Chapter 8: Hawaii

Shannon had us to the airport in record speed, we arrived there at 5:30am I looked at my watch and said,

"You know this being the owner thing isn't all it's cracked up to be, I shouldn't have to be here this early."

Shannon looked at me for a second and said,

"Well as a lowly employee with a mean boss this is what it will take to keep him off my back for a little while, I am sorry that you had to find a girlfriend that has other obligations in life." Then she smiled a big smile and went in to make sure everything was going to be ready.

I wandered around for a while and then headed back to where we were all supposed to meet. Shannon was trying her best to keep her cool with one of the pilots when I walked up he said, "I don't care who you think you are lady, I can't let you sign for these planes I have to get a signature from John McDonald and you aren't him."

"I am John McDonald, what seems to be the problem?" I said.

The pilot turned to me as I walked up and put my arm around Shannon.

"Sir, I have been telling the young lady here that I am to deliver these 4 planes to you and only you," the pilot said.

"Deliver? Oh we bought the planes, well that's pretty good. You bought some planes, and he won't let you sign for them," I laughed as did most of the people that had arrived already.

I asked Shannon if she had a pen then quickly signed for the planes. The Pilot seemed quite satisfied that he had gotten his paperwork all signed until I called him back.

"Excuse me! Don't you require identification or are you just going to assume I am who I say I am?" I asked.

"Yes, I guess identification would be in order, do you have any?" he said.

"No, I don't but I think Shannon here has my wallet with her. She can probably show you something with a picture on it, she looks after most things like this for me," I replied.

Shannon dug through her purse and pulled out the wallet she had insisted she carry this morning so I couldn't forget it and miss the wedding she said.

Shannon showed the pilot my ID who then apologized to Shannon for the misunderstanding and told her we would be ready to take off at 8:00am as she requested.

Then she was off to make sure everyone was getting through customs ok. Rick came over and asked if I had anything to do with the fact Shannon said she was getting married on the trip. I told him that someone had to make an honest woman out of her and I figured it would be better this way; if I had to beat her it was ok to beat your wife but you can't beat an employee. Most of the people around us heard me and laughed but Shannon turned and glared at me for a moment. It had it's desired effect and I blushed a little.

Rick congratulated me as did most of the other people around, I wandered among all the people and was introduced to all the ones I didn't know, shared a laugh or two with some of the ones I had met before and met lots of kids, wives, and husbands I didn't really know existed. I met the woman that lived behind me, her husband was an accountant, (can you believe it, an accountant with a wife that sun bathed in the nude). She asked me if there were nice beaches where we were going and I said I didn't know. Just then Shannon appeared at my elbow to let her know that our Hotel would be right on the beach and on the flight over everyone would be asked if they would prefer to stay at the Hotel with clothing optional beaches or the fully clothed beach. This brought a big smile to her lips and mine as well.

Shannon looked at me and asked, "and which beach would you prefer Mr. McDonald?"

"You will have to ask my girlfriend about that, I don't think it is my decision to make," I replied.

That must have been the right answer as both women smiled and nodded their heads. I turned and started to walk away and Shannon took my arm leaned close and whispered in my ear, "I guess it will have to be clothing optional, I forgot to pack a swimsuit."

That started a tent in my pants; Shannon saw it and said, "down boy it's a long way to get there yet."

Once everyone was through customs it was our turn and everyone went out to the planes Shannon had her group escorting everyone to the right plane, We walked out to the planes and all I could see were three big planes so I looked up and didn't see any getting ready for takeoff, Shannon turned me away from where everyone else was going and walked me into a hangar and sitting there was a Lear jet; Jim and Rick as well as Jim's family were standing there. I walked up as Julie stuck her head out the door and said,

"Come on! We are supposed to take off before the others."

We all hurried on to the plane and then just stared at the lush interior.

"Wow; this thing is fantastic," I said.

Shannon said, "it was ordered by some millionaire and then by the time it came in he didn't have the down payment so I told them we would try it out and if we liked it we would buy it."

