad” news for her, though. Their gas well was a full 40 feet away from where their generators were to be housed. On the other hand, it was between the generator building and the house, so it wasn’t all bad. He explained it had to be there to avoid tapping into the same head of gas the Christians were using, and that would never do. After all, using the same head would cause them to run out in only about 250 years, and they certainly couldn’t have that.

They only had a week in the States before they were leaving for Germany. When they were picked up at the airport by the Douglases, Dan could hardly contain himself. He told them that he had heard from the German government the previous week. An official wanted to know if he was planning on blowing the new Kelly Jackson Bridge. It was no problem, of course, it was just that they wanted to have heavy equipment standing by to clear the rubble from the river.

The government official pointed out that the Weser, like so many other rivers in Western Europe, had a great deal of barge traffic and a bridge lying across the river would represent a certain impediment to navigation. Moreover, it could act as a bit of a dam, and that could be troublesome, too.

Dan had quickly assured him that the bridge would be left intact. In fact, he told Brad and Kim, the special effects work of “blowing the bridge” was already in the can.

On Monday morning the two went into the plant together. They expected they would be seeing George Harrison and Bill Miller, but they wanted to have a chance to look around first so they arrived early. They found their new offices side by side and adjacent to George and Bill’s. They also found brand new hardhats — they were in management white — with the AT logo and neatly lettered K KRAMER and B KRAMER.

“Now we’re really married!” Kim said giving Brad a warm kiss. As usual, it was intended to be a quick peck but also, as usual, that’s not the way it ended up. She just melted into his arms and realized as she did that it was truly where she wanted to spend the rest of her life. But she continued, “Just think! His and Her hardhats! How incredibly romantic.”

Then she changed her tone and said, “Darling, know what?”

“What?”

“I never gave you anything for a wedding present, so...”

“So?”

“You’ve owned my meager tits for months, so now I’m giving you my pussy and my asshole. They’re yours, my darling, to use anyway you want.” She paused and then added, “William Bradley Kramer, Jr., I adore you!”

“And I have the loveliest, most loving wife on the face of the earth! Kim, you’re perfect.”

The two made their way down to the factory floor. As they were descending the steel ladder, they saw another white hardhat. Because it was so early — earlier than executives were normally in, let alone on the plant floor — they stopped on the stairway to watch.

It came as absolutely no surprise when they recognized Jenny Clark. She went up to a young female machine operator and started to speak to her. After just a few words, the girl began to cry. Jenny motioned and a relief operator came over to replace the girl. Putting her arm over the girl’s shoulder, Jenny led her to the plant cafeteria.

Brad and Kim instantly decided to follow. Entering the cafeteria, they were amazed. In just their short absence, it had been completely redone. First, it was wonderfully quiet — when the door closed there was no longer a sound coming from the plant floor — and had been completely redecorated. It had been divided into areas using planters as dividers which broke up the expanse and had the effect of creating a number of smaller dining areas. They watched as Jenny bought coffee for the girl and then took her to a table away from everyone else.

Brad and Kim got coffee, too. They found a table hidden by one of the planters from Jenny and the girl but separated from them only by vegetation. Quickly they learned what the problem was: The girl had found that she was pregnant and her boyfriend didn’t want to marry her. He wanted her to have an abortion instead, but she really didn’t want to.

Jenny told the girl that she had organized a little support group for unwed expectant mothers. There were three other girls in it, as well as several others who had been in that position in the past. After asking the girl about her baby’s father, Jenny told her that a very good adoption would be easy to arrange. The girl’s eyes widened as Jenny told her of thousands of couples who desperately wanted to adopt a child.

Kim just slowly shook her head as she watched the change in the girl. It was like a very heavy load was being lifted from her shoulders. When they finished their talk, the girl expressed her eagerness to meet the other girls and see how the support group worked. Jenny promised that she would arrange a meeting as soon as possible, either at lunch or immediately after work that day. As they headed back toward the plant floor, the girl was almost bouncing with happiness. Jenny had opened up a new vista for her.

“What a woman!” Kim said softly. “Have you ever seen a more caring person in your life?”

“Yep,” Brad replied blandly. “You.”

With that they returned to their tour of the plant — all the machines in service were the new ones — and it was clear that the new plant expansion would be operational in just a few more weeks. Returning to the offices, they found George and Bill in Kim’s office waiting for them.

Quickly Kim described what they had observed earlier. Bill Miller just shook his head. “That woman is utterly unreal! She’s only been in the job for a few weeks but she is already one of the company’s most valuable assets. Employee morale has never been higher. I don’t know how she does it, but if anyone — and I mean anyone — in the plant is having a problem, Jenny knows it and is there with a solution.”

Then he grinned and added, “By the way, you two of course know that personnel is very much a part of administration. Care to guess how many people are in the unit now?”

“Fifteen?” Kim suggested. She didn’t know how many people were in it when Ben Brewster ran administration, but thought the number was 25 or more.

“There are now three, plus Jenny,” Miller replied with a grin. “When she took over, there were 28. Can you believe that woman? Now there’s a girl who handles benefits, one who handles payroll, a secretary and Jenny. Jenny personally does everything else, most particularly all the interviewing.

“Our managers and supervisors report that since she’s taken over, the quality of our hires has soared. As one foreman said, he didn’t realize there were that many good workers in all of Southern California. But that’s not all. Every single candidate comes out of Jenny’s office with a marvelous smile on his or her face. And that’s regardless of whether she made the person an offer or not. It seems that if Jenny doesn’t think the person will fit in here, she almost always gives them the name of another company that’s looking for a person like him or her. Can you believe it?” He just shook his head.

Then George came into the discussion. “You both know that from the first day Jenny’s girls referred to themselves as the Leper Colony.” He chuckled, shook his head and continued, “Well, about ten days ago one of the girls made a little sign that said ‘Leper Colony’ and hung it beside their door. Let’s see what’s going on now.”