I looked around and finally I couldn't take it anymore, I said,

"Just how much is this little trip going to cost us Jim?"

"Half of everything you own! No just kidding, about 185 million by the time we are done if we buy this plane," Jim quipped as if it was nothing.

I sat down hard. "I didn't really think it would cost that much for a vacation. Where are we going to get that kind of money?"

"It is coming out of Shannon's budget mostly but Rick and I said we would chip in about 10% as we didn't feel we should have to pay for the purchase of the Hotels or the planes," Jim said.

"Ok but what is the bottom line, how much are we borrowing?" I said.

Shannon spoke up, "we don't have to borrow any money. This will come out of our general account and it doesn't leave us in bad shape."

"OK, every time we have this discussion you guys all gang up on me and let me know that I don't have a clue about this company, I was just scared I might have to sell my pickup truck," I laughed.

"You might as well sell it any way John. I see it sitting in the driveway every day, your chauffeur drives you around," Rick said.

Everyone started to laugh and Shannon winked at me.

As we were talking, the plane had exited the hangar and was headed out to the runway, the pilots told us to put on our seatbelts and then we accelerated. That plane took off out of there like it was nothing. Once we were in the air they told us we could get up and stretch our legs if we wanted. I turned and introduced my self to Jim's wife and two kids first then went over to Julie and met her son, she was divorced.

The copilot came back and started to show us around the plane explaining what everything did and giving us details on the plane that I will never remember. What I know for sure is it has satellite TV, a full bar and a real sized bathroom, in the back. Behind the captain chairs was a double bed for an in-flight nap. It sat 12 people and the chairs could turn around and face each other. There were tables that could be mounted and you could eat or play cards or whatever you wanted. The copilot asked if we would like any thing to eat or drink and brought out some really tasty breakfast.

"Shannon, what do the other planes have for food?" I asked.

"They have the same as we do, only a lot more of it," She said.

"Just how many people do we have in the other planes?"

"There are 280 people in the other planes," Shannon said.

"How come we had to have three other planes? Wouldn't one or two 747's carry everybody?" I asked.

"A 747 could have carried everyone John but we couldn't get one on this short notice for a charter. I asked what they had that we could buy and I was told that we could purchase any type of plane even on this short notice. I called all the airports where we have bases now and asked what the runway length was and what size the biggest plane they could land there. Then I phoned back and ordered the planes that would work for us. They are 717 jets with all second class seating so they only fit 95 people instead of the usual 106 people. Then I decided that we were going to need a flag ship for our new flight services division so I asked about Lear jets and this one was sitting there so I told them to send all of them and we would buy the 717's for sure and think about this one. I had to have a money transfer for them right away so here we are," Rick said.

I was surprised that Rick was the one that made this decision but I shouldn't have been. He seemed to have a much better handle on the company than I did.

"OK, so what are we going to do with these planes once this trip is over?" I asked.

"It is costing us about $75,000 a month to ship people and equipment around right now and these planes will land at all of the places we need them to land. It will cost us just as much to fly our own stuff around but now we can do it on our schedule, not everyone else's schedule," Jim stated.

"So if we can use the planes for our business just how much is this trip going to hurt the company in the end?" I asked

"We talked it over, and I am sure Jim will have the final figures over the next week or so, but our preliminary figures show that we should make a profit from the trip in the end. We are putting a dollar value on the goodwill this should bring to our employees but, even if that is not accurate, the cost savings for the planes and the profits from the hotels should pay for itself over two years," Julie explained.

"Are all you guys in on this?" I asked.

Julie piped up, "we have put a $500,000 limit on our spending without either getting approval from you or agreement from the majority of the presidents."

"Wow! when did you guys come up with that?" I asked.

Shannon took her turn, "after Brian screwed you we came up with a few ground rules so no one but yourself could hurt the Company."

I looked around fascinated at what I was hearing, "Jim, please see to it that everyone down to Manager Level gets a 5% raise."